Posts Made By: Floyd Blue

Man, did everyone die in this forum?
I sent my 12.5" mirror out for re coating. Awaiting it's arrival next week. L & L promises a fast 3-4 day turn arround. Hopefuly the new coatings will make a good scope better.
Floyd

Has anyone done any dealing with this company? Owner is Joseph Cartolano. He was on here back in May asking for people to help him to get a new 2 speed fine focuser into production by ordering them in advance. Has anyone had contact or received a focuser from this man? I can not find him in the database as being a member or sponsor of Astromart.
Thanks,
Floyd

I bought a Starlite two speed focuser for my NS8GPS. I am hoping it will be as nice as my Feathertouch focusers on my Dobs. IT sure looks good, but I have never used one of these on an SCT. Anyone care to throw in their thoughts on it.
Floyd

The different focal lengths are really for different things. Short f/l is for wide field rich view, but they can still do high magnification for deep space if the optics are good.
Long f/l gives you more magnification usually with smaller fov for looking at smaller objects with more magnification such as planets and stars. They also are more forgiving in respect to eps. You get less coma and can use a wider ranger of ep types with the longer f/l scope.
So this is why most of us own more than one scope. No one scope is a jack of all trades, though a good sct or mak with fine optics comes close. But there can be no one scope that does everything perfectly.
If you like faint fuzzies, then a big aperture scope is needed to really see them. If you like large objects like Andromeda, then you need a rich field to see it all. If you like to split doubles then a good long f/l will do that well. But all these things can be done to some degree by most scopes of varying f/l.
Now excellence in the optics will make any scope perform better, period. So what ever you have if it is exceptional, it will perform well.
So how well an SCT or a Mak or a refractor performs is directly related to the quality of the build and of the optics. The quality of the Eps is the last part of the optical excellence. So a great scope used with mediocre EPs will not perform to it's potential.
Hope this helps as it is the best that I can do for a general explanation.
Floyd

It is funny how a person that doesn't wear glasses does not find long eye relief to be that comfortable, but I too find this to be true.
The Orthos do not have a really long eye relief, they are about like a Plossl. They get tight at about 9mm and below. I have a complete set of UO Orthos and I like them a lot.
Floyd

I found some nice digital units at WalMart.$12.98-14.98 for two that had large displays. I bought the $14.98 because it also shows humidity and I thought that could be useful. Seems to work well and accurately. I tested it with body temps nd it said 98.6-98.8F so I guess it is pretty close.
Min and Max temp memory for inside and outside as well as a clock. Man, what you can get today for under $20.
I will mount it and see what happens on my next outing. Not sure when it will be as yet, but I will post my results.
Floyd

Wow, a local dealer is running a sale on TV Radian and Nagler EPs! First time I have ever seen this. Radians $200, T-6's for $240, 31mm Nagler for $530! Wonder why they are on sale?
Floyd

My 12.5" Mirror arrived today from the L&L Optical Coating shop. The mirror looks great. Very nice job indeed. $86 for protected aluminum and it looks just like new.
Took it out tonight and it is definitely a brighter image than before. I was in the backyard, which sucks, and I still got to find 30+ Objects in about 2 hours of viewing. Found a few things like planetary nebula's that I did not think I could see here with all the light pollution.
It took a total of exactly 2 weeks from sending it to receiving it. Not bad at all.
Amazing how good a mirror looks after a new coat is put on it! Man my coatings were in bad shape. :S I should have done this a while back.
Floyd

Did you get the email showing the Celestron 11" SCT Advanced scope for $2,279.00? 8O WOW, that is a deal!
Floyd

I think that somehow the previous thread has degenerated into a Astrophysics vs. the world kind of thing. Or at least a one man against the high prices of quality telescopes.
I believe the original intent was surprise and disbelief that a smaller aperture scope could resell for a large amount of money. I think there was not intent to point fingers at a particular manufacturer.
I believe that it is a shame that everyone can not afford what they desire, but that is life. We would all love to be able to fulfill our most cherished dreams. Some do and some don't, but that should not be of great concern, because what is important is that we enjoy what we do have.
We will not all be so fortunate as to have the income to drive the Porsche or view through the 7" APO refractors, but we can all feel grateful that we can drive anything at all and most importantly, we have a scope or two to view through. I have a few friends that have nothing to view through. They wish to have something, but they have not disposable income to make this kind of purchase. I love to share my good fortune with those that have not been so blessed. So I will let anyone look through my scopes and even let them use one if they wish when I am not using it.
Let us all forget about envying others that are more fortunate or those that make equipment that is above our price range. This is not the point of Astronomy is it? I always thought the point was to look and be amazed at what we see and to try and learn more about this great universe that surrounds us all.
So, let's just be happy with what we can have and they we have anything at all. Be grateful to be able to go out and partake in this wonderful hobby.
8)
Floyd