Posts Made By: Timothy Hornbeck

I attended my local astro club meeting last night and a member brought a 1958 3.5" - 4" Fecker Celestar reflector. He got it from a friend who purchased it from a garage sale. It is mounted on a short wooden tripod and fork mount. It also has a 1.25" rack and pinion focuser. He also has the original eyepieces and barlow. It has a working electric tracking drive. The member cleaned up the whole scope and optics and performed "his" first light last night. It produced very nice images of the moon, M45, Saturn, and Jupiter. The secondary is placed fairly close to the tube end and a lot of stray light got into the tube. He is going to make a removable shield to help correct this. This is one fine instrument. I would probably list this a a premium scope for 1958. The J.W. Fecker company produced a lot of mirrors for the big observatories (i.e. Perkins in Ohio is one).

Has anyone else seen or used these scopes?

- Tim Hornbeck

Our club may get involved in a project to renovate a 1920's observatory and Bausch & Lomb 4" Refractor (~f/12) from ~1921. Anyone have or know where I can find some information on these scopes? The scope cost $750 when new. It also has the original Bausch & Lomb pier/mount/clock drive. I have searched Google, but didn't find anything.

Thanks,

Tim Hornbeck
Black River Astronomical Society

Does anyone know of a service that will align the lenses for a refractor within the lens cell? I am sure over the life of the scope, the lens assembly has been taken apart.

Thanks,

Tim Hornbeck

Does it look like the example for the "Perfect Optics- Focused" towards the bottom of this link?

http://www.willbell.com/tm/tm5.htm

If so, then you have a well performing scope.

Clear skies,

Tim Hornbeck

Our club is trying to restore an old 1920's domed observatory and scope for a local school. The observatory will reside on school property in a open area within the town. The school officials are concerned with vandalism to the structure. They may not approve the project based on this issue. We are going to install two "GlareBuster" lights on the outside. These will be switched off during viewing sessions. We are thinking about installing a security system that is triggered when the door opens. This would only scare vandals from entering the observatory. Any thoughts on ways to relieve their concerns?


Thanks and clear skies,

Tim Hornbeck

I been experimenting with making my own eyepieces from surplus optics. I've made a 23mm Orthoscopic with 16mm dia. x 40mm f/l plano convex eye lens and a 16mm dia. x 50mm triplet. All lenses are coated and I blackened the edges. The field stop is the retaining ring about 15mm. The eyepiece performs very well when the object is centered, but starts to degrade a 1/4 of the way from the edge. Eyerelief is good too. The FOV is very close to 50 deg. and has a very dark background. Actually darker than my 25mm Plossl. I was testing it in my ST80 (f/5). I know the faster the scope is, the more demanding it is on eyepieces. I will test it in my 8" (f/6) Dob tonight. Last night, with my ST80 (17x), I was able to easily resolve the cloud bands on Jupiter, Saturn's rings, individual stars in M36 & M37 and M45.

My question is the following; Is there anything I can do to help with the edge softness? Increase or decrease spacing between eye lens and field lens (currently about 2mm to 3mm). Decrease the field stop (smaller)?

Clear skies,

Tim Hornbeck

Sorry for the duplicate post in the "Telescope Making" forum:

I've been experimenting with making my own eyepieces from surplus optics. I've made a 23mm Orthoscopic with 16mm dia. x 40mm f/l plano convex eye lens and a 16mm dia. x 50mm triplet. All lenses are coated and I blackened the edges. The field stop is the retaining ring about 15mm. The eyepiece performs very well when the object is centered, but starts to degrade a 1/4 of the way from the edge. Eyerelief is good too. The FOV is very close to 50 deg. and has a very dark background. Actually darker than my 25mm Plossl. I was testing it in my ST80 (f/5). I know the faster the scope is, the more demanding it is on eyepieces. I will test it in my 8" (f/6) Dob tonight. Last night, with my ST80 (17x), I was able to easily resolve the cloud bands on Jupiter, Saturn's rings, individual stars in M36 & M37 and M45.

My question is the following; Is there anything I can do to help with the edge softness? Increase or decrease spacing between eye lens and field lens (currently about 2mm to 3mm). Decrease the field stop (smaller)?

Clear skies,

Tim Hornbeck

I was able to get some shots of Jupiter in the lower western sky Saturday night. It was hazy. I used a Philips 680 web cam, a 90mm Meade 390, & Ultima 2x barlow. I got 20 shots and used Registax to combine 7 of the best.

I used Photoshop to sharpen, change brightness and color a bit.

Any tips for the newbie?

Clear skies,

Tim Hornbeck

Any update on the FS-102's arrival?

I tried to search for an update to the thread and did not find anything?

I hope the transaction ended on a positive note.

Clear skies,

Tim Hornbeck

I have an OM-1 MD and it appears the shutter or mirror is stuck. It happened yesterday with about 18 shots on a new roll of film. I rewound the roll and it did not release the shutter/mirror. I can remove the lens and reset the mirror with the lever on the right side, but if I press the shutter release the mirror just flips up. I can not advance the frame either. Is this a common problem with the OM-1's? Will a simple cleaning fix this problem?

Thanks,

Tim Hornbeck