Posts Made By: Oren Soffer

mmmm... that's a weird one. I used to have the Vixen/Orion version and it worked fine with all my eyepieces (I think it had a 1¼" visual back). You can put the tube on a mount, remove the focuser (3 screws), hold the diagonal with the eyepiece in it in your hand and try to reach focus that way, just to make sure nothing is wrong with the lens. Maybe the previous owner took it apart to clean and put the lens/s back in backwards...

oren.

It is just waaaay out of focus. You are normaly focusing on something that is close to infinity, the secondary is only few feet away. Try this: take a single hair or a very fine string, hold it with both hands and get it closer and closer to your eye, at some point you won't see it anymore because you can't focus your eye close enough. Hope it helps.

oren.

There are ways to use a laser on SCT, but they can only get you close, not perfect. You can't collimate SCT with laser only, you must do the tweaking during star-test. For reflectors, the best money can buy is the LaserMax TLC-202. Expensive, but worth every penny.

oren.

Heading that way as we speak...

oren.

I agree with you. I received my 17E almost a week ago from Anacortes, they shipped the same day they got it. I only tried it on a 10" f/8 reflector from my light polluted back yard. I guess the good thing is that the temperatures here are in the 50's but there are no "star fields" to see from here. I compared it to my 17T4 and the views are very similar except for the much wider f.o.v, no issues with blackouts and the Ethos is not as heavy as it looks. Contrast was the same on both looking at M42 and sharpness was the same too. It is really the same as the 13E and the 8E but just a different focal length, if you liked the other two you will like this one as well. It is strange how the Nagler's f.o.v feels narrow after looking through the Ethos. The real test would be on my f/4.1 Dob, I hope that the edge sharpness is at least as good as the 17T4, then it will be considered a keeper in my book. The only "complaint" is that the 17E feels a little tall & skinny and the grip doesn't feel that safe, the rubber grip covers only a small portion of the smooth barrel. Can't wait for the 6 Ethos just around the corner.

oren.