Posts Made By: Floyd Blue

How about the new O.P.S. planetary special Orthos by UO? Anyone used these? How do they compare?

Hahahha!
Semi-ED, now what the heck is that?

Pehaps packing it in the expanding foam put inside bags like Celestron does it might be the answer. Also maybe double box with the outer box lined in 2" styrofoam might help. If nothing else, them maybe a wooden crate would be the answer.
Here is my idea for shipping my Zambuto mirror. Hope it works, heck it aught to be able to take a 6' drop without a problem.

Funny thing happened when I called to order the Opto-Wipes cloths yesterday. I was talking a length with the fellow there and mentioned a few cleaning solutions and asked what he used.
He stated that Windex worked quite well on optical surfaces without leaving a film! 8O
He also stated the pure alcohol does a good job. He had never heard of the Arkansas Observatory cleaning fluid and that he found that most manufacturers have a almost religious feeling about one cleaning fluid or another.
So, what can we derive from this? Who knows! Maybe Windex is fully underrated or perhaps other cleansers are overrated?
I would like the try the Baader Optical Wonder fluid. Maybe I will order a bottle. Right now I am going to call around the electrical suppliers and see who has the 99.57% pure alcohol for sale. 8) Ahhh, found it at a local supplier, I will run over and get some. That whould be beter than the 94% I have been using. $5.52 for 16 oz bottle, well as cheap as the 94%, but probably worth it.

Well, our club went to the mountain for the crash and I must say it was a bit disappointing. We did seem to see a slight increase in brightness for a very short time, but certainly nothing extraordinary. I think they had a bit of imagination with their predictions.
Did anyone else see anything?

Received the 5.2mm XL today, will leave my impressions after my first night out.
Looks real nice next the other XLs in the box.

What is are the most important features in a reflector?
How do you rate them in importance?
Optics
Ability to use magnification
Ability to bring in faint objects
Construction
Movement
Weight
Assembly time
Ease of assembly
Space required for transport
Design, truss or solid tube or other
Tracking and Go-To
These are just a few of the attributes that I can think of right now. They are listed in the order of my importance, how about yours?

I spent the evening last night on Mt Pinos and stayed until 2am then went home.
Got a chance to test a few EPs and the Pentax 5.2mm XL that I just purchase was high on the list.
The EP is longer than the 7mm and 10.5mm and a little heavier, but still not heavy compared to many EPs.
The field is flat without any field curvature. No coma or astigmatism was present even at F/4.3. There was the slightest amount or color (Violet) at the very edge of the FOV with Vega being used for the test. Not much, just a small crescent edge on the star image. Certainly not enough to worry about.
The EP had good through put and the images were very crisp. This produced 305x in my test scope. I was able to see the central star in M-57 with averted vision off and on. M-51 displayed it's super nova with good clarity. The transparency was not as good as hoped, so the images were not as good as they could have been. Different areas of the sky produced different transparency so I went around to M3-M5-M13 to check resolution and it was very good. Rod also was there to lend an eye to the test. He thought the images were quite good.
This EP is as good as any of the XL series, if not better than the rest.
I also test two Speers Waler EPs, the 7.5mm and the 10mm. I was pleasantly surprised at how good they were. There was a bit of astigmatism at the extreme edge of the 82° FOV and a little color too, but it was only at the edge with bright stars. Some field curvature, but not extreme and mostly at the outer 10% of the FOV. The EPs for $119 are a pretty good deal. Though put seemed quite good and even with no Paracorr the F/4.3 had a nice edge to edge performance. They were short on eye relief, especially the 7.5mm, so that could be the only down side that I saw. The aberrations were not obtrusive and not really worse than many more expensive EPs I have tested.
It was a good night on Pinos, with quite a few people and a lot of nice scope present.

Here is my latest addition to my scope mods. Have not had a chance to try it yet. It is 1/16" ABS lined with black Velvet and uses Velcro to hold it together to form a circle and then allow it to be stored flat when not in use. It fits up against the Spider Vanes and held in place by friction.

Hi David,
Really attractive set up you have there. 8O