Posts Made By: Pat Gillies

What do you think? Do you need two or will one do? I chose one and use the fine focus of the scope for the other eye.
Enough of you have them now, what do you think? Don D, you just got yours back...one or two?

Pat G.

"Sorry all But Jim and his Cronies should be called to account for what they have done here."

Harry, who exactly do you believe are Jim's cronies?

Pat G.

Well I am restoring a '59 Corvette right now, but if money were no object I gotta agree with Mike...the GT 40.
My all time favorite! Pat G

These vintage cars a natural for an amatuer astronomer:

Galaxie
Comet
Sunliner
Stratochief
Mercury
Moon
Polaris
Star

There must be others,what have I missed?

Saturn, Eclipse and Astro Van don't count 'cause they ain't vintage yet.

Hi Mark.
My brother and I noticed the samething Sunday night, about the same time frame, in Ontario Canada. He spotted a star low in the NNE that seemed to be changing colors or flashing, mostly white, green and red, sometimes yellow. We figured it was Capella and chalked it up to atmospheric conditions. It was a very clear night and we were in a dark sky area, overlooking a lake. Then we noticed Arcturus doing the samething. It was really pronounced in the binoculars, and looked pretty neat. Pat

Hi David. I have just gone through the same situation. It is my understanding, and I could be wrong, that the TV short SCT adapter is also designed for the Tele Vue diagonal with the short snout as to match the undercut on the diagonal to the compression ring on the adapter. Since I have a regular 2" TV Everbright diagonal, I bought a used
regular style TV SCT adapter off Astromart. Pat G

Here ya go...


Easier way to collimate an SC accurately
Posted by Brett Wylie on 1/11/2003 12:35:14 AM

The "experts", writing in articles and on the net, and the telescope manufacturers themselves, tell us to collimate using a slightly defocused star..the two diffraction rings scenario. This is difficult and thus in my opinion, absolute crap! Even so, most people hardly bother to go this far, collimating instead while looking at the 'big donut'at low power and are happy with "just about or good enough" collimation. With miserable results.
Don't collimate on a star at all! Why not? Well at 500-600x what do you see?..even with relative steady air the defocused highly magnified star will still be wobbling and the diffraction rings will be wiggling all over hell and back...how accurate a measurement can you do with this scenario??
Instead, try this...thread on a straight thru visual back adapter..don't use the diagonal..center Jupiter in the field of view..now you have a rock solid steady object to look at!..big difference..it's also bright and easy to see, large in the field of view...start at about 300x..look at the limb of Jupiter, usually one side will have a halo. That halo is a secondary image of the planet caused by miscollimation, & if your seeing that, your NOT getting NEAR the view your instrument is capable of, your not getting the most out of your SC telescope...go to the front of the scope and tweak the screws until that halo disappears..completely..now kick it, the magnification up, to 600x..say 4.6 mm eyepiece 2xbarlow combo...very very fine movements/changes now..1/15th turn..when your finished there should be no evidence whatsoever of limb halo, you should be looking at a solid planetary edge!..and I will guarantee you your eyes aren't going to believe the difference..when it's right on...WOW..POP..all those fine details you thought were impossible to get, with an SC, are going to suddenly be there.

It's there Tom. Do a search as if you are joining a new group and it will come up. Yahoo has bumped a couple groups off my "groups list" but they are still alive and well. I checked. They probably did this to several people. Now let me know if you can figure out how to get them back on my "groups list".

Pat G.

Hello Anthony. I have the standard version Denk binoviewer and absolutely love it. Yes, I'm sure someday I will send it in for the upgrade although mine works excellent the way it is. I will hate to be without it while it is away.

Pat Gillies

Sorry! Sold mine on eBay last month. A feller in Irag bought it...Sad dam something or other. Forgot to tell him
about the broken Magnetic Gyro Polarizer thingie.

Pat Gillies

PS: Did Meade ever win win the patent infringement suit on this item?