Posts Made By: William Chang

Check out the Binoviewer Forum, -- William

I don't think we'll see a high quality Zoom Barlow from an EP maker -- bad for business.

The Speers 8-5mm (4.7mm according to review) has ~80* FOV throughout its range, and is back in production. I'm hoping someone would buy a new one (from Helix) and post a review.

Isn't it true that a Barlow's magnification depends on its extension, i.e. position of the EP? If so, every Barlow is already a (limited) zoom. The question is image quality...

-- William

Wow, thanks for the heads up. I'll hold off ordering more Antares Ortho until I spent more time with my 12.5. I don't have 24Pan; when I tried to Barlow (2X Ultima) my 30 Ultima, eye-relief was thrown forward leading to serious blackout. The TeleVue(s) probably work differently.

Hope the sky stays clear this weekend.

-- William

Most interesting, especially the focuser placement -- it doesn't rotate in the UTA does it? I'm trying to imagine the possible eyepiece angles on the GEM... doesn't seem that bad, but a bit tall. Thanks for sharing, -- William

I thought someone would name the Q3.5? No?

-- William

Gary, there are other objects that are more visually spectacular, that you probably did not get to see. Also, last night was pretty near full moon so the sky was washed out. If you went back in two weeks and looked at a few open and globular clusters, nebulae, etc, well maybe you'll get a little bit of wow.

In my mind, the attraction of a.a. is psychological -- to look at Jupiter's moons and appreciate Galileo's discovery; the unreal-ness of Saturn's ring; globulars with millions of stars; swarms of galaxies filling the eyepiece (well, several galaxies at least) -- even though each is no more than a fuzzball you know you are looking at billions of suns, and it took most of human history (not to mention evolution of life on earth) to reach that simple understanding of how small we are. If you are not inspired by such thoughts then a.a. is probably not for you. But to be honest, it probably was a mistake to be shown the moons of Mars as your first view through a real telescope... like being airlifted on top of Mt Everest in your sleep -- you missed getting there.

Best of luck, -- William

p.s. my first views were: Orion Nebula through a 6" (T minus 23 years), Hercules globular cluster in a Tucson observatory (-11y), Leonid meteor storm (-3y), Jupiter, Saturn, Beehive open cluster, M81/82, nebulae and clusters around the "teapot", Crab Nebula which was no more than an oily patch (really)... all of them memorable (you bet!).

Gregg, did you try the EPs on the moon, possibly a better target than Mars, and at least an alternative data point. Let us know, -- William

p.s. I sold my 18mm Ultima after comparing it with an old Celestron Ortho made by Vixen...

If you have $4K burning a proverbial hole... search for binoscope in the Ads (twin Maks). There's a new Yahoo Group called Binewt if you are interested.

Cost, size, difficulty to mass-produce, and tweakiness. I don't think the design has quite been perfected yet.

I have not had the pleasure of looking through a big pair.

-- William

At only 6"x9"x12" (trust me), eminently portable -- though at 2500lb hardly transportable. Depleted uranium?

-- William

John, have you tried vibration suppression pads? My Genesis is perfectly steady, even while fine-focusing, on an older Ash Panoramic with one-piece cradle. I use a Giro for a small Newt; perhaps not ideal for a refractor because the scope isn't centered over the azimuth axis (but people use it that way). The Borg tiltable/slo-mo alt-az looks great but may not handle a Traveler. There are others, but the first thing to try is a trio of VSPs. Let us know what you find out & decide.

-- William