Posts Made By: Ron Bee

Indubitably Chuck, remove the FS102 from your list (i.e., it's a keeper). It's quick to setup, deploy and cooldown (and of course the nice image you mentioned) ;-).

Ron B[ee]

Well, you're thinking very finely Michael ;-). I think here
are some good choices in your price range. Also, might as
well go whole APO hog at $2K budget ;-).

o Tak FS102 - right now the sale price is highway robbery!
o Vixen 102ED f/9 - now available again in the US
o Vixen 102ED f/6.5
(TV-102 of course ;-) for a wee bit more than $2000)

For more portability
o TV-85 - seems like the little APO everyone regrets selling

Happy X'mas shopping and please let us which which one Santa
fills your stocking with ;-).

Ron B[ee]

Hi David,

Not having to pay any interest sounds like a good deal. But first check up on the price. Anarcortes still advertised the FS102 OTA on sale for $1895 (a real steal). However, you need to add accessories (ring, finder, diagonal, etc., not to mention a mount) and they add up very quickly.

Alternatively, a used FS102 is going for a highway robbery price right here on Astromart!

Ron B[ee]

Say Kim, I saw them too: Gamymede and Europa but at 7:00UT. They're were farther apart still 'cause my 4" TV-102 Light Cup could barely split it at 73x; so I'm guessing maybe 5"
or 4". You're right, a very neat sight and the size difference were very obvious.

Ron B[ee]

Umm Jean-Marc, how about open clusters and double stars ;-)? However, most open clusters looked washed out under the full moon, so perhaps double stars then.

Ron B[ee]

Hello there Michelle,

There's a cheaper but still very capable, spin tingling book: Oberving Handbook and Catalogue of Deep-Sky Objects by Luginbuhl and Skiff (not a whole lot of chars though).

Have you consider a charting software such as The Sky or SkyTool. The Sky works well for me.

Regarding limiting magnitude for a particular aperture, try this very interesting article. You can also use photometric sequence to try to find your own "speed limit" ;-).
http://www.efn.org/~mbartels/aa/visual.html
http://members.cox.net/ronby/Observations/Light_Cup_Speed_Limit_1.htm

Ron B[ee]

Well, Chuck, it's sounds like you want a scope that can moved around easily, extremely quick to cooldown for a "quick draw". Unfortunately, the planets and the moon rises from the east so your balcony may not be the ideal place to view them.

A "perfect" scope might be an APO like the TV-85, very small and light especially on AZ mount (and recently covetuously priced ;-) on Astromart). This setup can be picked up with one hand (so I was told by one owner). If price is still too steep, perhaps an 80mm Vixen ED 80S.

Good luck on your perfect quest!
Ron B[ee]

Well, Chris, there's a new review of the TV-76 by Ed Ting.
http://www.scopereviews.com/page1t.html#3

Alternatively, you may want to look into the Tak FS78 currently on sale.

Ron B[ee]

Well, Alan, it depends on your level of "satisfaction" ;-). However, assuing that you're using a 40mm Pentax XL (I have one) with 65d AFOV, that will give you a very respectable 3.25d true FOV. The 31mm Nagler will also yield about the same (slightly less) FOV.
http://www.atmsite.org/contrib/Prewitt/fieldOfView/

Howvever, I read something about having a too large of a exit pupil on the fast Newt may make the secondary show up :-(; but I don't know this for sure.

Ron B[ee]

Hello there Daryl,

That's quite a lot of DSOs in the past year and IMO that's quite an accomplishment with a 5" aperture! I also observe from my semi-rural backyard with my 4" APO and have bagged
399 non-Messier DSOs (not counting double stars) in the past year and half. Also, I keep notes on the objects I see and spent an average of 30-45 min. per object.
http://members.cox.net/ronby/Palatable_4-inch.htm

With my sky LM varying from 5.3 - 6.0, my 4" TV-102 Light Cup has been able to grill down to sub mag 13 PN and sub mag 12 galaxies. My "speed limit" test after the first try (using stars around M57) has been stars down mag 13.3 (the sky LM was only mag 5.3 at the time). So perhaps you would want to judge how deep can you see by finding out what's the dimmest stars you can see. In the quest to see an object at the limit of my telescope, I learned that patience, technique, dark adaptation and sky condition (from my backyard) are extreme important.

Please check this section out for tips on DSO that I hope you may find useful.
http://members.cox.net/ronby/Desserts.htm
In addition to new Caldwell book, I highly recommend another book: Deep-Sky Wonders by Walter Scott Houston.

Lastly, you said you're having a LOT of fun. This is more important that anything. There are many more DSOs out there waiting for you and your 5". But if you feel you're still running out of DSO, most people try the H-400 list after the Messier. While many objects on that list are quite easy, some are inhumanly difficult for a small aperture like NGC 6118, the Blinking Galaxy, which my Light Cup considers as the H-400 Admission Test ;-).
http://www.messier45.com/listgen/index.html

Wishing you more fun hunting.
Ron B[ee]