Posts Made By: Floyd Blue

I have been informed that the 3.2mm and 8mm TMB/BO EPs are on their way to dealers. If this is true they should begin to ship to those like myself that have pre ordered them. Maybe as soon as next week!
I will let everyone know when I see mine.

How much movement, when pressure is applied to the weight shaft, should you see in the RA drive? Is a certain amount of movement or flexure considered normal?
If you have the worm adjusted for best movement without binding or loading of the motor, there would always be a little clearance (very small) on the worm, right? And the mount will flex if pressure is applied to the shaft, correct?
Understand that this is my first GEM and I am learning!
I have been working on my worm adjustment on the LXD650 mount and the motion is now smooth and quiet. It is adjusted as tightly as it can be and still run free without binding somewhere in the complete arc of motion.

Only those that are called Abbe Orthoscopic can be considered the original Orthoscopic. But there are derivatives that might be called Orthoscopic and this is where I think that the problem begins.
Plus as Rolando stated, Orthoscopic has a meaning, Abbe Orthoscopic is an EP type.

Congrats Linton, we needed a new watch dog!

Well, I can understand everyone's lack of love for Meade. It is hard to find someone with a good experience with the support side of the business. I have seen some good scopes though, including my 127ED. But, I am not sure just how many owners are happy with the product itself. How about that?

Well, it is finally getting close to the real beginning of our viewing and imaging season here in southern California.
I have been working very hard this winter, like many of you, getting all the equipment ready for another round of cool and dark nights.
This year will be my first attempts at imaging. I have done everything that I could to get my scopes and mounts up to the challenge. Just now bought a guide scope set of rings for the primary imaging scope. I have had problems using just the clamshell type clamps due to alignment problems when it is piggy backed with the 127ED. I spent a lot of hours shimming and adjusting and decided that I just had to break down and buy some adjustable rings. Got a good price on a set of ADM here on Astromart of course.
I also had to make a decision on power for everything and bought a 115 amp hr Deep Cycle battery with cigarette lighter plugs to power the laptop and scope. Some times I will be imaging at the LAAS site in Lockwood Valley, where there is power at each pad! But at MT Pinos and other sites, there is no such luxury, so a big battery is the answer.
All in all, it looks like a lot of fun for this year. Maybe a few good pics and hopefully a lot of nice views will be the reward for many hours of work.
Hope that every one else has been as lucky as me this last year. Many good buys and lots of good nights out under dark skies. Let us all hope for an even better year this year.

Not trying to be a cooler here, but really, this is all totally off topic don't you think?
I would be much more interested in what was discussed on forum about the spacer issue. I assume it is related to the recent problems with dark lanes and diffraction areas in images seen in some WO refractors?

Hmm, I find myself with two copies of Ron Wodaski's "The New CCD Astronomy" as I bought one and the wife bought me one. Any one interested in a copy? PM me if you are.

Well, I got a set of ADM rings and dovetail for the WO 80mm APO. I replaced the original clamshell clamps so that I could align the scope with the 127ED when it was piggy backed as a companion scope. The new rings have the three screws to adjust the scope, the old rings did not.
Because of the difference in mounting, I wanted to be able to keep the rings on the scope with the dovetail and also the diagonal so that it was easier to setup. The WO soft case required the dew shield to be lowered, the diagonal and finder to be removed as well as the rings. So, this meant that I had to do something for a new case.
I looked into another case like I had made for the 127ED, but the cost was higher than I wanted to spend, so I spent a day looking around for a case locally and on-line. I found a nice one at Lowes that looked good, had a nice handle and was big enough inside without weighing a lot.
I bought it, and made closed cell foam padding for it that would hold the scope and allow me to leave it assembled. The cost of the case was modest at $30 and the difference between it and the custom made case paid for the rings and dovetail and foam padding too!
Tomorrow I will take a picture and post it. I think this case is pretty nice for $30 and will fit any refractor up to 26" in length, mine was 21" total with diagonal and dew shield extended.
Nice to know that there are alternatives to expensive cases for the smaller refractors.

Do you use an EP tray, or a table or just put them back into the case? How about a waist case, anyone use them, I have one but have not used it.
Myself I use a EP Tray table (in photo) that I made and a tray on the back of my Stardust chair that I made. I find them to be really handy and makes for less trips to the EP case. Normally I choose 3-4 EPs for starting and them decide on which ones are best for the night.