Posts Made By: James Benton

got a response from this user
http://www.astromart.com/users/profile.asp?user_id=30581

on one of my ads, he wants me to ship my scope to him in Singapore before he makes a T/T to my bank account. He claims its "safe". THen he wants to pay part of the cost after I ship it, then the other part of the payment later.

what kind of fool does he think I am.... he is a scammer

anyway I have reported him to astromart support, so becarefull

James

I ordered mine earlier this week, and I am patientlly waiting. I got the AR-5 w/goto.

Now if I can just sell my LX-90, every thing will be good

James

Here are a few shots of some turkey vultures I got last weekend. I have never really been this close to them before.
Just click the links below.

http://www.james-benton.com/vacations/garner/page/image23.html
http://www.james-benton.com/vacations/garner/page/image25.html
http://www.james-benton.com/vacations/garner/page/image29.html
http://www.james-benton.com/vacations/garner/page/image28.html

James

Has anyone heard any recent news on the delivery of the LXD75???

Thanks

James

I just got an email (7:19PM CST) from www.digitecoptical.com stating my LXD-75 is in stock and ready to ship !!!!!

We are pleased to inform you that your order # xxxx is in stock and is being prepared for shipping by Meade. Your LXD75 will ship to you directly from Meade This week.

We will be processing your credit card within the next 24 hours.

We will send you another email with your tracking information as soon as it's been made available to us by Meade.


Im SOO excited, anyone else get this good news that ordered one???

James

here are some bug and bee pics I have taken this year

http://www.nightshooter.com/D60/Animals/bugs/index.html

James

Well Paul beat me to the punch with posting his quick review, and with pictures even, I have some but will post them later. Plus I am missing the Autostar suite and LPI, I emailed Digitec Optical to see where it is

It took me about 1 hour to unpack and set the scope up. Here are my thoughts so far.

The tripod is smaller and a little more lightweight as compared to my LX90 tripod.

I like the finderscope, but as paul mentioned the caps are a joke.

Once set up the scope does have some wobble when looking at the moon if you bump the scope slightly.

THe view of the moon was great, nice color and very sharp using the 26mm supplied eyepiece.

The Focuser seemed good to me, but this is my first real refractor.

Now for the problem - Better check the drive motors VERY carefully. I was already to do my alignment but I did a "calibrate motor" and that wen well. I then went to move it back to polar home position and the drive did not sound right at all and the scope did not move. I did some investigating and found the drive motor is not mounted securly and was slipping down and the gears were grinding. there is an access panel to see the gears and they were just spinning. I could push it back up and it worked, but once I let go it sliped back out of place.

So now I need to call meade in the morning and figure out how to fix it, or ship it back.

I will post my pictures tomorrow.

James

As promised here are some pics of the AR5, plus a little write up on it.

http://www.james-benton.com/photography/astro/LXD75/ar51.html

James

I set up last night to get familair with the new scope and such. I hooked up my canon D60 to the AR5 to take a few photos of the moon.

http://www.james-benton.com/photography/astro/LXD75/Moon/moon1.html

James

I have never seen it, but have a look at this site, i might have a pic of what you describe

http://www.sundog.clara.co.uk/atoptics/phenom.htm

James