Posts Made By: Hugh Bartlett

I have had one on order since December. I called a couple days ago to see why I had not received it yet. It seems they have had some problem at the printers, but it should be shipping next week. I'll give you a brief review when I get mine.

Hugh Bartlett

You have a good range right now. I'd suggest waiting and seeing what your needs are after you get some more viewing experience.

For example, one of my favorite eyepieces in a similar scope is a 13mm T6 Nagler, but that might be not necessary if you have already decided to go with the 27 Pan & Barlow. On the other hand, after trying the Barlow, you may find that you prefer the convenience of non-Barlowed lenses.

In other words, I'd sugggest approaching your eyepiece collection as an evolution of filling needs that arise while observing, rather than trying to design a whole set of oculars in advance.

Hugh Bartlett

One of my winter showpieces is the colorful double h3945 in Canis Major. Also know as 145 CMa, it is up above the hind leg of the dog about as far up as the leg extends down, and along the same line. Some call it the Winter Albireo. Mags 5 & 7 with 27" Separation. Last time I showed it was in a fully-lit parking lot at a County Science Fair, so you should have no trouble!

Cheers,
Hugh Bartlett

I'd check out Orion's 120mm ST refractor. At f/5 with a 2" focuser, it seems made to order!

Hugh Bartlett

The Orion StarBlast would be my suggestion. I remember Phil Harrington (author of StarWare, etc.)using it for airline travel once by breaking it down into the base (disassembled and in checked baggage), and the OTA, which is only about 18" long, in a carry-on bag.

Hugh Bartlett

Sorry for getting on this so late, but I have a set-up with a red laser that temporarily kills the street light in front of our house.

Mine is a bit of a special case, because the north-facing window in the "hat" on top of the light is aimed at a cooperative neighbor's house that is situated uphill and across the street from my house. It takes a direct hit to trigger the photosensor, and the cobra-head reflector can block your line of sight into that tiny window unless you have a way of gaining some elevation for your laser pointer.

Another consideration is that you have to leave your laser on it continuously, or the street light comes back on within a minute. I have a Howie Glatter laser pointer holder attached to a spare finder scope that fits on a photo tripod. Even then, I have to position it on the flat roof of my neighbor's garage to get a clear view of the photosensor.

Hope that helps,
Hugh Bartlett

Where is Jon Isaacs when you need him!?

Jon has a way of converting an equatorial mount into an alt-az mount. It is something simple, like flipping the polar axis to horizontal and using the declination as the altitude adjustment.

Hugh Bartlett

I empathise with you on this one. Not quite ambiguous, but certainly easily miunderstood. Even worse, IMHO, is calling a mirror diagonal an erect image diagonal.

I am a fanatic about having right-angle correct-mage finders on all my scopes, so I just memorized RACI, and if it does not say that, I ask for clarification.

On a handful of occasions, I have misunderstood what was being offered for sale on Astromart. Usually, I catch my mistake before the seller ships, but not always. On the last occasion, the seller recognized that the item might be confused with the one I really wanted, and clarified that what he was selling was not what I wanted. In all cases, even if it was shipped and I wanted to return it for a refund, the seller was accomodating.

Since most people would want a RACI finder (rather than a reversed upright view), I find "Upright" or "Erect" image to be misleading. I find it incredible that this guy has sold hundreds of these worthless finders without anyone complaining about not getting what they thought they were getting.

The honorable thing for the seller to do would be refund your money for the misunderstanding, and let you send it back. Short of that, you can get a 1.25" Amici prism RACI diagonal for about $50. I also have a 2" one from William Optics that cost several times that amount but is worth it for the wide field of view.

Hugh Bartlett

Moving up from 6", you should go for at least a 10". A Newtonian of that size is difficult to mount satisfactorily on a GEM. As an alternative that would preserve tracking ability, consider either a Dob on an Equatorial platform, or an SCT. I've seen some pretty awesome views in a Celestron 11" SCT. I think that would be my recommendation for a refractor move-up.

My $ 0.02 ...

Hugh Bartlett

A compound problem, but I like your preliminary solutions. First, you want a 2" eyepiece to get the widest usable field in your new Dob. The 30mm GSO seems a reasonable choice, because it results in a 6.7 mm exit pupil, and, presumedly, has a 70°-80° apparent FOV.

My only caveat there is how the edge performance will hold up with a f/4.5 focal ratio. I have a 12.5" Dob with a f/4.8 ratio, and quickly decided a Paracorr was necessary to deal with the coma I saw in my 2" lowest power eyepiece. But your mileage may vary, and I cannot argue with your choice given your budget.

Regarding the light pollution filter, I think you are on the right track with the Orion Ultrablock, a "best buy" in narrow band filters (and you are wise to avoid the relatively worthless broad-band filters). I would get the 2" version, which is only marginally more expensive than the 1.25" one. Eventually, you will have both sizes, and probably O-III filters as well in both sizes. But for the grand large emission nebulae (e.g. the Orion and Lagoon nebulae) I think the wider field version should be your first purchase. After that, I would get a 1.25" O-III for the planetary nebulae.

Hope that helps.

Hugh Bartlett