Posts Made By: Linton Rohr

Good evening. I was looking with 7x56 binoes a while ago. I saw a little streak of light, which was oriented correctly, but I could not differentiate a nucleus and tail. I thought it must have been a little remnent of contrail reflecting sunset colors, but in hindsight I'll bet that was it.
I stayed at it for another half hour, as the stars came out and darkness fell. I was scanning around in between Venus and Altair, but as I refer back to a chart now, I see I was not looking low enough. The comet had already set.
I will try again tomorrow and take my TV-85 along.
Thanks for your report.
Linton

Yowza, wowza!
Thanks James. That's pretty cool. My first ever daytime comet sighting!
I had only seen it in the evening once. We've had clouds the last few days.
I brought out the TV-85 for a while, too. Got tired of trying to hold the 7x56's steady.
The higher power didn't hurt any either.
Linton

Hi Kevin.
I bought a Konica/Minolta DiMage Elite 5400 II last year,
with the intent of scanning my thousands of slides to disc.
I haven't actually used it that much yet, but it seems to be pretty good.
Not as nice as the Nikon, I'm sure, but it seemed like a reasonable compromise.
It's probably worth your consideration.
Linton

Nice shots, Jason. I love the southern Sierra.
I was up your way last Saturday night,
on the Inyokern Road, at Red Rocks.
Had a pretty good night of viewing.
Linton

Christian, I can understand you being concerned, but I would not get too worried yet.
I shipped an eyepiece to Italy once, and it took quite some time to arrive.
The postal service is one thing, but customs is really where the delays occur.
I have had trouble with tracking numbers before too, and the item arrived anyway.
It was good of Ivan to send a PM. Perhaps it will be answered.
I have a feeling John Won is away from home for a while.
His feedback certainly looks reassuring.
Linton

Hi Dave.
I would recommend adding the finder, if I were you.
I use a Telrad, but unless I'm at a dark sky site, it has limits on it's usefulness.
I mean if you can't even see the guide stars...
The Telrad will get me in the ballpark, but when I look in the finder,
often I will immediately see the target off to one side.
It is then easy to center it up.
At this point though, I must admit to having DSC's as well.
For the more difficult objects, I just rely on my Sky Commander.
But it's really nice to have the options.
Linton

Hi Casey.
I still think you'd like the 12mm T4 Nagler, or the Meade 4000 14mm UWA.
But I thought you had decided on a 12mm Radian, in that range.
Perhaps you should take it easy, and try out your 27 Pan for a while, before you make your next decision.
Hugh made a very good point, I thought.

"I'd sugggest approaching your eyepiece collection as an evolution of filling needs that arise while observing,
rather than trying to design a whole set of oculars in advance."

Linton

Hi John.
I picked up a TV 8-24mm zoom (same thing, right) a while back and I thought it worked pretty well, too.
Prior to that I had used the Meade 4000 8.8mm UWA, or sometimes, a 9mm or 11mm T6 Nagler.
They all work quite well, really.
Linton

Bernard,
My apologies for chiming in late here, but I've been away for a few days. I believe this little story tells a lot:
I have a friend with an 18" Obsession that I was very impressed with. I was looking for one of my own, but got sidetracked by a 14.5" Starmaster, here on Astromart. After much deliberation, and similar forum advice (thanks guys), I purchased the Starmaster, and have been thrilled with it ever since.
My friend, who is more qualified than I, was very impressed by my Zambuto mirror, and declared it to be the best star test he had ever seen. Shortly thereafter, he had his OMI/Torus mirror tested, and the results were not good. Nowhere near the numbers claimed by the maker. He masked off the turned edge, and continued to use it, but he was not happy.
He had just made arrangements to return the mirror for a refund, when Carl Zambuto announced he would be selling to the ATM market again. He jumped on the opportunity, placed the first order with Carl, and is now extremely happy with his ZOC-equipped Obsession. I am once again, jealous of his scope!
Linton

That was spendid, as is your country, Anthony.
We missed the glow worms, when there in '97, and I regret it even more now!
We did, however have frequent sightings of...the long white cloud.
Linton