Posts Made By: Tom Lacovik

Floyd, with all due respect, I think you are spinning your wheels here to try to get everyone to acknowledge that every dollar you can spend on an optic is "worth it" because people will define "worth it" differently.

If you value a view of the heavens more than $400, then an Orion dob will be "worth it". If you value views an orion 10" doesn't give you but a swayze 10" does, well you will consider the quadruple expense "worth it" to you. You will not find an objective agreement on this.

You can look to objective measures to 'prove' that one mirror is 'better' than another if you want, but I believe (what was that we were saying about opinions?) that this is a fool's errand. (we will argue about the tests, who gave them, how, what they mean, and what it means at the eyepiece -- let alone the weakest link in the chain, our tired eyeballs, our light pollution, and our perception itself). Can you hear the difference between silver 8 gauge speaker cable and cheap copper 18 guage? Is one better than the other? Is it worth it (do you know how much speaker cable can cost? -- hint: $1000 / ft. -- is it better than my copper wire? yup! is it worth it? don't ask me... ask someone with silver wire).

Given that the mirror is better, and worth more (to you) then why would it be -- how COULD it be -- a waste of your money? If you are happier than a pig in poop with your purchase, then no one can take that away from you. You have tests that show it is better than mine, you can see more than I can see. better. clearer. more contrasty. and more expensive. You did not waste your money end of story.

Is an Orion 10" classic dob a waste of $400? Is it worth "IT"? It depends. Is it better than a swayze or zambuto? Nope. Are those worth "IT". ...

...

It depends.

In answer to your question:
"Did I do the right thing by purchasing the best that I could find or did I waste my money in my rush to excellence?"

No one can tell you yes or no... you already KNOW the answer to that as it dictated your decision in the first place, but I will say this, what is "worth it" ultimately is a telescope that gets used and enjoyed -- telescopes all WANT to be taken out and used and enjoyed. They want that.

They don't want to be talked about, they want to be used and enjoyed, whether a $400 solid XT10 Dob or a $4000 exquisite premium dob... the owner and user can only tell you if it is worth it to them.

Tests will tell you that something is relatively 'better' than something else, but chasing absolutes like that especially to ask everyone to acknowledge "worth"...well.... you must have a lot of time to dispose of, because that's never going to happen, and I'm saying that in hopes of helping you move on and not restart that thread.

With respect and friendship.
TomL

Wow. Lots of good suggestions. Searching through Eagle Optics, I found the Denali 8x42 have a greater FOV (don't know how to calculate true FOV from this... do you?) and also weigh 1.2 ounces less than the light rangers. Wow. That's the lightest I've seen anywhere at 20.6 oz. Furthermore they are more compact at 5" long versus the compact rangers at 5.75". Add to this that they are $160 versus $299 and this is a TEMPTING binocular!


http://www.eagleoptics.com/search.asp?pid=4214
versus
http://www.eagleoptics.com/search.asp?pid=4700

Naturally I assume that the same maker when charging twice as much for an optic, is doing it for a reason... must have something to do with quality. Funny but I almost *WISH* the denalis were $300 if you follow me. So I wouldn't feel I was compromising any of the variables: quality, weight, mid-sized aperture.

But $160 isn't like a $75 department store 10x50 either. Nor is Eagle likely to put out a junky optic. So I'm thinking it could be quite good and super light and compact and sub $200. Sounds perfect doesn't it?

What gives? I guess I'll have to buy it to find out, since there are NO reviews on all of the interwebs combined of thes binocs. Anyone here tried em????

Please and Thank you.

Tom.

ps. they also have 10x versions of both those but the field gets drastically reduced for the little mag boost. I'd almost rather buy their 2.5x extender to keep in my pocket if I really want to see saturns rings without using my scopes.

Scope and happy maker.

Geometry.

Rocker close-up.

Scope and sky.

Hmm, This piqued my interest. I didn't know there were synta "flextube" dobs, so I found them on skywatcher's site:
http://www.skywatchertelescope.net/swtinc/product.php?class1=1&class2=106

Yes, i think it's likely orion is about to 'unveil' the exact same thing (funny to try to build suspense when you're not the first to market with it, and by 'funny' i mean 'lame'). If you were the first, of course, then by all means, do a prolonged magic show and unveil away to applause, but come on orion ?!!

Anyway, as this is the first time I saw the flex tube, I thought this could be quite a good weight saving (since 40 pounds is kind of a lot for an 8" dob.) turns out the hollow or flex tube version is almost 10 pounds HEAVIER.. come on synta! Yeah, it's easier to store if it collapses, but its funny (and by 'funny' i mean lame) to look at the above page, and visualize the little bit of aluminum cylinder that was removed and then replaced with robust hardware and tubes to make the extension contraption. and in the end actually causes added weight!

Not the vision of the dobsonian evolution when carving away tube using air instead of metal and brige-type engineering to introduce struts, trusses, strings to save weight. The 12" version is 90 pounds. I don't know about you but that's beyond what I can lug around the back yard and therefore not what one expects from a small dob.

Tom.

Thanks all for the discussion so far. I've made a numbered picture of my junky basement to facilitate discussion!

So: here's my basement, and all manner of my stuff, Have a good look and a good think, then tell me: what would you do? build a collapsible dob mount thing, or try to make something out of the parts shown here?

I also agree that a tripod and alt az head may work, but my concern with that is 2 fold:
a) the Intes (1 in the picture) weighs 10 pounds, not that i'll be doing imaging, i just want it to stay upright... not sure if the N60 i have will do that. if i get a vixen portamount i probably can't use the N60 tripod as well.
note: i can handle a bit of vibration (i'm roughing it after all).

b) the legs of the lightweight N60 tripod (3) are going to take up precious luggage room.

Referencing the photo below.
(1) MK67 10 pounds fits in the pelican case just barely.
(2) a Nexstar 60 mount used for my solar scope (good find on craigslist $65! including a 60mm refractor in the corner (5) i never used.) -- that plastic ring adapter on it appears to come off. i'd have to buy/make a ring if we think the N60 can even hold 10 pounds? note that the shape/size of the n60 mount is such that it fits in right alongside the mk67 in the pelican. no prob.
(3) the legs from the N60, the spreader could come off and the legs could lay flat in my luggage diagonally, too bad they don't get any shorter than that.
(4) the bottom bit of the N60 head...screws on under tripod.
(5) the 60mm refractor... not in use
(6) a smaller lighter phototripod, but has a video head on it integrated, don't think i can use that for anything but a digi cam... just including it to show desired size or if you get any ideas.
(7) spreader tray / stablizer... may just leave this at home.
(8) coronado scope that normally resides in the N60 mount (that's why i picked up this mount from craigslist)
(9) a nexstar 8 with a Ray's Bracket, on a beefy tripod. This is NORMALLY used to hold the intes mk67.
(10) the N8 beefy tripod. not travel friendly!
(11) peekaboo-my hand build 13.1" string dob...you can just barely see a pole mount block here. the message here is i CAN build stuff if needed. but don't need to for it's own sake... only if we think it's a good idea.

so, what do we think ... make a collapsible dob mount?
example minus the tripod:
http://celestialwonders.com/dob4sct/index.html


use the parts here after making a ring?
or buy a vixen portamount or ministar instead (can i then use this tripod (3)? or if i do have to buy legs are there some that collapse smaller?)
example:
http://www.universalastronomics.com/


Thanks for putting all your heads together folks!
Tom

so whats powering the dew heaters??