Posts Made By: Thomas Shmalberg

I posted this in the Binoc Forum and didn't get responses so I hope no one is offended that I am posting this question here.

I am contemplating a big binocular purchase, and I have been hearing great reviews of the Burgess 20X80 LW binocs but before I make an order, I was just curious if you guys think I would have a problem with my nearsightedness, the website says they have an eye relief of 13mm, and I have a nearsightedness of -3.75 diopters, a pretty weak astigmatism at .75, and i do wear glasses most the time, do you think I'm gonna run into a problem with my eyesite and the smaller eye relief? do you think the 15X70's are a better choice if these don't work or any other option you think would be better suited for me, Thanks in advance,

Thomas,

"Keep Looking Up"

Hey Everyone, thanks for taking the time to read this, I am now am looking for a good pair of binoculars for just finding objects, annual comets, and star fields containing objects to assist my 10" dob, don't need high quality just something that will do the job~! I do wear glasses most the time, i have mild nearsightedness -3.75 in both eyes and a very slight astigmatism. Let me know what your suggestions are, Thanks your time is appreciated.

Thomas,

"Keep Looking Up"

Well I've dove into the world of reflectors recently. My newest toy is an orion 6lt ota on a starfinder eq mount. Its a 6" f/8 reflector which i know means you don't have to be exactly perfect on its collimation but I like to be as precise as I can. Heres my problem, I've collimated it 3 times using just the provided hole in the eyepiece cover deal and I get it all perfectly lined up like all the diagrams I see on the internet. But then I stick in my laser collimator and the dot hitting the primary is a inch right of the donut and the return beam barely hits the diagnol on its way back. Now if I do the laser collimator way first and align the beam using the secondary collimation screws to the donut on the primary than use the primary collimation screws to make the return beam come back into the hole of the collimator. I take it out and put the collimation cap back in and it doesn't even look close, the circles don't match up and I can only see 3/4 of the main mirror!! I havn't had time to test it under the stars (rain forcasted for the next week I was just wondering if anybody had any idea what the problem could be or what I might need to try and do to make them match! THANKS A LOT!!

Thomas Shmalberg (reflector/collimation newbie),

"Keep Looking Up"

Hey all, I was wondering if anyone had experience with this scope and what they thought, I will be leaving for an annual camping trip to the Rocky Mountains in a few weeks and I am looking for a portable/hikable setup. I took a ST 80mm refractor last year and it was nice but I'm looking for something I can crank the power a little more with.

Also if anyone owns this scope could you please tell me the diameter of the tube.

Thanks,

Thomas

*Photo from www.telescope.com website.

Hello all, I own a meade AR 5, the chromatic aberration is not to bad but I feel I could be losing a little contrast on certain bright objects. I was wondering if these filters are worth the $60 bucks and which one do you think is better. Also I saw a new sirius MV 20? Could someone inform what the difference is between the mv 1 and mv 20.

Thanks,
Tom

My first real "birding" photo, caught this momma on her nest! You all shoot wonderful photos, I hope one day to have the equipment and skills to produce some of the beautiful shots I have seen here. I would love to get some shots of feeding when the time comes, I will post if I get anything "respectable"

Thomas

Well after a night of borrowing someone's Orion deluxe observing chair I have decided I definitely need one. One problem.... I don't have $200 to spend on a chair! So I am in the hunt, looking for plans and the people who have built such a chair to get ideas to build one.

Tom

Well the project was quite a bit harder than I thought it would be but I got it done. I finished flocking my Orion 8" XTi Dob today and I posted some pictures of the process. It can be viewed here http://www15.brinkster.com/ksastronomy/flock.html I pay for the site so there are no popups for you to worry about. I am posting a link because I don't want to post 16 pictures on here. Hope this can do some good for someone.

Take Care,

Tom

Hello Robert, I have owned a 10" meade eq, 4.5" equatorial orion reflector, and now a meade ar 5 refractor on a equatorial mount. Out of all those the easiest to use was the 4.5" equatorial reflector because of its small size. My AR5 refractor is much easier to use than the 10" equatorial once again because of the size. I have dual drives for my AR5 refractor and that makes it very simple. I have also had viewing time with a 6" refractor on a cg5 without electronic drives and it was not easy at first, that long of an OTA makes for some interesting "reaches" for the adjustment knobs on the mount. I would also like to point out that with my AR5 refractor, when it had its stock tripod I would have to kneel on the ground to view objects higher than 75 or so degrees, just a thought. So viewing wise the reflectors on stock tripods are easier/more comfortable in my opinion to view through. If you got the refractor you would probably want to upgrade the tripod unless you don't mind kneeling. Take what you will from my rant Ü

Just sold my lxd 55 AR 5 and ordered that exact scope, LXD 75 5" refractor. Hopefully my gamble will pay off. The steel tripod and collimatable 5" objective cell now pushed me over the edge.

Thomas