Posts Made By: Tom Lacovik

At the end of the evening (even if it's just 2 hours) I'm likely to have at least a little dew, though sometimes not, on my EPs and/or SCT corrector and/or dob mirror.

I store all this in my garage. The EPs all go into a camera case, and the lids go on the scopes, but if I notice dew, I take the EPs (not the big scopes though) inside and wait for it to evaporate.

At best, with the scopes, I will not put the dust caps on until later (or if it is already late, then the next morning)...kind of a trade off between collecting dust and trapping dew.

Basically, I'm wondering what should I do?

It would be nice to pack it all up for the night and forget about it until next time, but I doubt that's possible...anybody got a good trick, like putting them all in front of the heater for a few minutes? anything I should be aware of as far as potential damage with such tricks?

How do you do it?

Thanks,
TomL

S&T this month has a news blurb about the "moon race" ... Teams competing to find more moons around Jupiter and Saturn. Jupiter is up to 60, and Saturn up to 31.

The article says the moons being found are of the order of about 2km or larger.

That seems awfully small, but then, I thought, if we were talking about earth moons, I would have no problem with it if it were naked-eye visible from the ground. But I don't know enough about mechanics to know how far out a 2km chunk of moon stuff would have to be to stay in orbit around the earth.

And at that distance, x, what would a 2km large 2nd moon look like to us on the ground if we had one? Invisible? Like the ISS but further out? At what size then is it "debris" and not a moon? Does it have to be spherical (mostly)?

You see what I'm getting at: intuition tells me naked eye visible ( from your host planet ) natural satelite.
but science is something like equal parts:

sherical (though not always a disqualifier).
regular orbit (of course)
diameter (but at 2km is there really a cut off? when?)

who knows.
T.

Got a good long look at Mars last night, but I was wondering, how much bigger in terms of percentage will Mars appear this year from how it appears now (july 6th)?

Thanks.

Why does every review rate them so high? I saw on ITE's site they had sent a random one from Intes to an optical test facility and it came out as 1/6 wave but something about some micron specs or something being 14 microns (close to apo at 10) versus an 8" sct which was 30 microns, but I have no idea what they were talking about.

The gist was that a 6" MCT was markedly better than an 8" SCT. apples to apples, is that about right? either for scientific reasons or I'd settle just for your opinion...so I'll ask again:

In your opinion is a 6" (let's say Intes MK 67) MCT the equal or better than a Celestron (let's say average NexStar 8i type) 8" SCT?

I have a Nexstar 8 that I got for cheap. I haven't been thrilled with the N8 OTA, nor have I done anything to try to make it less 'soft' (I believe it's in pretty okay collimation, but have more to learn in that dept. too). Anyway, I have a 8" dob, which has good optics, better than the N8 I believe. But a dob on planets isn't super cool. Not only the pushing constantly at high power, but also the spikes get pretty big, and finally the f6 isn't made for high mag views is it? So I keep hearing everywhere that Intes Mak Casses are refractor like (really? even with such a large CO? is the CO smaller than a SCT which doesn't really have the best contrast now does it?) ...well is all this better in a MK67...I guess I don't care too much about light grasp, because let's face it 6 or 8 inches even isn't going to easily show spiral structure...but if it isn't better on planets, contrast detail, (ie, ease of spotting GRS) and ability to take MAGNIFICATION without going cottony, then it isn't a worthy purchase for me I think (why not just keep the 8" sct and trade the dob up to a 15" for a one two punch: one portable, the other a big gun). I'm thinking MK67 because it's the same weight/height as the 8" sct and could easily be adapted to my N8 goto/tracking mount which is fun in and of itself.

none of my 3 (dob, sct and mk67 on order) scopes are DSO monsters, but I just hope one of these 3 winds up being a planetary monster, then I can sell the other 2 (can you say aperture redundancy) to fund a DSO monster and have the best of all worlds....in theory...just please somebody tell me that the MK67 is going to kill on planets or at least be noticably better than the SCT8 (it's safe to say that here--provided it's true--as i think we're alone

advice?

Tom.

Hi. I have a Nexstar8 and have a MK67 on order. I want to be ready for it when it gets here, as I won't have a lot of time to mess around (Mars beckons).

I have a 2" diagonal (Parks Optical) and I assume you need a 2" diagonal due to how far back the MK67 throws its focus (or something like that anyway). Well, I have a parks 2" diagonal which is probably more reflective than my Celestron 1.25" diagonal. The n8 goes out of balance with the parks so it never gets used, but it MIGHT when the MK67 gets here.

Or am I wasting my time and I should really get a one piece machined diagonal or an Everbrite. Aparently the Parks is 90% reflective and I also have the 2-to-1.25" adapter allowing me to use all my Pentax XLs.

Is this a good combo? or do I need to quicky get a different diagonal (and/or eps) better matched to the scope.

For the record, I have:
2" Parks Diagonal
7, 10.5, 14mm Pentax XL EPs
11mm TV Plossl
30mm Celestron Ultima
and 9mm and 25mm Taiwanese Plossls (the 25 is pretty good)

Advice?
Tom.

still eagerly awaiting my mk67 and want to be ready to go for mars, so asking my load of questions up front...(thanks for all the help so far!!!)

anyway, what is the (if any) agreed one single mod everyone should do with their mk67. i bought the mk here on astromart and the seller graciously included his home made dew shield, so other than that is there something i absolutely positively have to do, or is it good to go as is...oh yeah, he also replaced the stock finder with a unit finder.

i have heard that people aren't happy with the focusser...is it terrible, or is it just a case of "it aint no feathertouch"?

thanks,
tom

khanscope has what looks like the big brother to the award winning Guan Sheng (formerly known as Orion XT8) 8" dob....the 12 solid tube version of it. The bearings look a little small for that scope (look like the 8" alt bearings), but it's nice to see them expanding their line...literally. but c'mon twelve schmelve...where's the 14 or 16? I guess those aren't quite viable as solid tubes, and I haven't ever seen trusses coming from asia, so maybe 12 is the stopping point?

Tom.

http://khanscope.com/12_inch_f5_sky_mentor_dob.htm

I see Orion has 182mm rings for $23 + shipping. Their page on them says for "6" Newtonians" Well, a mak cass is not a newt, so i find it odd that they would bother to say that instead of saying what the OD is of the tube.

One problem with this (is it a problem?) is the size. I'm not sure what the OD (tech spec) is for the MK67, but it SEEMS to measure just under 7"...more like 6 7/8" which if my math is right ( X 25.4) is: 175mm.

I fear orion's diameter of 182mm even with the felt lining won't be snug enough right?

If it makes any difference, I'm trying to find a way to mate this OTA to my NexStar 8. I can get my hands on Ray's Bracket which is about $90 unless there is some way or thing / gadget or something to drill or way to get the rings on or other device that I don't know about...

ie. is there some other way that either rings can mate directly to the nexstar arm (a long narrow piece of hard metal).

Probably not. Probably scopoe mounted to rings mounted to a bracket mounted to the N8 arm.

Anyway, good cheap rings? other advice?

thanks,
tom

I have a mk67...looking for rings. suggestions?
tom.