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Posts Made By: Paul Gustafson

November 20, 2005 08:42 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

Greaseless focusers

Posted By Paul Gustafson

IMO, the upgrade is worth the price, works fine in cold weather. It is beautifully made and would solve your problem. I just received the new focuser for my f/7 (I'm mostly a visual planetary observer) and am very pleased.

November 22, 2005 12:32 AM Forum: Off Topic Discussions

Why do I have such a hard time selling mounts?

Posted By Paul Gustafson

My experiences on AM have been very smooth with only a couple of exceptions, but those few deliberately jerked me around and cost me a couple of sales. A simple solution that covers both misunderstandings and deliberate foot-dragging is to set a specific time limit for the buyer. For example, if he says he wants the item, tell him that if you receive payment by 6 PM EST Wednesday (be reasonable and give as much time as makes you comfortable, say 48 or 72 hours, keeping in mind that other interested parties will find other opportunities in the meantime) the item is his. If you do not receive payment from him by that deadline you will assume he no longer is interested and you will sell the item to the next interested party. It's clear cut, no misunderstandings, and if he wants your item he will get the payment to you on time. It also leaves the buyer an out if something comes up and he cannot carry through.

Notify others who have contacted you that there has been a tentative sale but if you have not received payment by time X the item will be available again. Then be sure to follow up either way with the others who have expressed interest so you don't leave them hanging.

December 13, 2005 04:37 PM Forum: Off Topic Discussions

How about Tookie Williams?

Posted By Paul Gustafson

If it were one of my relatives he put face down on the floor and shot in the back twice with a 12 ga shotgun, I'd say he got what he deserved.

December 16, 2005 11:40 AM Forum: Digital SLR AstroPhotography

5D full frame question

Posted By Paul Gustafson

http://www.bobatkins.com/photography/digital/canon_eos_5d_or_20d.html

Paul Gustafson

December 31, 2005 02:39 AM Forum: APM

Monocentrics

Posted By Paul Gustafson

According to several posts by Markus, sales are too slow to justify another production run without a significant increase in price. They've been on sale for a year or more to clear out the existing inventory, and earlier this month there were still about 200 left in stock so you should be able to find what you want.

Try http://tinyurl.com/7epxl

Mr. Back posted elsewhere that it he thought they had saturated this small niche market. The monocentric makes significant compromises to eke out the very last bit of contrast, as do other specialized planetary eyepieces like the Zeiss Abbe orthos, and it takes a planetary diehard to accept relatively large compromises (small fov, tight eye relief, strong field curvature) for a small gain in sharpness and contrast. His two new eyepiece designs have a much wider fov and more comfortable eye relief, and should appeal to a wider spread of observers/purchasers.

January 8, 2006 12:03 AM Forum: Astro-Physics

AP 160 on a G-11

Posted By Paul Gustafson

The G-11 will be just fine for visual.

January 9, 2006 07:06 PM Forum: APM

Finally finished

Posted By Paul Gustafson

Nice setup. How do you like the DM-6?

February 9, 2006 03:46 PM Forum: TeleVue

Ron Bee's Book Review

Posted By Paul Gustafson

I've seen it on four different systems, all running IE 6+, and it displays just fine.

February 20, 2006 02:20 PM Forum: Maksutovs

Mak correctors

Posted By Paul Gustafson

I've read that Mak corrector thickness is the main reason Mak type scopes (of whatever configuration) take so long to equilibrate temperature-wise, and that this can be an issue for the largest ones, especially if temperatures vary significantly during an evening.

The corrector, however thick, equilibrates very quickly and is not an issue. It's the stuff in the back of the scope that causes temperature issues. Roland Christen has done a lot of testing and experimentation on Mak temperature management, hopefully he will pop in here.

March 8, 2006 03:40 AM Forum: Equipment Talk

Old issues of S&T

Posted By Paul Gustafson

I bought boxes full of old S&T's a few years ago, great reading. The ads are the best part.