Posts Made By: Floyd Blue

I just finished making a new set of feet for the scope. I used Hockey Pucks for the feet as I have been told they work like the Celestron anti-vibration pads, but much cheaper. I will give these a try on the old scope and see how well they work. Then they will go on the new one. Cost $2 each and they look great and do seem to work as well as sit very nicely on the ground.
I can post a picture late to show them off.

My Long Dog with his monkey friend! In his Tarzan suit and ready for action. Great dogs!

I just bought a used 10" Orion XTI Intelliscope here for a test and to resell later to a club member or another person needing a scope for next year.
This has the Object Locator (DSC) and the Pyrex primary. I didn't know what to expect when I picked it up, or what it would be like to use. Much to my surprise it was much better than the Hardin 10 Deep Space Hunter that I had worked with quite a lot. The AZ needed a little more Teflon to make it smooth and not stick and the focuser needed a bit of work to make it not sloppy and actually hold collimation. But these were minor problems and cost nearly nothing, just a little sweat. I did a overall optical alignment and adjusted everything until it was proper.
The DSC controller was nice and the internal testing of the encoders made it simple to get that all right.
The Object Locator worked better than I expected, with the object being in the general center of the FOV with a 8.8 UWA Meade EP. Stars, Planetary Nebula and Galaxies all were there when the DSC said it was on target.
I did have to use a high power EP as stated in the manual to get the Warp factor to .0 or .1 because a 32mm cross-hair EP did not get the accuracy that I wanted. The 12.5mm Parks Lighted Reticle EP did the trick though and I would recommend something like this to do the 2 star alignment with the Orion.
The seeing was not the greatest, but with what I could see, the star tests looked quite good. Hopefully the seeing will improve soon and I will be able to get better images to check it better.
The images were good with the scope, even though the seeing was less than I would have liked.
The scope could use a fan I think, as it took a while to cool down. But the primary is very open and it does cool down with out the fan in about an hour.
The mount is more solid than the particle board would have you believe. In fact it was pretty good really. The tube mounts quickly with two large hand bolts, one for each Alt bearing. The DSC encoders and wiring stay in place and the assembly takes less than a minute.
I found the movement to be satisfactory after the addition of the extra 3 Teflon pads to the ground board. The Alt was adjustable with a knob and that worked pretty nicely.
Overall I would have to say that it is a good deal and a great beginning scope or even a great one for a person that is not too tall and can not pickup any real weight. The tube is 28 lb and the base is 27 lb so neither is beyond a smaller person's ability to lift.
The EP height at zenith is 46.5" so it makes a good scope to use with a chair or for a shorter person.
Just thought I would do this post to pass on the information.

Boy, I just took a quick look to see what was up on the forum. 8O I see that religion is still as much fun to discuss as it has ever been.
Never discuss religion or politics, there is nothing to gain.

Ok, there were a few inquiries as to how I modified the Orion finder to eliminate the slop in the barrel. So I made a pictorial guide to the modification.
This requires that you get a piece of 3/16" thick Teflon, available at RV and Trailer shops as a 5th wheel hitch slick pad in a 10" disk for about $11. Or another good slick material that is 3/16" thick.
Next you disassemble the focuser and remove the old tension slider. Make a duplicate of this from the new material and drill the two holes as in the old slider, but drill them completely through. You can use the old one on top of the new one as a guide and drill trough both pieces. Then sand the thickness as required to have a nice fit, not too loose or it will allow the barrel to wiggle. But not so tight that it is hard to slide in and out. Sand a little and test fit it until it is just right.
This will make the focuser much more usable and less shift in the image when focusing.
The other mod, I did not take pictures, but I will explain it.
When you remove the focuser knobs and shaft, you have to remove 4 screws and a plate. Under that plate you will find a spring plate with two bent tabs that rub against the shaft to hold the pinion gear to the rack. These are too tight and should be bent to lessen the tension on the shaft. Making movement easier and smoother. You should also remove the old glue grease from the rack and pinion so you can lube it with good grease.
The rack is held to the focuser barrel by two small screws. Remove them and remove the rack from the barrel. Now cut a plastic strip to place under it as a shim. I used one of the many phoney credit cards that arrive in the mail all the time, you know the ones, they look like credit cards but are not. This seemed to be just the right thickeness. But you will have to test fit the rack to know. Now drill holes in the plastic strip so the screws will go through and reinstall the rack to the barrel. Re assemble the focuser and check the play in the rack and pinion. This shim should remove all the play between the rack and pinion gears. There is far to much as it comes from the factory. This will give you a nice accurate focus when racking in and out. There should be no free motion in the rotation of the focuser knob now. If there still is, shim it more until the play is gone. Now relube the rack and pinon and assemble for the final time.
The focuser should now feel much better and work a lot better. It will hold the collimation of the laser better too!
Have fun!

Carl Zambuto announced that three new makers have been awarded the ZOC membership for purchasing mirrors to put in their production scopes.
These are,
Astrosystems http://www.astrosystems.biz/index.htm
Compact Precision Telescope http://www201.pair.com/resource/astro.html/regular/products/cpt/
Plettstone telescope http://plettstone.com/telescopes/
So there are now seven manufaturers who will be suppying ZOC based scopes. This is a great day for amateur astronomy and all those who want a ZOC mirror in a custom scope.

Ok, anyone with some input on the new Meade 5000 Super Plossls?
Got a 32mm or 40mm model?
I would like some information if you have any.
Thanks,

Mark,
As others have stated, size and weight go together. But there is a point where size and weight are still quite manageable. I would recommend a scope like I just purchased, a 10" 4.7" Orion XTI. They come with DSC Encoders and there is a DSC computer for $129 available that is quite nice. The scope weighs about 55lb total and the tube is about 30 lb and the base about 25 lb. So it is not hard to carry and it comes apart quickly and assembles just as fast. The DSC cables and encoders stay in place.
The mirror in mine is excellent. It gives text book star tests. Cool down take a while like most solid tubes and is helped a lot with a cooling fan. Focuser is fair and can be improved with a little work. The finder is actually pretty good and the rest of the scope I found to be nice.
Height is about 4 feet at the EP so it can be utilized sitting down in a chair, which would be good for your knee.

I thought I would post pictures to show my latest fan module for the Orion XTI or other GSO telescopes. I used a 9v this time so that it is self contained with no wires. The batter in disconected and turned around, then placed back on the Velcro that holds it in place. This allows you to store the battery in place when not running.
For those do it your self people, here is a nice project!

The EP arrived today! Looks great! Lots of fog and clouds though, so it may be a few days before I can try it out.