Posts Made By: david elosser

Floyd:
http://stellarvue.com/sv80sorder.html
This is an American made triplet apo with optics made by the Russian company LOMO. It has mirror-like color correction. A number of professionals are using this telescope and post their photos regularly in the Stellarvue Yahoo group. Be sure to click on the specs and astrophotos links.

David E

William,
The inexpensive 2" mirror diagonals often have issues with alignment and pinched mirrors. This can result in an image degradation that many people mistakenly blame on their telescope or eyepiece. I would recommend investing a little bit more money in one of the better brands like Televue, AP, or Stellarvue. I don't know about TV or AP, but Stellarvue has one for $99 here:
http://stellarvue.com/diagonals.html

David E

Floyd,
I did the same thing with my Meade SN8. Years ago I purchased a Televue Ranger as the first step to a guidescope for my SN8. Then I made the mistake of looking through the Ranger. Over a period of many months I suddenly realized I was using the 70mm Ranger over the 208mm SN about 10 to 1. I now own more refractors than I care to think about. For Thanksgiving, I went to visit my sister in the mountains of NC. With a sky dark enough to see M31 naked eye (YES!) I pointed my little Stellarvue Nighthawk at the Pleiades. I could see the reflection nebula all around the open cluster, and the brightest five stars glowed brilliantly like car headlights in the fog. It's tough to get that with with the big guns, just not enough fov IMO. My 8" dob diggs out the dim dso's from my polluted front yard rather well, though.

David E

Keeping all fingers and toes crossed! This is a fantastic system you have put together, hope you get a chance to post your first light tonight!

David E

Joe, here is my favorite nebular filter:
http://www.sciencecenter.net/hutech/idas/lpsv3.htm

It passes much more light than on O-III (even though it isolates that band as well as others) and I have used it in my ED66mm scope. It has the added advantage of working on comets. It did a good job of increasing the contrast on comet Swan.

If you have light pollution in your area (Mercury vapor lamps, etc) you might want to try their LPS filter:
http://www.sciencecenter.net/hutech/idas/lps.htm
This one is a favorite of astro-imagers but it works very well visually too.

Of course, as with any filter the more aperture you have, the better they work, but with small scopes just keep the magnification low.

David E

Floyd Blue said:

It was explained that marketing decided to call it a Fluorite because others were calling FPL53 a Fluorite.

Floyd, this statement is discouraging. William Optics is giving themselves cart blanc to say whatever they want to make the sale. Would it not be better to point out that their competition is inaccurate in their statements? At least one American telescope company has learned that being honest and forthright with the customer has led to more sales, not fewer.

David E

Itz,
I've read that about Sigma Ori too, but it is actually easy to see the C star in small scopes. I have seen it in my 80mm achromat. I don't remember the power, but it was well below 100x. A clear, steady sky helps. The worse your seeing conditions, the larger the aperture and/or power you may need.

David E

That's very pretty Christine. I like the way you have a dark background. It brings out the colors and detail in the bloom.

David E

Hi Rod,
The "secret planetary filter" that's been tossed around the Stellarvue Yahoo group site for years is the FL-D filter. Most of us get the 46mm size and then use a 48-46 step-down ring to attach it to the 2" diagonal or adapter. It will not eliminate the color fringing, but with my Nighthawk 80mm/f6 it does reduce it, and produces a more natural, but warm tone. Contrast is enhanced a bit with planets, especially Mars. I also use the warming filters 81B and 85A. The 81B (or 81A) is particularly usefull when viewing Jupiter in the dawn and dusk hours. The 85A has more "punch" to it and I use usually use it when the sky is dark. Although I use them most often on my 80mm and 102mm achros they are not really achro-specific and can be used with any type of telescope. If you decide to try these filters I recommend only the B+W brand, as they use Schott glass and have superior coatings to most other photographic brands of filters. (This is more important with telescopes than it is with cameras as the magnifications you use are much higher.) Everyone's mileage varies, but most SV members using these filters report an improved image on lunar/planetary targets.

David E

Hi Gary,
The Moon does "weather," but not from water or atmosphere as weathering takes place here on Earth. The Moon is constantly being bombarded by solar radiation and wind, as well as being pelted 24/7 by space dust. It takes a very long time, hundreds of millions or billions of years, but crater rims and mountains can wear down this way. The easiest place to see the effects of lunar weathering is in the lava flows, Mare Imbrium is a good example. Weathering changes the shade of the lava so different shades of lava were laid down at different periods of time.

David E