Posts Made By: Ron Bee

My NP127 Light Cup and I have been in the deepest depth of despair from the fog we've been having which seemed never ending :-(. After much sacrifices, incense burning and prayers from my Light Cup, the Mars goddess of
war finally lifted the curse of fog for 10 solid nights/morning from the west coast and bless my Light Cup with good steady seeing ;-).

The dust "strip" can be seen pretty easily in the image and I also checked it visually with a #23A filter. As indicated in my image, I supposed the Mars Rover escaped the dust storm?

Surprisingly, the SPC though obvious in the image, was extremely difficult to make out visually at 200x and 264x with no filter, #38, #80A and Baader Moon & Skyglow filter. I caught glimpses with the #80A and Baader Moon & Skyglow filter and I could not say with 100% certainty that I saw it visually :-(.

But what's this thing in Sinus Meridiani (also known as the Dawe's Fork Bay) which appeared to shimmer? Could it be one of the Mars Rover trying to crawl away from the nearby dust storm? Afterward, I scrutinized the image from my NP127 Light Cup, applied various imaging processing algorithm, networked all of my 4 Pentium 4 4-inch ;-) tower PCs together to crunch on the numerical methods in order to achieve 800% enlargement from already a very large image at f/52 for
the Light Cup (not how well the image stood up)! And viola, what da ya know; that seemed to look like Opportunity Rover ;-) ;-) ;-) [rolled eyes ;-)].
http://users.adelphia.net/~ronbee/mi/Mars/OpportunityRover.jpg

As I was unmounting the NP127 Light Cup from my SP mount, my head hit its focuser (whack). I quickly realized I had awoken and clearing my vision from the dust fume in the house ;-).

Enjoy,
Ron B[ee]

Many observers new to Mars or getting a new telescope for the first time often asked the question: what does Mars look like under various magnification? While there are some software simulation around the internet, I've not found one that is a true representation of the magnification. Well going by the eyeball ;-), my Light Cup and I did a visual estimate right at the eyepiece with the photos in from of us.
http://users.adelphia.net/~ronbee/mi/Mars/MarsVisualSizes.jpg
Beware that many of the resulted magnifications are not useful visually through small telescopes!

With Mars now just passing its closest approach and getting to opposition for the 2005 apparition, I hope you'll find this useful.

Enjoy,
Ron B[ee]

PS - The experiment was also educational for me. I was quite shocked at what sort of magnification imaging provides

First a bit of a background. Now let me first confess that I'm diehart GEM guy (and I don't just mean precious stone type ;-). Not to mention a diehart portability evangelist for a small refractor on small GEM! But this new combo is so much easier ...

I was looking for a lightest possible Alt-Az mount with the lightest possible tripod with maximum stability for my 4-inch Tele Vue TV-102 APO refractor (OTA weighs 8.8 lbs). I required that vibration must damp down after 1 sec. at 220x! Sounds ridiculous? After research and asking question, I had concluded no such thing exist! I decided to go with the Telepod head (my choice) and the Bogen 3068 tripod (recommendation). I'm very happy that the Tele Vue Telepod head and the Bogen 3068 tripod was waiting for me returning from my business trip. I also got the eyepiece caddy for the head.

Assembly. All of the tools (allen wrenches) are included with the Telepod. I also judge the product by how easy it is to put together (and remember I'm mechanically inept ;-) without having to read the instructions. Well, putting the pieces together was so easy my son did part of it . Simply put, the Telepod head just screwed on the Bogen tripod . Two included screws are provided and screw right into my TV clamshell and my TV-102 is then held together by two wing nuts. Two eyepiece caddies bolted on both sides of the Telepod head. Oh yes, it's much lighter than my SP GEM .

Operations. How does it work with my TV-102? I have a 2" TV Everbrite and a TV 2" to 1-1/4" adapter. Here's the summary. The target was Mars Orion Nebula and the Moon. Recall that my requirement for the mount+tripod is fast dampening time at 220x !

The Telepod head works extremely well with my 6mm, 5mm and 4mm Radian without need to rebalance. I had to rebalance with my 8-24mm TV zoom . I also tried my 2-4mm Nagler zoom but the combination of its light weight and small AFOV caused me to prefer my 4mm Radian over it. I now see why the NT6 is so attractive . The Bogen tripod was setup in the grass lawn (rather than on my cement patio).

Vibration. The Bogen 3068 looks beefy and weighs about 13 lbs. It has a bubble level and the legs are "pegged"? to the central column to increase stability. I was viewing Mars near the zenith and the Moon near the horizon at 220x (4mm Radian). Big surprise! The vibration from focusing died down in less than one sec.! Oh, did I mention this was with the standard focuser ;-) (no FocusMate, no FeatherTouch, not even Focus Lever ;-). There's hardly any vibration at all from tracking with the handle! So the Bogen spec's rating of being able to hold 40 lbs seems more than adequate for my TV-102.

