Posts Made By: Ron Bee

Hello there Gregg,

To say I love my Radian is an understatement, but if you're looking for the ultimate in planetary eyepieces, I would like to suggest the TMB SuperMonocentric. The old monocentric has long been a favorite of planetary observers and Thomas Back provide a modern improved version of it (better glass, better coating). Makes no mistakes, these are special purpose eyepiece as they have a very small AFOV (30 degree) and very tight eyerelief though I was surprised by how usable even my 4mm TMB SuperMono is to me who is addicted to long eye relief.

Ron B[ee]

Oh Inge, how fortunate that you've posted this as I have just recently attained a new "enlighten" state which I would like to share ;-). Please look into the new hot-off-the-press book, The Modern Moon, a Personal View by Charles Wood. In there, you'll find reasons for wanting to observe the full Moon! And because so few watch the full Moon or thin crescent Moon, there may yet be new discoveries to be made!

My new enlighten state also has endowed me with an insight for the DSO lovers (like us ;-). The Moon is *not* one object but is actually a micro-universe full of thousands of objects. They have very similar characteristics as watching the DSOs!

Ron B[ee]

Well I don't know what's the smallest feature, but short of the Rukl Atlas, you can get the info by installing this very useful free program.
http://astrosurf.com/avl/UK_index.html

There's also a new book about, which has finally put sanity into observing the moon for this lunartic newbie, "The Modern Modern, A Personal View" by Charles Wood.

Ron B[ee]

As a refractor user and having gone through the fiery collimation with my Dob, I can sympathize with you, Ken. I printed out various pictures and instructions and still couldn't get it right (not a handiman I suppose). I have only one suggestion: get someone to help if you can. I was fortunate enough to have experts like Jon to help me and he showed many tricks. Now I was even brave enough to remove my primary to brush away the dust and put it back and collimate again without any first day torture. The reward of crisp and razor sharp planetary view was well worth the lesson.

Ron B[ee]

... continued from Part I...

Light Cup: "Now let's examine the solar systems and we can see some similarities:
o static (Moon is pretty much dead)
o faint and fuzzies (those tiny rilles, jovian white ovals can be faint and fuzzies :-()
o the Moon and planets certainly comes around every year.
o planetary nebula w/w central star - lunar crater with central peaks o planetary nebula, central star not seen - various planets and lunar crater without central peaks
o irregularly shape nebula - lunar mares, basins, faint comets without tail, sunspots
galaxies - oval, round lunar craters (haven't found needle shape object to match yet :-(), faint comets without tail, some sun spots look just like a galaxy if you reverse black/white your sketch or photo.
o open clusters - jovian/saturian moons in closed varying formation, lunar secondary craters
o supernova - brightening core of the comet ;-), flashes on Mars, comet crashing into Jupiter"
Ron: "Gotcha. There ain't no constellation in the solar systems!"
Light Cup: "Well there's the various lunar basins ;-)."
Ron: "Wait justa dog'on minute! You're twisting everything!"
Light Cup: "Go sleep on it ;-)".

In the night, a revelation came to me: the solar systems is not consisted of only a handful of objects as I was told but thousands of objects. How? Each features on the Moon is an object, each features on the planets is an object, each sun spots/prominence on the Sun is an object. The Light Cup just gave me a different but refreshing pair of eyes to see distinctly.

So is this indeed a new revelation ;-) or just some deeply perverted misguided dream during my sleepless night :-(?

Ron B[ee]
PS - This does not mean we should not try to continue to watch DSOs, double stars and variable stars, no way no how ;-).

Hello there David,

Wait until good seeing and choose "optimal" magnification (i.e. not too high and not too low). Because of our smallish aperture, too dim and the color would disappear :-(. I find 146x and 176x brings out the color best with my TV-102 especially now when couple with the excellent TMB SuperMono eyepieces. I've found this 3-element one air-space eyepiece give me a better color detection than my TV Radian eyepieces. For instance, early this morning with Antoniadi II or better seeing, I could see the greenish tint around the south polar region (verified with my 8-inch Dob ;-), the first time ever in two years of observing the Ring Planet with my TV-102! The difficult very light EQ also comes and go. Light gray shading at both ansae of the B Ring was so obvious. The dark gray Crepe Ring relatively easy around and in front of the planet. Last year, Jupiter had dark brown and light brown major bands. The GRS looked salmon and the festoon was blue.

The filters especially color filters will not help to bring out the color; rather it will give you a color cast but emphasis and thus enhance contrast of one color feature over the other. I've found the #12 and #80 filters to be extremely useful on the gas giants. This year, I hope to try my Baader Moon and Skyglow filter (which worked so well with Mars this year) with the gas giants through my TV-102 Light Cup.

Keep trying David.

Ron B[ee]

Indeed Chris and 4 stars in the Trapezium - that's superb! There is much to see even with only 60mm if the optics is good. I've been reading an excellent book on the history of Saturn and it's amazing how many discoveries were made with relatively small apertures (and with early optics that were no match for ours ;-). In the final analysis, it's that which challenges the small scope users that bring a different sort of joy to the hobby.

Enjoy your oldie new scope ;-).

Ron the 4-inch Tall Evangelist B[ee]
PS - Smaller is still satisfying for me.

I can't explain it Larry. But when the storm fronts passes, I usually get very transparent sky but lousy seeing. So how was the seeing? If it's poor, I'd wait for a better seeing to make a comparison.

Nevertheless, 5mm gives you 176x. Cassini B is a large crater, visible at much lower power and thus should have been visible in both eyepieces. If you want a good test for the TV-102, try some of these teeny features (such as the dome or craterlets around the area).
http://members.cox.net/ronby/Solar-System/Moon-Cassini-Dome-070603.htm
Since I got my new fabulous moon book, I've also learned that there are 3 hills between A & B (my TV-102 Light Cup has shown me the largest one so far)!

Ron B[ee]

You may wish also to ask your question in the Tele Vue eGroup.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TeleVue/
There are 3 owners of the Oracle and lots of owners of the Proto that maybe able to help you.

Ron B[ee]

>You will see lateral color even in a Newtonian.

Indeed Roland! Last night, I was out watching Jupiter with my 8-inch Discovery PDHQ Dob and while trying to locate it with my 30mm Ultima plossl (40x) and with Jupiter positioned off-axis, I saw the purple halo! I couldn't believe my eyes until I took a look at the OTA again just to make sure it was a Dob I was looking thru ;-).

Having said this, after going to the 6mm TV Radian last night (200x), I noticed no off-axis color on Jupiter. I wonder why not.

Thanks,
Ron B[ee]