Posts Made By: Tony Grigsby

Ive been recently doing research on the celestron 5", and 5" ETX. Eyepieces, and what mag I could get out of the fewest, ect. One thing Ive found I dont seem to like on the celestron is the axis on RA, and dec cant be unlocked and manually moved it seems.. Is this true? This has switched my near decision in a scope purchase to my next choice which is the ETX 5". Ive owned A lot of scopes in the past from Astro physics to Takahashi, obsession, several lx200s. Im broke as you can be these days, and Im going to have to settle for a $1200 or so total purchase thats fairly portable as Im on dayshift now rather than 2nd which is when I thrived in the hobby. Im having the hardest time. I want to mount a pier in my backyard with a homemade wedge, so I can carry this out, hang it, and be done. Any advise on either of these scopes. Seems if the computer went out on the ETX I could at least unlock it and use it without temporarily.
Tony.

Bought a Vixen 110, porta mount. Mount is perfect, but the tube was wrecked from the start. I took it out of the box, and the rear cell fell off the back of the tube, and scratched the mirror. I put it back on, but its not machined correct, and will not tighten, just sits and wobbles on the rear cell. I just put it back in its box very disappointed. While I was dealing with this company I bought it from they responded to every email quickly. Now that I have a problem I cant get a response back. Free shipping is about to turn into (I could have bought two scopes). Is this common now a days with scopes, or just my luck? Wont say who I bought it from but I may before its over. $500 not a lot for people in this hobby, but thats why I been out so long. Have a friend just bought his daughter a wal mart meade. It functions for $150.
T.

Im just not sure whats actually going on inside this little thing. I have the 110 mak. Ive collimated scopes before, but not this type. It has 3 sets of screws. 2 screws in each set.. One pushes, and one pulls. My questions are..
Do you loosen ALL the pushing screws then pull to collimation, then slowly tighten push screws back?
I just dont know what it looks like in there and do not want to take it apart, as my first one had stripped tube threads from factory and had to be sent back. Im assuming the threads are very fragile. They are quite fine.
Also it said on vixen website to soak the screws in alcohol due to them being glued. This just sounds silly to me specially since it was Waaaayyy out when it got here. Anyways, If I do this how much alcohol? How long do I let it sit? I dont want to send it anywhere like vixen recommends. I feel this is something I should be able to do since all the scopes Ive ever owned Ive done on my own. Any advice is so appreciated.
T.

So in short.. About 1996 / 1997 just right before Hale Bopp came through I bought my first scope. I started having stroke like symptoms. Numbness, squiggly lines in my right eye, and a blind spot that would hit me out of nowhere. Would last a few seconds to a hour or so. A couple of times I even lost the ability to speak for a moment. I had several tests and scans done on my heart and brain. Our hospitals here in Louisville Ky are pretty sharp actually. Everything checked out GREAT! I was told it was Aura Migrains. Then I bought a CCD cam, and the silliness got a little better as I rarely used eyepieces anymore. Then divorced forced me to go to first shift and give up astronomy for about 8 years. No headaches or anything during this period. No optics what so ever.
Last Nov I went back to 2nd shift, and YUP! bought a scope. Symptoms are back and now Im scared to use my scope. This is so disappointing for me. Astronomy was my No. 1.
First week of March after using my monocular a lot over a few days period I had the speach impairment along with the blind spot and slight panic attack. It was the first time my girlfriend had seen this, and she freaked. When I tried to talk she said it was just crazy jumbled noise. I was well aware of what was happening, and knew I couldnt speak. I tried like heck to say the word pajamas and couldnt. I wanted them because she was calling the ambulance and I was in my underwear. After a minute or two I said pajamas, and yelled to her I was OK and that I was coming around. I was fine by the time they got here, and even went to work an hour later. I went to the Dr a couple days later to comfort my girlfriend, and him knowing my distant past once again said it was Headaches. I didnt mention this but my head doesnt actually hurt during these "spells", until a few hours or a whole day later.
I notice also my right eye doesnt focus like my left anymore, and after looking through a scope, or my orion monoscope my eyes have a hard time finding focus together for a few seconds. Im a printer and my Loupe glass does the same. Im about to get my eyes checked, but I believe 16 years ago when I went the first round of "migrain" my right eye was dominate. Since my last attack Ive laid off the scopes, and things are better. Now I have just slight headaches. Its scary, but this last attack I held it together well. I just dont know of anyone else dealing with anything like this. Im 38 and in great health! So any crazy stuff like this happen to you guys?
Tony.

Celestron Regal 100 F-ED 4"/100mm Spotting Scope Kit. How would something like this be for casual astronomy? Quick looks at saturn, jup. and the moon. And some of the brighter deep sky targets.
T.

Hi all!looking at ccd came for my lunt 60. It has a 500mm focal length. I'm looking to take full disk images. Other than chip size In not sure about pixel size. What would be my best choice for resolution without over or under sampling? Small pixels or larger pixels? Two cams Im looking at are zwo178 and dmk41. Both full disk, but dif pixel sizes. Thanks. Just not sure how to do the math. And little experience imaging the sun.

Problems with the 201.
For one your never sure if your in focus because you cant see an image or chose a star. Problem two is your not sure if you have a star, or noise, as the 201 isnt cooled.
If you use a 216 its cooled, and you can see an image to focus, and chose a star. Also, If you use it with Maxim DL it will correct tighter than a pixel like an ST4, or so Im told. Try not to get a 201. A used 216 would probably be cheap.
Tony.

Depends on what you want to image I guess, and the $$$$ you want to spend. Check this out, if you havent seen it already.
Tony.
http://www.ghg.net/egrafton/

Check this out.
http://www.ghg.net/cshaw/quickcam.htm
http://www.ameritech.net/users/mniemi000/auto.html

Andrew! What mount are you using with your 11"? Are you set up for Deep sky? Others and Myself, are patiently awaiting some images off this camera. So far this is all Ive found.
http://www.mrh.org/20020915.html
And of course the couple on SBIG.
Look forward to seeing some if your set up is capable.
Tony.
Nice Luna image...