Posts Made By: Tom Lacovik

Well I have a decent all round 8 dob, but want to really get detail out of the planets. I have $500-$600 and figure that should get me something good on the used market...potentially up to something that would be $1000 new. So you could interpret the question this way if you prefer: best planetary scope under $1000 (new)...either way...what can I get in this range including mounting?

So I'm looking into an achromat, and have a general planetary scope question out there on this board, but I'm specifically hoping to catch your eye if you know ANYTHING about Orion's SkyView Pro?

I mean can you please render your opinion, any opinion on either the mount (ships with free RA drive, and another axis drive for another $150) -- what is this mount? is it like a cg5 or eq4 or gp better than those (closer to a gpdx?) do you think it could hanle that tube and a camera? or is it just good enough for visual use? better than the similar orion offering: astroview 120 eq4? compare/contrast?

OR
opinion on the 120mm Achromat itself (synta, i presume, reviewed as okay, but not super hot on false color, but maybe apo-like with a chromacorr thrown at it). This is aparently the SAME as the astroview, so any comment here would be appreciated. i take it a yellow filter to counter false color is not really great as you are just hurting detail further.


OR
the Stainless steel tripod.

thanks for giving me ANY insight on this scope if you have it, share it. i'm trying to learn all i can so any impression you have had of it even if you don't own one would be most appreciated.

TomL

Hi.
I'm interested in what people have on their nexstar mounts....with a few adapters out there, i'm curious what kinds of OTAs people got on there. I know the baader ones are for the smaller nexstar mounts and probably can't hold more than 8-10 pounds tops. but ray's mount system works on the n5/n8 mount which makes me wonder? what kinds of things have people got on their n8 mounts or n60s for that matter? any mn57s mounted on that goto system? that would be COOL!

TomL

I will be in Palm Springs next week (19-24) and will bring a little travel etx-90 mak with me. My XT8 doesn't fit in an overhead compartment!

Well, I will make a day trip to Palomar for their day tour, but they don't let you in at night to look through their scopes as there is real science going on every night, so I was wondering, is there somewere in palm springs or around there that does?

Or local astonomer's that set up somewhere that wouldn't mind sharing the view...i don't get out to the desert very often, so i was hoping to be blown away down there!

Thanks for any tips,
TomL

Here's a crazy idea (don't worry I haven't done it), but I was taking my dob out of my garage the other night and looked over at my shop vac while waiting for the tube currents to cool wondering if i just switched on the shop vac for 10 seconds whether i would have a complete air exchange done down the tube with the warm stagnant air out and cool outside fresh air replacing it.

Of course it was 12:30 when I thought of this so I didn't want to wake the neighbors, but I wondered if I were observing at 9pm I could have got away with the noise, I just didn't know whether anybody has done anything like this and whether it's even worth it given that you are still waiting for the mirror to cool down (although my garage is not heated and my mirror is exposed on the rear side...it still needs to cool or does it?)

Crazy idea? (don't worry I'm not rushing to try it, just wondering out loud)

TomL

good or bad idea? i am not a fan of the pinhole effect of uo orthos and find them clinical. I want to feel more emotionally involved in the view (like people who have 2" focusers feel) and on my xt8 dob i don't want to track push track push so often due to tiny fov. so backing off and using a barlow sounds like the order of the day. i have a 2.5x tv barlow, and am considering adding a radian 10mm and a 15 or maybe 19mm panoptic thus effectively getting 4 eps out of the two premiums. i hear the 19mm gets better reviews at ed tings and the like, but is it that different. the 15 would probably be more useful to me as it's barlowed power would be better for planets.

to save you some calculation, the xt8 is 1200mm fl.
so:
a 15mm panoptic would give 80 power normally, and 200 power barlowed.

a 10mm radian would give 120 normally and 300 barlowed for those exceptional nights. otherwise i have found 250x to be more usable.

thoughts?
TomL

trying to decide between the two for my xt8 (8-inch, 1200mm fl or f6 dob in case you don't know).

I am a little worried about whether the 13mm nagler would tip my xt8 over!

since I removed the rear steel plate (for quicker cooling of the primary) even my finder + telrad make it a bit top heavy. I put a 2 pound magnet on the rear to rebalance, but something tells me i need more weight back there.

oh well, now would probably be a good time to put a computer fan in that steel plate and reinstall it eh?

in any case, i'm interested in stepping up to some premium eps and hate the pinhole effect of my puny 6mm plossl and ortho (sold) so want more glass to look into.

My intention is to use either the pentax or nagler as deep sky ep, then to put it in my 2.5x TeleVue barlow (not powermate) for planetary viewing (i bet that will tip my dob over if the nagler alone doesn't . Any suggestions here? I've read the cloudy nights reviews, so no need to suggest that...i'm just looking for direct experience from someone in this group.

To put it another way: which EP would be better for Mars, and is one of them incompatible (as i suspect weight-wise with the nagler) on my scope?

Thanks,
TomL

Due to my goto mount's limitations, I am looking for an compound design OTA that weighs less than 10 pounds. Obvious choices are the Celestron 5" SCT found on the NexStar 5. Then there are a couple Maks like the Orion Apex 125 and Meade ETX 125, though I doubt if you will find a ETX OTA without the base, but you get the idea.

I sure like the IDEA of a Mak-Newt with its miniscule central obstruction and no spider vanes (I guess all compond scopes have no spider vanes).

So basically, I need the best compound OTA under 10 pounds...under 9 would be even better, but what are my options?

Thanks,
TomL

Particularly their 2" diagonal?

or what about their "Gold Series" Plossls? I've heard these are better than Ultimas, or at least in the class of Televue Plossl's...is that right (Gold Series that is)?

Mainly, I want to know if anyone is using the 2" diagonal though and what they think of it?

TomL

Just got a steal of a deal on a Nexstar 8, but need to power it.

sometimes maybe a laptop too.

Live in pacific northwest, so probably a dew shield will be enough (?) but I'm not sure if I also need a dew heater (no experience with SCTs, just dobs).

There are lots of different kinds out there, but my local big store has a 19 amp-hour one for $40. It also has 7 Ah ones for cheaper ($30 or so), and those tend to have some spiffy add ons such as a bright light which would help when you are breaking it all down for the night. Some even have compressors. I think having it jumper cable ready is more important as a secondary emergency feature (or can you use ANY such battery as a car booster by connecting 2 male cig. plugs -- one to battery, one to your cars cig lighter, then crank? it needs big amperage to be sure, but I think that's what that bigger battery is all about).

In short, should I just by this 19aH plain rechargable sealed lead-acid with jumpers built in and a single 12v cig jack with no lights or compressors for $40, or should I try to find one that has it all: long Ah life, light, dual 12v jack, jumpers and compressor? Is there such a thing -- the battery to end all batteries? or anything along the way? This $40 one looks featureless, but strong and that may be enough.

Thoughts?

TomL