Posts Made By: Anthony Lutton

Last night was one of the best visual nights I've had in months. The air was freezing, but steady. I decided to try my hand with the Nikon4500, 18mm Scopetronics camera adaptor and my 8" SCT.

I didn't even have a barlow, so I had to use the camera zoom

Any suggestions on improving any of the shots? The shot of M13 was taken in november through an ETX90.

www.pbase.com/eagle92395/astro_pics

I was out observing when I noticed it was snowing lightly. Without clouds!! I packed up quickly and got the scope home, but after the snow flakes melted there were some water drop spots.

I didn't think it would be a big deal and didn't mess with it. The spots were tiny and very few. BUT... after it had set a few days, it looks like there is corrosion or some type of acidic marks on the corrector!!! I count about 20 of these spread around the corrector.
Has anyone had these spots before and do they clean off ok? I've never had the corrector off because the scope has performed wonderfully and I didn't feel the need to clean it.

Any suggestions? If it is some type of acid from the snow (slight acid rain??) or possibly salt a deposit I'd like to clean it off.

** caution, the image is a bit large on the following page, but it gets difficult to see if I resize it too much smaller**

Would a TMB105 (20lbs) or TV101NP be too much to mount on an 8" LX200?? The TMB is a very short telescope, but rather heavy at 20lbs. The TV101 is longer, but only 10lbs.

I'm looking to buy either one within a few months and would like to be able to mount them on the SCT when I go somewhere (if I'm taking both scopes...).

Any experiences?

Is the GOTO function on the newer GPS scopes (non-SMT) as good or better than the classic versions of the LX200? I have a classic and it is dead on in a 18mm SWA no problem. I've been yearning to upgrade to a 10 or 12 inch GPS model but don't want to give up the great mechanical stability mine has.

Any other problems with the newer ones that aren't mentioned??

I'm not sure on the Autostar, but the cable for a classic LX200 is a standard phone cord.

My 18mm Scopetronix camera adapter (18mm WA eyepiece) won't come to focus in my new ED80 (all other EPs do). It doesn't seem to have enough in-travel.
I have a 2" WO diagonal on it. For photography I will stick it directly into the back of the telescope, but for visual use it would be impossible straight through.

I know there are things to do about out-travel, but in travel? Any suggestions or am I outta luck?

I had a great night tonight and had a chance to use all 3 of my scopes, each of a different design. THIS IS NOT MEANT TO BE A COMPARISON, JUST MY NOTES FROM TONIGHT!

It was a clear, still and warm (55ish) night... aaahh!

I had my beloved 8" LX200 out trained on Jupiter. To the right, my newly aquired Orion ED80 (on an EQ2)... to the left my 4 year old ETX90RA (not on the forks, on a photo tripod).

I used my William Optics 2" diagonal, a 18mm SWA Meade eyepiece and a #140 Meade barlow. Of course this can't be a technical writeup because the magnifications are all different with this eyepiece.

First the LX200, with the 18mm the image was washed out and a bit bright to see much detail, I wished I had my blue or yellow filter on me
After barlowing the 18mm, the image was perfect. I the two main belts were ample with detail, including the GRS just coming around into view. I didn't have a reference with me, but if I did I could have identified at least 2 of the moons, color differences were noticable.

Onto the ED80, unfortunately the ED80 doesn't have the focal length of either of the other two, so I couldn't push it to the limit. With the 18mm, Jupiter was a bright dot (NO FALSE COLOR!!!) with 4 little bright dots near it. I could see the 2 main belts, but no detail was visible on the very small disk. After barlowing, the image was much dimmer than in the LX200 but still a plethora of detail was visible. True to most reviews of a good refractor, I think the GRS was easier to see because of the better contrast. I didn't see any festoons/swirls or other detail as in the 8" though. If I had a smaller focal length eyepiece (3-6mm Nagler!?) I think I could have attained a better image, although it may have gotten too dim to be pleasing.

Last up was my favorite little scope of 4 years... the ETX90. Here is a case where being f/13.8 doesn't drive me insane. With the 18mm, the pure color compared to the ED80 was nice. Jupiter was a beautiful white/light yellow as in the LX200. In the ETX, the image looks like a mini-me LX200. After barlowing, the poor mechanics of the ETX focuser can give you a seizure. After fiddling with the focus for a minute it finally snapped into a clean image (hallelujah!!). The GRS and equitorial belts were very nice. The image seemed to be a good mix between the 8" and ED80. I had some detail in the belts and also a prominent GRS. No color differences could be seen in the moons as in the 8", it is about 110mm short in aperture!

All in all I had a great night. My wife was laughing as I was carrying out 3 different scopes for one person... doesn't everyone?? I'm sadly selling my ETX for the ED80 for a change of pace. I don't see it as optically better or inferior, just different. The narrow FOV and poor focuser are negated by the outstanding optics for being 90mm. Plus it'll fit in a backpack!

Armed with a new Orion ED80, homemade alt-az mount and 2 eyepieces;
a 22.5mm and 32mm UWA I nailed 101 Messier objects! This was my first MM attempt too

I missed 74,77 and 79 in the early evening. They were behind the
trees when we arrived pretty much.

I missed 102... but is it really an M object??!!

I also missed the 3 in Aquarius, M30 and something in Scutum...
don't remember the number and my list is still packed away. So I
guess I got 101 out of 107 visible


Anyways, this night was incredible and I'll be all geared up for the
triple transit on Jupiter next week!!! Even if all weren't found, a lot of
learning was done tonight. I am much more comfortable star hopping
after tonight than I ever have been!!

Here is the link: www.pbase.com/eagle92395/astro_pics

Here is the mount that I designed and made in a few days. When I got the ED80, the small EQ mount that was with it needed to go. For one, I hate EQ mounts for visual use, and this one would make you sick trying to look at anything. The shakes and irritating motions were enough to make me rip the mount apart and make a new one. Here are some of my design criteria:

1. The mount should be alt-az and very sturdy
2. Needs to be very easy to use
3. I need to be able to move it easily in a Camry along with a LX200, eyepiece case, battery...etc etc.
4. Needs to have a good range of balance... my 32mm 84" FOV and Meade 14mm UWA are huge eyepieces and need to work well with this.
5. Needs to be cheaper than what I can buy for $300
6. Needs to be "sexy", I can't have this great scope on some crappy little mount can I???

After some thought and a lot of web surfing, I decided that none of the mounts I'd seen so far answered all of my needs.

As you can see, the scope is held about 12" off the top of the tripod. This serves THREE purposes, it elevates the scope (DUH!) and it also allows the scope to point to zenith without bumping the tripod. Having the arms extend upwards instead of straight back also help to balance the azimuth axis so that the motion is smoooooooth!

Ad # 261100

Although he doesn't mention the actual telescope... he lists a slew of accessories (finder bracket as accessory?).