Posts Made By: Andrew Chatman

Ron, that's really cool. Kind of gives me the impression of a jellyfish.

Well done.

macnmotion

That's a stunning image. There is such depth and color to this image that I feel like I'm inside of it.

macnmotion

Mark, beautiful and creative.

Andy

Taylor,

From what I understand, if you use an autoguider the focal length becomes less of an issue than if you manually guide. I have a Pronto sitting on my 8" LX200 classic, and have a used ST-4 autoguider on the way. I'm expecting decent results. I'm on a Milburn wedge. The LX handles the weight of this setup very well.

As a widefield scope (and shooting wide-field photography through the scope), the Pronto is wonderful. There is purple fringing to deal with (I just received a minus violet filter to handle that, haven't tried it yet), and there's coma (I believe it's coma) near the edges of the field (I ordered the Televue field flattener to solve this, it's on the way).

You can see the purple fringing and coma issues in this image, taken through the Pronto while piggybacked on the LX200:
http://www.macnmotion.com/d60astro/m81m82pronto.html

As you might have guessed, I can't comment on the SV78S. Good luck with your imaging.

Andy

I have my telepod head on a Bogen 475B tripod. It's a VERY solid tripod, more than enough for my Pronto and probably a whole lot more!

http://www.macnmotion.com/prontotelepod.jpg

Andy

Oh my! Mark you're hitting the mark every time. Keep it up!

Andy

Hi Randy,

I went a slightly different route with my 15x50 IS binoculars. I purchased nebula filters from Howie Glatter that were designed to fit into the eyepiece side of the binoculars, just as the anti-fog eyepieces fit in. No loss of aperture due to step-down that way.

The first night we tried them out was at last year's Black Forest Star Party in Cherry Springs, PA. They were incredible.

As for solar filters, I've used Baader filters on mine for quite a while. First, I fashioned cardboard tubes into slip covers, with baader film in a cutout at the end of the tube. Make sure that the tube fits VERY snuggly on the objectives, and you may even wat to fashion some type of latch or velcro to ensure they don't fall off while viewing.

See photos:
http://www.macnmotion.com/solarfilter/filterandcap.jpg
http://www.macnmotion.com/solarfilter/filterinside.jpg
http://www.macnmotion.com/solarfilter/filteronbinoculars.jpg

But last year I got a bit more sophisticated. I sandwiched Baader film between two UV filters screwed together, then
screwed the sandwich onto the objectives. As you already know, you would use 58mm filters for this (for the 15x50s). A total of 4 are needed for the project. The benefits are that the film will never tear (it's protected by the UV glass), and since they're screwed on they will not accidentally fall off. They're also very compact, and when attached they allow the binoculars to fit into the foam cutout in my Pelican carrying case.

See photos:
http://www.macnmotion.com/baaderfilters.jpg
http://www.macnmotion.com/baaderonbinocs.jpg

Either way, the baader views are terrific, great for a quick sunspot check before taking out the larger equipment.

macnmotion

Took a second shot at Noon. Here it is. macnmotion

Hello Alex,

While I don't have the results of any quantitative testing, I do have impressions of my Milburn Wedge. I bought mine 1-1/2 years ago for my 8" LX200, with the goal of doing DSO imaging.

I also own dovetail rails, mounting rings, counterweights and a 3-axis piggyback mount from Milburn. The build quality of all of this is extremely high, and I'm proud to own this equipment.

The wedge is more than enough for my 8" lx200 loaded with equipment, my guess is that it easily handles a 10" similarly fitted out. It is simple to operate while aligning (mine is not permanently mounted, I perform an alignment every time), and in conjunction with the iterative method of polar alignment, I've taken nearly flawless 20 minute unguided piggyback shots, and pretty darned good unguided multi-minute exposures at prime focus through both the LX200 and through a piggy-backed Pronto.

I have replaced the allen bolts that come with the wedge with easier-to-use thumb screws from McMaster-Carr (http://www.mcmaster.com/). I replaced both the bolts that connect the wedge to the tripod, and that bold the scope to the wedge.

Take a look at some images I've taken using the wedge in my photo gallery. Anything that doesn't say Alt-Az used the wedge. Don't confuse my lack of expertise with performance of the wedge.

http://www.macnmotion.com

Also, in the equipment gallery on that site, you'll see some of my Milburn accessories.

Let me know if you have any more detailed questions. Andy