Posts Made By: david elosser

I'd give Jim's Mobile Inc a call. I just ordered one of their Event Horizon focusers to replace the one on my Zhumell. (I agree, my stock focuser is probably the same as yours and it's very coarse and hard to adjust.) The same JMI focuser should fit the Meade, and they start at $149.
David E

Are you tightening the lock screws down? I think my 8" Zhummel, which is also made by GSO in Korea, is the same mirror as yours, although the mount may be different. Mine holds collimation rather well after I firmly hand tightened the lock screws.
David E

Alan, just about all of my eyepieces get used sooner or later, because I have them organized in to "sets" that I take out depending on what scope or targets I looking at. I have arranged my eyepieces into:

The short tube refractor set
The 4" apo set
The 8" Dobsonian set
The wide angle set
The deep space set
The planetary set
The 2" set
The binoviewer sets (A and B)
The travel set
The backup set
The spotting set

Now this may sound like a LOT of eyepieces. But many eyepieces are part of several sets, and can do a "quantum leap" so to speak, into another set. This creates two Quantum Uncertainty Principles. The first Quantum Eyepiece Uncertainty Principle means I cannot know where all my eyepieces are at any given time. The second Quantum Eyepiece Uncertainty Principle means I can know where an eyepiece is, or its focal length, but not both at the same time.

David E
(If I can ever find all of my eyepieces I can count them!)

James,
I don't have a Denk, but I can say that the answer to the first two questions is YES and YES. Well, you can binoview with most any scope, but some might be easier to use than others. With the AR6's long 1219mm focal length, you are going to be getting high powers out of the binoviewer. You will need some kind on optical corrector to reach focus, and they will increase magnification. (The amount depends on the type of corrector). If you are new to binoviewers, I recommend walking before jogging. I would start out with pairs of longer focal length eyepieces, like 20mm to 32mm plossls. Then work your way up the power ladder as you see a need. Many people have trouble working with binos at first, and the lower the power you start with, the easier it is to start merging and focusing. I can merge at 200x now. But at first I had trouble even with 55x and had to practice outdoors on stationary objects. Have you considered the Denk Big Easy? You get everything you need (except eyepieces) to start bino-ing with your AR6 for much less money than the Denk II. You can check out the Denk website for details but the biggest difference between the two is in the coatings. I don't think, with the quality controll that Denk has, that you will see any difference in the resolution or image detail between the two with your AR6, although the image will most certainly be a bit brighter with the Denk II.

David E

Andreas,
That is excellent! Bravo! I love the way you captured the C-ring in good detail.
David E

A nice pair in sillouette, Robert. These bullies are visiting my bird feeders now.
David E

Although wider apart, I was able to get a good view last night (Apr 12) through my Oberwerk 8x40 Mariners. Very pretty with Venus glowing so brilliantly.
David E

Yep, you're going to get hooked and end up hocking your wife's jewelry for more eyepieces.

The good news is that I have found that you don't need the really expensive ones to get great images with binoviewers. You can mate just about any of your favorite eyepieces that you can comfortably use with either eye. Note though, that if any of those are more than a few years old, the newer versions might be made to different specs and won't mate well. The exception would be premium brands like Televue. I can give you some general advice based on my years of experience.

1) start with low powers, spend several weeks getting used to using and merging, then work your way up the power scale as you find a need for it. Although a pair of 32mm plossls will vignette at the edges, they would be a good inexpensive way to get low power out of your 9.25 SCT and 100ED. A pair of 25mm plossls would work well too, with less vignetting.

2) many people have trouble merging at first. Don't get discouraged. If you have troubles at first, practice during the day on stationary objects, or at night on the Moon. It takes a while for you brain to learn how to merge images at high power.

3) eyepieces: I first look for good eye relief, then for lightweight eyepieces. Heavy eyepieces cause balance issues. Some good candidates that I have used are (this list is not inclusive of course) longer focal length plossls, any brand of "ED" eyepiece like the Orion Epic, Stellarvue FMC 23 and 15mm, various Meade 5000 series eyepieces, Smart Astronomy EF19mm and EF27mm. Other very good candidates are Televue Panoptics and Radians, Pentax XF12 and XF8.5.

4) binoviewers are not binoculars, exactly, and you will loose about 1/2 magnitude in brightness. Not an issue with lunar/planetary targets, but adjust your deep space habits accordingly. Viewing dso's through a binoviewer is spectacular! My favorite targets are M31, M42, and M27. Brighter globulars and open clusters are spectacular too.

Putting binoviewers on any telescope is like putting in a Hemi. Have fun!
David E

Jim,
I have been using binoviewers on my SV102ABV for over a year and a half now. A 4-inch scope works very well with binoviewers. Lunar observing is fantastic as there is no eyestrain, and I am less bothered by floaters. It's great for planets too as you can see more detail with less power. You will loose about 1/2 magnitude in image brightness. This means that your 4' scope will have about the same light grasp as an 80-85mm refractor. You still maintain the same resolution and sharpness of the 4" objective though, so looking at brighter dso's like the Dumbbell and Orion nebulae or M45 is spectacular. Keep in mind that once you purchase your binoviewer, you will succumb to the irresistable urge to buy more eyepieces.

David E

Granddad used to keep his moonshine in one of those.
8)
David E