Posts Made By: Bruce Housey

Does anyone know how the new Orion SkyView Pro compares to a CG-5? From the listing at the link below, the mount weighs 37 lbs with counterweights, can handle 20 lb load, and costs only $299! The dual drives are only another $119. If all this is true, this is the equivalent of a GM-8 or GP-DX (minus some quality, I suppose)!

My need is for a sturdier, driven mount for my 8" SCT for visual use than my current CG-5.

Thanks for any info,
Bruce Housey.

http://www.telescope.com/cgi-bin/OrionTel.storefront/3d5c0d7d0206f4e8eacfc0a80a6506c7/Product/View/G961

I see Anacortes has TeleVue's new Prism Compensator advertised at http://www.buytelescopes.com/search.asp?s=1&q=newtv&quicksearch=1.

I'm on the verge of taking the plunge and getting a binoviewer (very close race between the Televue, BWOptik, and Denkmeier units) and expect to be able to use without barlow on my 8" SCT.

Now I see this unit advertised for "correcting prism aberrations"! Would this be necessary for the TeleVue unit only? If so, the TeleVue unit is now $1220 vs the BWOptik $490!

I guess my basic question is "what abberations does it correct?". For example, a little chromatic abberation doesn't bother me near as much as astigmatism.

I'd appreciate any help here, since I don't have access to all three of these binoviewers and various correcting lenses to "try before I buy".

Bruce Housey.

I would like to get some opinions on my situation. I have been using an 8" Celestron SCT on a CG-5 mount for almost three years and have wanted to upgrade for a long time. I recently saw the clearance prices on Orion and impulse purchased the GP-DX for $999, and am now at the point of deciding whether I did the right thing or should return and get something else instead.

After a LOT of reading on the web, I believe I have made the right choice, but would like to hear from those who have used both the GP-DX and GM-8 (not the smaller standard GP vs the huge G-11). Once I add the motors, the price of the two will be identical.

My needs:
- mostly for C8 but also for TV85
- high power (up to 500x) tracking for lunar/planetary
- light weight so I don't think twice about 4am lifting
- easily transportable to dark site in car

GP-DX pros:
- I have confirmed it meets my needs (stable at 500x)
- much lighter (18.7# vs 29# w/o counterweight)
- less bulky shape and size for transport

Losmandy pros:
- porter slip ring clutch system (pro and con...see below)
- "advertised" as supporting more weight
- anything else I'm missing?

As I don't have a GM8 to play with, I'm not even sure of it's pros. For example, a lot of people seem to like the clutch system, but I have found that my use of the C8 with binoviewer requires frequent rebalancing when moving across the sky (turning the tall binoviewer shifts weight center on BOTH axes), and the GP-DX flip-clutches are fast to release for this purpose. I have the feeling this frequent rebalancing would take longer with the Losmandy clutches but just can't experiment.

Also I can't tell if the GM-8 can indeed handle more weight than the GP-DX. Everything I've read says both handle a C8 for photo/visual, a C9.25 visual-only, and not a C11. Is this correct? If so, then they must handle the same weight, right?

The Tak EM2 also looks really nice and meets my needs but would set me back a few hundred dollars more... I would also like to hear from anyone that could think of a good reason I should get this over the GP-DX. (it seems the design goals for GPDX & EM2 were the same, the only difference being that Takahashi relaxed the cost constraint)

Thanks for any help,
Bruce.

Once again an Orion catalog snared me... they recently started selling their 6" f/8 Newtonian optical tubes separately (without Dob base) for $179, so I impulse bought one. Check out the picture of Jupiter I took with it last night.

My only point here is "do not forgot the old-fashioned low-tech newtonian for planets!" Now I love CAT's and refractors as much as the next guy, and my C8 and TV85 both give great views, but not for $179 NEW! Also, I'm not trying to push Orion... I'd think any Discovery, Meade, Celestron, or any other long focus Newt would do the trick.

Anyone else have any great bang-for-buck planetary pictures to post?

Peace,
Bruce.

Yes, this was fascinating... I have to spend more time over here than in the "Equipment" forum. :^)

I noticed the same thing and had posted the following picture I took last night to S.A.A.

Well, now that most of the Jupiter season has passed, I went through the photos I took. I became intrigued by the differences I saw between the three scopes, and so I took the best picture from each scope, scaled and color adjusted it, and put them next to each other.

I find the result interesting, and a testament to each scope at it's size, so I figured I'd share this with you all. The small apo is as easy to use as binoculars, the Newtonian is shockingly inexpensive, and the SCT is amazingly compact. The current choices in telescopes are fantastic!

Conditions were poor here in New Orleans this morning, mostly cloudy with lots of wind up high (clouds moving fast). Still I was awake so I got out an observed Mars for a while. I took this picture at 5:13 CDT this morning with an 8" SCT.

There appear to be some blue clouds over the Argyre region and northern limb (south is up).

Beautifully clear this morning in New Orleans with really pleasant temperature. The attached picture includes the South polar cap at the top, the very dark Syrtis Major at the lower left, and Mare Sirenum extending to the right center.

I adjusted the color balance and curves to very closely follow my view in the eyepiece this morning.

Conditions were very good this morning here in New Orleans. I managed to wake up before the mosquitoes and enjoyed a really nice view.

I did not see any real cloud formation other than the a.m. limb haze toward the north (right, bottom). I am starting to see a lot more detail now as Mars grows to around 15", including the labelled features on the Mars Previewer simulation.

Bruce Housey

I was out extra early this morning and got a nice view of the long "claw" extending across Mars. Also both Hellas and Chryse were clearly visible as bright areas, and to some degree Argyre as well.

One thing I've been noticing on this side of Mars is how dark the area near the cap to the "right" of Hellas is. Anyone know if this is due to recession of the cap or if dust has been moved away from that area exposing the darker rocks beneath?