Posts Made By: Chris Brown

I got really lucky on this one...Bought a new close-out Meade 114 NT/500 ota (910mm f/8)from an Astromart boardmember as a grab and go, mounted a Novak Helical focuser, cheap oX, and a Tasco eq-1 clone and gave it a go.
I really wasn't planning to see over 100x, considering the source of the OTA, which was ok by me. I just wanted a scope that wouldn't break my back (I can lift this assy with one hand!) and showed a decent moon.
I was really surprised to find that the optics are really wonderful!
Saturn is really sharp, even with a Celestron chinese 4mm Plossl!
I was able to cleanly split Porrima at 151x tonight, and in/out of focus looks identical to my untrained eyes.
Either the real focuser helps alot, or they let an optically good example pass by thier QC person!
Anyone else get lucky with one of these?
Chris Brown

Anyone else find out that this little scope (60 mm f/11 circle t) has very good optics?
Chris

Wonderful advise! Makes me want to go out and buy a S-C just to try it! Bravo! I still use a film can to collimate my XT-8, great views at 250-300x. The best collimation technique is the one that works for you, Refined over and over! Chris Brown

OZ,
I recommend an Orthoscopic, which seems to meet your wish list! You can buy new (University Optics), or you can try used, I have found many great Ortho's on astromart for around 40$. Chris Brown

David,
I have an early XT-8, which I flocked using black velvet material from a fabric store. It was expensive (40$!), but I found that it had the lowest reflective qualities of any material I tested. The test? Simply shine a flashlight at the given material, and guage the reflection on the material! I attached it to the entire tube (inside!) in strips using white glue, which comes right off the mirrors using lens cleaning solution (if you get sloppy!)It took about 3 days, but the contrast enhancement was very noticeable, especially from light polluted areas! highly recommended! Chris Brown

I just received a Paul Rini 45 Erfle via astromart, (2-inch), and I am very surprised at the quality of this semi-rough unit. It really does look home-made, but in my XT-8,(26.67x, over 2 degrees true field!) it performs wonderfully, very little edge distortion, I can get all of the pleiades in a field, with room to spare!
Has anyone else had such luck with these eyepieces?
Chris Brown

Ron,
I love my little ETX-90"m", I have found that it loves high powers also, atmosphere allowing!
Chris

More...
M39 is awesome, M27 has it's dumbbell shape, I do still get a little coma from my Plossls...I'll try some circle-T and Vixen Orthos tonight!
My most expensive eyepiece is a 15mm Axiom, does anyone want to lend me some Panoptics?
CB

Steve,
I just bought an Orion Starblast EQ, and I have tested alot of eyepieces with it, here is what I found..
First, The standard eyepieces are quite good!, I'd keep them around, if I were you...
The 15mm works better for me than my beloved Celestron Axiom 15mm, only because the supplied Expanse 15mm has alot more eye relief.
For lower power, I use a 26mm Celestron (Taiwan, orange lettering) Plossl, which has a wide field and very good edge performance, despite it's low price! I tried a circle-T 25mm Ortho, but edge of field was quite poor, despite the narrower FOV!
I also use a 20mm circle-T Erfle (hard to find now), which has a very wide field, great eye relief, and is very sharp at the edge! My Chinese Meade 20mm Super-wide angle is virtually unusable in the Starblast, coma everywhere!
Next, I have a 12.5mm Orion Sirius Plossl, which has decent eye relief, and great edge of field performance, much better than my 12mm circle-T Ortho!
I have a Vixen (Japan) 10mm Plossl, which is much better optically than my 10mm Sirius and 9mm Orion Plossl!!
My favorite eyepiece for this scope is a tie; I have a Russell 36mm wide field Hybrid, which has an impossibly wide field, excellent edge performance, but you can see the secondary shadow durring the day!
My other favorite is a GSO WA 8mm (60 degree FOV) which is also sharp everywhere!
You can deduce a couple facts here, First, I don't spend alot on eyepieces, There are alot of more expensive eyepieces that would perform better, TV, or Pentax, for example, but this is a $200.00 telescope, after all!
Second, edge of field is very important to me, and I like a wide FOV, which is why I got the Starblast in the first place! This telescope is very picky with eyepieces (unlike my ETX-90, which could performs well with any eyepiece)so a little testing is required..
I tried every eyepiece I had under decent skies, until I came up with the winners.
One more thing...I bought a Orion 3x Barlow, which works very well with the Starblast, every eyepiece mentioned comes to a sharp focus (except the 6mm Expanse, perhaps better conditions?), and The starblast can use 170x on most nights easily. I use the 3x Barlow for the Moon and Planets, and remove it for Clusters, Galaxies, etc...
Here is a power breakdown;
36mm russell, 12.5x x3=37.5x
26mm Plossl, 17.31x x3=51.93x
20mm erfle, 22.5x x3=67.50x
15mm expanse, 30.0x x3=90x
12.5mm Plossl 36.0x x3=108.0x
10mm Plossl, 45.0x x3=135x
8mm WA, 56.25x x3=168.75x
6mm expanse, 75.0x x3=225x
My testing consisted of aiming at M57 (the ring nebula) to test the eyepieces for light transfer and edge of field performance.
I then inserted the 3x Barlow, aimed at e-Lyra (The double-double), and re-tested the eyepieces by seeing how apparent and clear the "split" looked to my eyes.
I hope this helps...
Chris Brown

Alan,
you didn't happen to hear sleigh bells at the time did you?
Happy Holidays!!
Chris Brown