Posts Made By: Gerald Kuchera

Dave,

RE your TV-76 no achieving low powers: Have you talked with Mr. Siebert about his low power correctors and adapters. He might be able to help you.

Personally, I have used binoviewers with a Stellarvue 85mm f8.5 (I think). It has a nice JMI focuser that holds the 2" diagonal, bino, EPs, corrector at any angle. Watch out for cheap focusers.

Gerald

The Apo will appear sharper, as it will focus visible light more or less equally.

I bought a compact Pentax 65ED spotting scope for terrestrial use primarily during the day, but also for camping casual astro observing. What is really neat about the Pentax is it's ability to take 1 1/4" eyepieces and it's excellent color correction.

I use a Stellarvue 85mm apo and it is fantastic. Apochromatics are great!
The Apo will appear sharper, as it will focus visible light more or less equally.

I bought a compact Pentax 65ED spotting scope for terristrial use primarly during the day, but also for camping casual astro observing. What is really neat about the Pentax is it's ability to take 1 1/4" eyepieces and it's excellent color correction.

I use a Stellarvue 85mm apo and it is fantastic. Apochromatics are great!

I too am considering a nice mount for terrestrial and astro viewing for my 85mm SV.

I find the price of the UA Unistar a bit more than the Vixen Porta Mount which also includes a tripod!

Let's see:
UniMount Light Deluxe No tripod $429.00
Vixen Porta Mount W/tripod $450.00
The Vixen looks like a better deal if the tripod is any good.

Floyd,

Interestingly, my father's Dynascope has instructions to use 100% Grain Alcohol only!

Is there a difference in the types of alcohol I wonder. Was Dave referring to denatured alcohol which is perhaps derrived from a different source or adulterated?

From Wikipedia---Denatured Alcohol: "ethanol with added adulterants that make it useless for consumption as an intoxicating beverage by rendering it toxic or extremely distasteful to drink, but still useful for industrial processes or as a household chemical. This is done in order to make it exempt from taxes that apply to potable alcohol.

There are diverse industrial uses for ethanol, and therefore literally hundreds of recipes for denaturing ethanol. Typical additives are methanol, isopropanol, methyl ethyl ketone, methyl isobutyl ketone, denatonium, and even aviation gasoline"!

Has Dave investigated Grain Alcohol? I mean, for mirrors of course!

Too bad you need a perscription to obtain it.

Gerald

Funny you should ask. Astromart just had a review of a pair.

http://www.astromart.com/articles/article.asp?article_id=392

Gerald

Jon,

It seems my fears are realized so far. Not enough young blood.

54(2003)-I'll never forget as a child in exurbia, before Milwaukee swallowed up our village and smothered the skies with mercury and sodium vapor light. Oh to think of those special nights as a kid, to be woken up at 1AM and to sit with Dad at his RV-6 and looking at Saturn, the Ring Nebula and more. It was a rare time to be alone with Dad (he had five of us!) plying through the mysteries of the universe.

Every night something special would happen. For example, one night a meteor passed through the field of view in the scope. Man, it was a bright one too, with an iridescent trail lasting for minutes. We had fantastic dark skies for a while. Later, my father got a new job in another state, with a lot of light pollution. He took out the scope a couple times but by then was working 12 hour days and us turning into aliens---er, I mean teenagers. The scope sat for many years in the basement. He was funny though, not letting us touch it to make use of it all those years.
I discovered girls and then college and work and was lost to the hobby for years.

Then I'M working 12 hour days! And my father gives me the scope. I don't use it until I retired. Now I'm reliving those special moments all over again! My wife's interested now too! We're volunteering for outreach programs to get kids outa their computerized gamer cocoons!

Gerald

Pardon me but rather than considering putting chemicals into one's eye, would it not be better to use an adjuvant device such as a video eyepiece connected to a monitor? The resultant image may be better than with your eyes only! And perhaps more sensitive than even a young eye!

That is my current fallback plan as the eyes degrade.

Gerald

James,

I assume you checked here on Astromart's Classifieds?
I must tell you, shipping the relatively heavy EQ mount and weights does carry it's price!

Gerald

The moderator of the johsoniantelescope group has changed the group's name.
This means that both the group's email address and the group home page
location have changed.

The group email address:
[email protected]

The group home page location:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/johnsoniantelescope

If you have links which point to this group or an address book entry
for the group, you should update them, as the old addresses will no
longer work.

Regards,


Gerald

You might attract hummingbirds to the scope! 8)

Many birders wear muted colors so as not to draw too
much attention to themselves. And their equipment usually
is toned down when they hike 'in the field as well.

I guess it depends on what kind of birding you intend to do.
From the deck, it might not matter. Out in the woods, it might.
But I like the red too! Perhaps you could buy one used
on astromart and sell it if it doesn't work out.

Gerald