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Posts Made By: Ed Ashton

September 5, 2003 03:40 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

8"-12.5" Portaball that I can see near Ohio?

Posted By Ed Ashton
If you order a Portaball, a word of warning: the delivery estimates may be understated. 8 to 10 months is listed on the web site, but I've been waiting for my 10" to be delivered for 19 months. I was promised I would get it in time for the Mars opposition, so imagine my disappointment.

September 10, 2003 04:34 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

Equipment you most regretted selling.....

Posted By Ed Ashton
I used to have a Brandon 94mm F/7 APO, with a triplet lens designed by Roland Christen. The seeing was so bad where I lived at the time that I didn't use it much, so I sold it, not realizing what I had. I occasionally see them sold now on Astromart, for considerably more than what I paid for it...

September 10, 2003 05:35 PM Forum: TeleVue

TeleVue Mount

Posted By Ed Ashton
Avoid the Gibraltar if you enjoy high-power views of the moon and planets, without slow-motion controls it's an exercise in frustration!

October 1, 2003 04:49 PM Forum: Refractors

First Impressions ???

Posted By Ed Ashton
I think that technically speaking, no 2-element ED refractor can properly be called an APO, which requires three or more color wavelengths to be brought to the same focus. From a practical standpoint, however, everybody will call them APO's. Orion is just covering their ass, legally.

October 14, 2003 05:20 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

Need help in selecting one premium eyepiece

Posted By Ed Ashton
If your primary interest in the moon and planets, as I am, you might want to consider the TV Nagler 3-6mm zoom. I use one with my TV 102, and the quality and convenience of this little gem is amazing. Considering that it can replace several other high-power eyepieces, it's price is reasonable. It's wonderful to be able to match the magnification to the seeing conditions, almost on a moment-by-moment basis! At the 3mm setting, it will give you 293x in the TV 102, which is pretty much it's maximum, but I've been able to use it frequently on the moon in moments of exceptional seeing. It only has 10mm of eye relief, though, so it you must wear glasses, this eyepiece won't work for you,

November 4, 2003 10:30 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

What is this Mount?

Posted By Ed Ashton
Yes, it's definately a Vixen Polaris mount, I used to own one that came with a Celestron Firstscope 114mm reflector. They were a step up from most of the flimsy mounts that came with most similar-sized beginners instruments back then, in the pre-Chinese/Synta days. They offered a lot of stability for the money.

November 20, 2003 08:22 PM Forum: Binoviewers

Which would you choose?

Posted By Ed Ashton
Thanks, everybody, for your recommendations, even though there seems to be no clear consensus on which I should choose (*sigh*). Maybe I'll just flip a coin.....

November 24, 2003 11:59 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

Advise: New telescope for Dad

Posted By Ed Ashton
You might want to base your decision upon an aperture to weight ratio. Is your dad robust enough to schlepp an 8 or 10 inch dob from wherever he stores it to wherever he uses it? If you think it might be a problem, get him the 6" Orion, which only weighs 34 pounds, assembled. And unless you order the optional digital setting circles to cope with the light pollution, he'll probably wind up using the scope mostly for looking at the moon, planets, and bright clusters, which the 6" F/8 system is ideal for. Just my .02

November 25, 2003 07:06 PM Forum: Refractors

First refractor recomendations...

Posted By Ed Ashton
I've never tried any of the scopes you mentioned, but I don't see how you can go wrong with the Orion ED 80, it seems to be an incredible bargain and has no bad reviews that I'm aware of. If I didn't already own a TV102 I would order one immediately.

November 25, 2003 07:23 PM Forum: Binoviewers

Denk 2X worth the expense?

Posted By Ed Ashton
Dave, have you compared planetary views with your Denk II to those of a Denk I? I, too, am wondering if the Denk II is worth the extra expense, but I get the impression from other posts and reviews that the improvement is not dramatic.

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