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Posts Made By: david elosser

January 24, 2007 02:52 PM Forum: Beginning Astronomy?

What's the difference between long and short focal

Posted By david elosser
Hi Kevin,
If the two scopes you are considering are the same size aperture, they will both reach the same theoretical high magnification, you just need shorter focal length eyepieces to get you there with the Mak-Newt. Since the true field of view is a function of the focal length of the telescope and the field stop diameter of the eyepiece (literally, the size of the "hole" in the eyepiece), The F6 telescope will give you a wider field of view potential than the F10. This would make an F6 telescope more desirable for "large" targets like open clusters. Many people prefer the longer focal length telescopes if the primary purpose is expected to be lunar/planetary work, because longer focal length eyepieces are often more comfortable to work with. I am of this camp, however, with the introductions of lower cost, high quality, short focal length eyepieces such as the BO/TMB planetary's, telescopes with shorter focal lengths are becoming more popular for this use.

David E

January 30, 2007 12:28 AM Forum: Beginning Astronomy?

Solar Filter for ETX 90????

Posted By david elosser
Joe, you can make your own filter with Baader solar film, but many companies make filters with Baader film. I purchased one made by Kendrick from High Point Scientific. They make one for the ETX90:
http://highpointscientific.com/store/viewItem.asp?idProduct=707

David E

January 31, 2007 11:05 PM Forum: Insects - Flowers and Other Small Stuff - Photos

Garden Oddity

Posted By david elosser
That's a nice photo. Thanks for sharing.
David E

February 4, 2007 09:12 PM Forum: Refractors

Travel Scope

Posted By david elosser
Tim, there are a lot of really nice 80mm short tube telescopes out there now that's great for travel and family use. I would put the Classic Nighthawk on your list, Stellarvue may have a few left:
http://stellarvue.com/clearance.html
The "Classic" Nighthawk is the original "built like a tank" telescope, same optics as the Nighthawk II, but in the original heavy duty optical tube. It's heavier than most 80mm short tubes out there, around 8 pounds, but the added durability makes it very suitable for travel and family use, especially if children will be using the telescope. If you already have a mount or heavy duty photo tripod, it's an excellent buy at $349. Orion makes a couple of good 80mm short tubes, the ST80 for about $190 comes to mind. I don't own an ST80 but I've read a few positive comments about it, I would regard it as a good choice if you were looking to economize. The Nighthawk classic has a better focuser though, and better construction in the lens, lens cell, and optical tube.

David E

February 6, 2007 03:03 PM Forum: Refractors

Achro/Apo question

Posted By david elosser
Ron, I own a 4" achromat and a 4" doublet apo. I would not say that the apo will go higher in power than the achromat, I believe they are both following the same laws of physics. But resolution is definately noticeably better in the apo when used at the same power as the achromat. The apo focuses the light into tighter airy discs.

David E

February 7, 2007 04:42 PM Forum: DVDs and Music and Books That You Recommend

Question about blank dvd`s

Posted By david elosser
Bob, check your DVD player/recorder. Mine records at different "speeds" much like a VCR so I can get up to 6 hours recording time on one DVD disc. I think what it is actually doing is shrinking the file size of the recording, so you will get some loss of quality. I notice no real difference between the 2-hour and 3-hour settings.

David E

February 13, 2007 01:40 PM Forum: Eyepieces

Hyperion 8-24 zoom

Posted By david elosser
Dave,
I think the 8-24mm Baader zoom eyepiece is a good idea, IMO. Yes, it won't have the nice spacewalk view of the Panoptic, but at this low power I don't notice much difference on most targets. I have the Vixen brand. It is not as well corrected as the Panotpics but is sharp enough to give a really nice view. If you put one in a Powermate or Meade TeleXtender you'll have one heck of a star-splitter!

David E

February 26, 2007 05:53 PM Forum: Binoviewers

First Light Stellarvue BV3s

Posted By david elosser
Congradulations Joe! Now you're hooked! I've discovered that another great benefit to binos is I can see more detail when the air is a bit unsteady. And who has steady air these days? 8)
David E

March 8, 2007 11:26 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

First scope advise...

Posted By david elosser
Kelly,
I think your thread is going to get buried by a couple of the other monster threads. 8O
You might want to check out every dealer you can find that sells the Meade ETX telescopes. I noticed that many are offering free DSI Pro Imagers with some select models. You might have a problem there not being able to see Polaris. But Meade has a three star alignment, and you might can get it to work by leveling your tripod, pointing it to magnetic north, and setting the proper latitude for Polaris. That might get you in the "ballpark" enough for the three star alignment to work. I'm not familiar with Celestron's GOTO software, but they probably have something similar. A Celestron owner might can give you help there.

David E

March 12, 2007 11:42 PM Forum: Off Topic Discussions

The big question, does it effect the telescope com

Posted By david elosser
That's a good question! 8O I know there are some electronics, VCR, TV etc, that automatically adjust for daylight savings, but they are all on the OLD schedule! People are going to have to reset now, and then reset those clocks again when the auto DS kicks in. I think that as long as the date and time is correct in your hand controller, and the time zone is correct, it should be okay. If you're handset is programmed for auto-DS, you might want to just shut that off. Meanwhile, this gives us an extra hour of daylight to call our lawmakers in Washington to get them to reverse this idiot schedule. :C
David E

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