Posts Made By: David Pitre

As far as reflectivity, it would be impossible to tell the difference between 99 and 97%. The human eye is not that sensitive. Take Ivan's advice and go with a dielectric model. The coating is much harder and will not degrade over time as will standard coatings. It will stand up to cleaning better as well.
I don't feel like you will gain anything by going with a quartz model.
If you can afford it, go with a Televue Everbright or AP Maxbright. Both are highly regarded and one of the best investments you can make in any scope.
While a Williams Optics diagonal is generally a decent unit, it can not be collimated. They claim there is no need, but I've had one that was out of collimation, and have a friend who had the same issue. That said, I would imagine they would replace such a unit, as they have good customer service. Mine was bought second hand, though, and the miscollimation was slight.
Stellarvue also makes a good diagonal, that I believe is a few dollars less.

Mark,
I don't know your age or the size of your dilated pupil, but you might consider the 31 Nagler will give you a 6.9mm exit pupil (assuming your scope is f/4.5).
This is a bit large for the majority of people.
I am 44 years old and my dilated pupil measures just over 5mm.

The 26 Nagler will give you 5.77mm, even still a bit large for me.

I too love my 14mm UWA. However the coatings are indeed inferior to to the best of the modern eyepieces, both Naglers and Pentax. Inspect them in the daylight for yourself. You will see.
I'd bet money that the UWA has lower light transmission than the 13mm Nagler.

What kind of "glue" did you use? You mention hardener, so I'm guessing it was 2 part epoxy.
Did you sand or rough up the parts that received the epoxy? If not, that can help.
I used automotive trim adhesive on Kydex and it seeme to work well.
Contact cement might work as well. Again, I'd roughen the places to receive adhesive.
Astrozap sews their Velcro on to their dew-shields. It's a bit of extra work, but not much.

...so are the tripods. I've owned both.

In what way is he a fraud?
He is simply suggesting that the ultra rich not pay taxes at a lower rate than the middle class. ' sounds reasonable to me.