Tracking. Another surprise! I could track with 1 finger against my diagonal with the Telepod head. The head movement is much, much, much smoother than my 8" Dob! I have no trouble tracking Mars at 220x. I'm also very happy that I don't have to turn two knobs to track the object.

Eyepiece caddy. Extremely handy since there's no accessory tray. I would defintely add them if you have a Telepod head. Two plastic 2" to 1-1/4" adapters are included so you can use the 2" caddy to hold 1-1/4" eyepiece (another thoughtful design by Uncle Al).

No Accidental Dent. Oh one other thing I had discovered. I wasn't careful at one time and let go of the OTA. The OTA hit the portion of the Telepod head where it screwed onto the Bogen tripod. I said to myself, oh no, I had dinged the OTA. Lo and behold, not a mark, not even a scratch or a dent! How could this be? To my surprised, Uncle Al had thought of everything. There's a plastic cap that goes on top of the huge mounting "screw"(?) that screwed onto the Bogen head. Perfectly safe for my TV-102 to hit the Telepod for thousands of times ;-).

Now the bad :-(.

The tracking handle can get in the way hitting the tripod leg when my TV-102 is near the zenith (as the case of Mars). Solution? I just remove the handle (easily uncrewed thanks to Uncle Al's thoughtful design) and track with my finger for a while. I used to track with my old 60mm Tasco when I was in school (which I didn't use very much). I recall how annoying it was to have to track using slow motions control with both axes.

It's true the Telepod can't point directly at the zenith, but it looks awefully close to me especially if I unscrewed the handle. Someone suggesting I crank up the central column and this should help too (haven't tried it yet). I'll see if this is an issue under dark skies.

Rebalance. Well, I went with the Telepod knowing this issue full well. It's just something I'll have to learn get use to it. Often I have to reacquire the target during rebalancing . I'm so used to the GEM and the Vixen clutch . Someone suggested I use the TV Equalizer. Umm, I'm planning to get one.
Overall, I'm quite please and very surprised by the small amount of vibration with the combo after the first light. I was extremely concerned about vibration but this has proven to be totally unfounded with the Bogen 3068. I plan to use this setup at the dark sky next week and I'll see how the combo perform further.

Here's the spec on the Bogen 3068.
http://www.bogenimaging.us/product/templates/itemalone.php3?itemid=261
There's no doubt in my mind at all that I highly recommend this Bogen tripod for 4-inch APO refractor.

Here are the pics I promised.
http://users.adelphia.net/~ronbee/Toys/NP127SPEQ-TV102Bogen.jpg
http://users.adelphia.net/~ronbee/Toys/TV-102-Telepod.jpg

Ron the 4-inch-Travelling Evangelist B[ee]

PS - in case you aren't familiar, the refractor on the GEM is the 5-inch Tele Vue NP127 ;-).

http://users.adelphia.net/~ronbee/DSO/112405.html

Enjoy ;-),
Ron B[ee]

Extra, extra! Just hot of the press!

Sue French, the monthly S&T Deep Sky Wonders columnist, has finally published her book! She observe many DSOs with a 4.1" refractor along with her larger reflector!
Celestial Sampler: 60 Small-Scope Tours for Starlit Nights
http://www.shopatsky.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=1107

Deep Sky Objects: The Best And Brightest from Four Decades of Comet Chasing, by David Levy the famous comet hunter.
http://www.astromart.com/articles/article.asp?article_id=336
http://www.thattechnicalbookstore.com/b1591023610.htm
http://www.jarnac.org/levylist.htm

Enjoy,
Ron B[ee]

What's truly shocking is the price tag, David!

Maybe Herb/Ray can shread some more light on the size and weight as well.

Ron B[ee]

http://users.adelphia.net/~ronbee/Misc/LightCupMissionary.html

Enjoy,
Ron B[ee]

Through my Light Cup's sophisticated internet data mining algorithm using our state of the art revolutionary 200Mhz Pentium Pro processor (circa 1995 ;-), we are able to give you guys a hot tip of the upcoming price increase slated to go into effect in Feb. 2006. No details if all or which and how much :-(. Thus, if y'all were thinking of acquiring certain Tele Vue items this year, now may eminently be a good time to do so. I'll have to accelerate/reprioritize my own plan ;-).

Ron B[ee]

Well, took me a while to get time to work on the image processing ;-). The large image was a little too much :-(.

Enjoy,
Ron B[ee]

Well, took me a while to get time to work on the image processing ;-).
http://users.adelphia.net/~ronbee/mi/Saturn/Saturn-010806-NP127.jpg
The large image was a little too much :-(.

Enjoy,
Ron B[ee]