Posts Made By: Ron Harper

I lack the experience of some of these guys, but I have a 10" f/6 Zambuto, supposedly Strehl 0.96, in one of the original Starmaster ELs, and it just smokes. If Carl ever made a bad mirror, Rick sent it back! My scope was delayed for weeks until Rick could test it on a good night. If the seeing is good enough to star test a 10", fooey, I am going to look at stuff.
Ron

Roland,
I observe with binoculars, but not a mirror, so I can't personally offer much help there. One issue is, the higher the magnification, the more nearly perfectly flat the mirror must be.

But over on the Cloudy Nights astronomy forum, there is a very active subforum on binoculars that I think you might enjoy. I did a quick search over there, using the forum's own search utility, on the word "mirror", and came up with lots of stuff from discussions, some of which you would probably find useful. Unfortunately, my attempt to provide the link to the search result failed, but try searching yourself, or better, join us, and just pop the question, and I know you would get some good answers.
Ron

John,
Congrats on the mutha binocular! I observe mainly with binoculars myself. My biggest is a paltry 16x70, but I get a lot of enjoyment out of looking at double stars and Messier objects with binoculars all the way down to 6x30.

If you are new to skywatching, there's a megabuck industry out there conveniently poised to assist you. Honestly though, the sky is peppered rather thickly with things that are fun to find and look at, and although often rather subtle at the eyepiece, staggering to the mind once you start to study up a bit and realize the physical reality of what you are looking at. There are many "open" star clusters that will look very impressive through your large instrument. And if you could get out into the country and look overhead at first dark now and for a few weeks, you'll see the Summer Milky Way, which is so jammed with stuff you hardly need a chart, or know what you're looking at, to have fun.

For some instant info, poke around on one of my favorite astro websites, but there are many more: http://www.dibonsmith.com/constel.htm

For real nuts and bolts observing, nothing beats a book of star charts with interesting galaxies, nebulae, and clusters marked on it. A good first one is the Cambridge Star Atlas. Darn near any object suitable for a telescope is fair game for 25x100.

If you are already a hard case of an astrobuff already, and I have mistaken you for a beginner, I am sorry, but please don't take it the wrong way. Your joy is so infectious, is all! Happy observing,
Ron