Posts Made By: Floyd Blue

Here is to you, all the men and women that have served this country with pride and resolution. May your day be as bright as your ideals that carried you through your tours of duty.
Your friend and fellow veteran,
Floyd

I was having a real problem of forgetting to watch for the flashing light on the EQ controller and kept letting the EQ stop for a few minutes which causes the DSC to lose its accuracy and require resetting. I was just too busy at other scopes or at the EP to notice. SO today I installed a switch and warning buzzer that gives me 35 seconds warning that the EQ needs to be reset. I think this will cure the problem as I made it an annoying sound and loud enough to hear from a distance. So I will have 35 seconds to get back and manually reset the thing. I am surprised that the manufacturers don't include this sort of device.
Saturday night was not to bad near Mt Pinos at Chuchupate Ranger Station. We did not go there due to Search and Rescue personnel using the parking lot and a headquarters while looking for a lost hiker.
20 members of our club had a good time viewing lots of good stuff. Omega Centauri was up and looked pretty good.

As the monitor for this forum I have to step in and make a comment.
First problem here is that you are not allowed to mention Eb@y on this forum relating to a for-sale item.
Because you did not reference it to the specific item number I will make a reply to your question, but I will have to delete your post. You may resubmit your post with just a question regarding the picture without reference to Eb@y or any reference to its price or availability.
In the 1980's, Al Nagler, in an attempt to expand his already successful line of
Nagler eyepieces, turned his attention towards a high-quality, low power eyepiece
line. The result was a modified Erfle design called the Wide Field. Available in 15
mm, 19 mm, 24 mm, 32 mm, and 40 mm, the Wide Fields sported an impressive 65
degree FOV. What's more, the Wide Fields exhibited far less off-axis distortions
than conventional Erfles.

Nice as the Wide Fields were (they're still considered modest collector's items
even today), their edge-of-field sharpness was still a ways off from the Naglers,
which are truly sharp right out to the field stop.

I wish to apologize for my lack of proper monitoring these last few days, but I have been quite ill. I have not felt well enough until today to really catch up on what has been going on in the last week.
I would like to remind all that this is an Eyepiece Forum. It is limited to this topic by separation of forums. Any other topics have their appropriate forum and should be posted there.
I stated when I became Monitor, that I would not tolerate anyone using this forum to cause another person any kind of embarrassment or allow any kind of turn of thread that was made at another's expense. I feel that the latest thread had deteriorated to just this type of thread.
Please understand that I do not wish to quelch any discussion or even disagreements that are on topic. You are free to make any statements concerning likes, dislikes of preferences about eyepieces. But I will draw the line when the thread turns into anyone stating that another should have to have a better command of the English language or have a higher intelligence to participate in these discussions without due respect.

I intend to ship my Zambuto mirror and other parts to Florida. I just checked today on charges and insurance as well as time in transport issues with all three of these. USPS wins hands down in all categories as well as have no limits on proper packaged fragile items. The costs is about 1/3-1/2 by shipping USPS Priority vs, UPS and Fedex ground plus much faster transport. Insurance charges with Cerified mail ammount to $19 on $1600 worth of insurance. Weight of 20# total price of $55.80 for the package with insurance and cetified protection. You can send it overnight for the same amount that UPS or Fedex wants for ground.

Well, it looks like there could be problems with the building of my new scope. I am now intertaining other potential scopes.
One of those I am looking at is the Starsplitter II. I can buy one of those without optics and it is already setup for the ZOC 10" F/6.
Question is this. How many of you have now or have owned a Starsplitter and how did you like it?
Thanks for any input you might give.

Hi all,
Well the new 2" adapters arrived today and I was excited to try them on for fit and finish.
These are great! Threaded for 2" filters and made of metal but quite lightweight. Here is a picture of one mounted and one from both ends to show construction.
The set screws are nylon tipped too! Very nice black anodizing completes the package.
I liked them so much I removed the ones I made and installed them.

I am in need of a 10" f/6 scope to be built this summer. I would like it to weigh in at about 60# or less and be of a truss design. I need a frame only as I have the optics and focuser. The mirror weighs about 8# and is 1.625" thick and the secondary is a 1.83".
If you know anyone or are interested, please contact me.
I am not finding many people that are interested building a 10" f/6 so far. Either that or they have commitments.

Wow, a real run on Tak LE EPs of late for sale used. Makes one wonder why and with what are they being relaced? 8)

He sure looks like a happy and proud young man.