Posts Made By: Mark D'Ambrosio

All my Pentax SMC Orthos work just dandy in my AP 105 Traveler, Mark D.

Hello all,
As far as I can see, there is no member message outbox? This I think would be a nice feature to add! Mark

Howdy Folks,
Something looks entirely different this time.

Tried to again place a want ad, got to the end, and there's no confirm box to then finally place the Ad? Some glitch? Or did I all of a sudden have some brain fart?

Thanks!

Hi Eric, I kind of understand what your saying, yes, I've seen the TEC 140 in person, and have met Yuri. The Feathertouch Focuser on board is to die for. One thing that worries me.... is that Apo prices don't seem to have a stable price lately. Everything seems to be going up, up, up. I wonder that there will come a time when no one will eventually be able to afford these scopes anymore? I predict a near future price increase of the TEC 140 because of this review. Mark my words. Mark

Hi John, Agreed, In all actuality, these folks are not comparing Apples to Apples in this case.

I had a similar experience in that one user contacted me about a pair of brand new Pentax PCF I Binos I was trying to sell on A-Mart for $100 Supposedly, new PCF V Binos do not command the $165 new price the PCF I's did. Certainly, I wasn't about to sell these new Binos for a ridiculous price of $50 like he wanted. He wasn't rude, but was quite "Matter of Factly", and I later found through searches online that his story/claims really didn't hold much water.
Mark D.

Yep, I Wholeheartedly agree David.

Sometimes, whipping out a huge mount can be a pain in the you know what. Batteries, Cords, Piers/Tripods, etc., etc. I own a 1200GTO BTW.

By the time you get all set-up, you're ready to call it quits.

Something like what you have shown lets a person quickly set up for a brief observing session, and the more you can get use from beautiful scopes like these, the better.

The biggest astronamical "sin" of all, is letting a magnificent scope such as this lay idle in a closet.

Another nice use for these, is of course terrestrial use.

I have done something similar with my AP Traveler, where I use a Bogen heavy duty Tripod With Super Mono Ball head, Televue Upswing Cradle and the 8" Doveplate is mounted to cradle, so it's simple side in, slide out. My EQ mount that I normally use for my Traveler is a Byers 58. Mark

Hi Paul, Others have made a few good suggestions, and I think the most important consideration will be, exactly how large do you need this case to be? (How many eyepieces do you plan to case?)

With the huge eyepiece collection I have, I needed one of my cases to be quite large. What I found was a display case from something like a "Floor Tile Vendor". Case measures about 30"x20"x7" Cost was $5. Two sheets of foam, cut for various EP's, and it holds a complete TV Plossl Coleection, a Complete Clave Plossl Collection, A complete UO Ortho Collection, and a few various TV Pano's etc.

For my Nagler Collection, and Pentax SMC orthos, and XP's, I use a couple other smaller cases.

Thrift shops regularly have tons of Attache Cases on hand, and these can be usually gotten very cheap, partially stripped, and then foam lined. Other options would be either places like Guitar Center/Sam Ash, who sells small cases for carrying DJ Equipment, Mics,cords,CD's/LP's etc. Sure, you can go all out and purchase something extravagent (Like the new small Pelican Case I bought for my AP/Baader BV, $70) But sometimes it's more fun to get something nice for a song, and make it work for you.
Hope this helps, Mark

Hi John, I think the best bet would be to throw the entire set of Meade EP's on A-Mart for about $300.
A shame, because at one time, the Meade 4000's were not a bad eyepiece (When they were coming from Japan)

I don't think you'll go wrong with televue, and they will be less costly than the Pentax. I Know you mentioned you now have a 2" Everbright, and I'm sure you wish to put it through it's paces with a couple of nice 2" Eyepieces. Good Bang for the Buck eyepieces in 2" with your F-10 Scope would be the University Optics 40mm Mk 70. Another recommendation would be a 27mm TV Panoptic.

Good high quality eyepieces never become obsolete. Buy the best you can afford, and remember, you don't have to buy them all at once.
Should you ever upgrade to a larger/better scope, or another type scope, these good eyepieces will be with you. Mark

Hi John, I forgot to also mention that with any Televue Eyepiece, should you ever have a problem with one, or drop/break one down the road, Televue can/will fix them. I doubt you'd have any similar luck with Pentax. Mark

Hi Lowell, Also, there is the White Sands Star Party (just had it 2 weeks ago), and the skies there are also nice, but not like up in the mountains like New Mexico Skies are. NM Skies are just a stone's throw from Apache Point, and Sunpspot Solar Observatories. Very nice area up there. Nice for Biking too. Cloudcroft tries to adhere to strict light pollution rules, but there is some light glare near the town. I attended a star party in Cloudcroft 3 weeks ago. (I'm a member of the Alamogordo Astronomy club) Mark D.