Posts Made By: Robert Watters

Although the Megarez is probably a little heavier than my ST80 F5 it should work. You will definitely need to get a counter-weight system on the bottom side because this becomes a must have.



Robert W.

That all depends on what eyepeice you are using. The higher the magnification the the faster it will appear to move.

I'm sure if you give some eyepeice examples that someone will give the appropriate formula and figure it out for you, that's over my head. :-)


Robert W.

I had/have one, what problems are you experiencing? I ended up replacing my mirror with a high end 7" but the cell is basically the same and haven't experienced any problems yet.


Robert W.

Oooh boy here we go again.
Anything you can see in one of your smaller scopes will benifit from more aperture. Now, if you are trying to find an object thats surface brightness is below the sky's backround brightness then no amount of aperture, or lack of will help ya. Now some will argue that a larger scope will not be as contrasty as a smaller one in the same light polluted sky. Well I guess that is all based on personal preference. I'll take the brighter and more detailed image of the larger aperture over the smaller one any day.


Flame suit on, Robert W.

Collimate without the diagonal. The main purpose of collimation is to align the optical elements of the scope. This is critical because this is what gives you the image and if it's off then the image suffers. Now if you have your scope collimated and you stick in your diagonal and it looks off then the diagonal is messed up, if you try compensating by mis-aligning the scopes optics then the image will suffer because you just un-did your collimation.

The reason it would look out of collimation in your diagonal could be because the mirror or prism is out of whack and is not giving you the full light cone to the eyepiece not because the scope is all of sudden out of collimation again.

I hope this makes sense,
Robert W.

Now that is one awesome shot!!! Keep up the great work.



Robert W.

Same night/equipment. This one shows more curtains and color.


Robert W.

Some nice shots Matthew. What film are you using? It looks like it's red sensitivity is real low.



Keep em comming,

Robert W.

Have you tried this one yet? They are an AstroMart sponsor.

http://www.precisionmirrorcells.com/


Robert W.

Well I haven't observed any failures of any filters but I have observed a accident with one, First hand!! I had a full aperture filter come off a C8. It wasn't attatched properly and a gust of wind came along and took it right off. I got quite a blast and immediately dove for the ground. I just held my eye shut for some time for fear of what I might see (or not see!!). I finally got the courage up to remove my hand and open it, everything was different shades of magenta and not near as bright as my other eye. I kept it closed for awhile more and when I re-opened it everything was differnt shades of yellow. It continually got back to normal over the next hour and I kept comparing the two to see if there was any loss. I thought all was well until I went down to the basement where it was somewhat darker, that's when I noticed that it didn't have near the same level of light gathering ability as the un-damaged one. That eventually passed over the next few hours. About 2 days after the incident my eye started getting red and irritated so another call to the eye Doctor got me a closer check up. Well after having my eye dialated for 1-1/2 weeks to help the healing the Doctor informed me that I had no pernament damage and the redness was caused by a minor scratch on the outside layer of my eye.

I take every precaution now and make sure that the filter is on very sucurely. I got lucky, extremely lucky. These are not things to casually set up. Take your time, pay attention to what you are doing, and double check everything!!.


Robert W.