Posts Made By: Floyd Blue

No need to thank me Hugh, glad to see you back!

Man, I have been watching the ads for a 15mm TV Plossl and early this morning one was finally for sale. But of course, I was too late and some one beat me too it.
I just have to find a mate for the one I have to get a pair for the Binoviewer. :S
Got to start getting up earlier!

Well, I got a chance to go out for about an hour tonight. I tried my Binoviewer and the TV Mars B filter and the Baadar Contrast filters on Mars. Interestingly the Baadar was the nicer of the two. That is to say the view was nice, less false color and brighter. The TV was quite orange in comparison. Details were similar, but maybe the Baadar again was the best. I hope to get some better conditions to test them in soon. Tonight was just fair at best.
The WO Binoviewer was pretty good, had no problems merging images. Though the views of stars were not as tight and crisp as with a single EP. But this was a first shot and I have a little bit of adjusting to do and fiddling with the EPs before I will know exactly how they perform.
The Siebert MultiMag OCA and the 1.6x OCA both worked well and achieved focus. The MutiMag did have a bit of power for sure! Seemed to be a little over 3x at the 3x setting. Images were rather large compared to a mono 7mm when using the 20mm EPs at 3x. They seemed to make an image equal to a 4-5mm EP. I do know it is said the images appear larger in a Binoviewer at a given magnification, perhaps this is true?

I would like to add a little to this discussion.
A few months ago a non rated man in Canada offered a ServoCat Jr kit with Argo Navis for sale. It was stated to be new in the box and unused or even unpacked from StellarCat. He wanted a wire transfer for payment and the price was $1,000 less than new. He also offered to ship it, his cost special delivery and insured.
Now this all sounds bad doesn't it? No ratings, foreign country, wire transfer, very low price were all warning signs according to most.
Well I too was skeptical so I contacted the person and StellarCat and confirmed all the information. I spent a few dollars on long distance phone calls to the seller to talk to him. Then I decided to take a chance. I felt the deal was real, but it could be bad. I sent the money through my bank to his business bank account. In just a few days the packages arrived on my door by special delivery! All was new, still packaged in the original packing and boxes. He spent quite a lot of money on the shipping too!
Well, this story is to show that all that looks to good to be true is not always a scam.
Just food for thought.

I made this up to print for my Binoviewer case. It helps to remember how set up the various magnifications

Wow, think of all the mirrors side by side! Heck, that would be the brightest, blurriest, least contrast image that would ever be produced on Earth all right! 8O

Ed Stevens will make custom focal lengths. Not real cheap at $850 though, but compared to the ZOC 10" f/6 at $995, not so bad!

Just wondering how everyone feels about the situation concerning Tookie Williams?
Does he deserve clemency? Should the crimes go unpunished? Is the death penalty just? Should
Gov Schwarzenegger step in on this?
How say ye?

I would like to get some opinions on vibration dampening on a 10" f/6 structure.
Is it common to get a bit of vibration and a dampening time of 1.5-2 secounds on a longer small aperture scope of this type?
Is it because of the long truss tubes in relation to the size of the structure?
Does the light wieght increase this tendency?
What can be done to lessen this vibration?

Ok, I decided to try something completely different! 8) My new replacement scope in the works and I am trying to come up with the optimum set up this time. I am trying to eliminate vibration and duration of vibration, smoothness of motion and rigidity of structure.
There have been some comments about the rocker box and its contribution to these problems. Some articles I read dealt with the fact that the Teflon pads ride on a small area of the bottom of the rocker box which causes the loads to be uneven and perhaps flex the board itself. Also stability was said to be compromised somewhat by this spacing of the pads and the small area of contact.
So I decided to make a new style of Teflon Pad to work with a round flat foot design ground board. My thoughts on this was to put the weight load equally on the entire foot and have the pad cover a larger area of the bottom of the rocker box with as little surface area as possible.
I decided on a donut shape for the Teflon bearing bearing that was just under the diameter of the foot. So I made the pads 2.375" in diameter for a 3" foot. I felt the circular shape would distribute the weight more evenly and that it would also give a rounded leading edge in either direction of rotation for a smoother feel.
I also made a 2.375" central plate for the AZ pivot bolt . This I had read would help with distribution of the weight and also make the box more stable and dampen faster, with the added benefit of smoother motion. So I am trying this as well.
Here is a picture of the Teflon Bearings that I made.
What do your think?
They have less of a load per square inch than is normally used, but I have not had a problem when I used less load per inch in the past. Load is about 6.5 lbs per square inch on the 3 pads.