Posts Made By: Paul Gustafson

Greater aperture = better resolution. And with a full-aperture filter, you can always make an off-axis mask to put over it, best of both worlds. If you are limited to only an off-axis filter, you will not be able to take advantage of those flashes of really good seeing.

You paid for a filter that was represented to be full aperture, you should insisit on getting what you paid for.

Paul Gustafson

No, the new chip is the Foveon X3, IIRC.

Paul Gustafson

What kind of dovetail are you using on the mount? Casaday's or Mueller's? The knobs look too far apart to be AP's.

Gus

Thanks, Herb. This a very welcome and helpful addition.

Paul Gustafson

If you have an American Express card, you can buy from your favorite local camera shop. AmEx will refund you the price difference between what you pay locally and the lowest price you can find on the net, even if the low price is from a company with a horrible reputation. The limits on the refund are: not less than $20, not more than $200 per item, not more than $1000 per year.

It's a good deal, allowing you to help keep your favorite local shop in business while still getting best price.

If you decide to go mail order or internet instead, here is a good place to start:

http://www.photo.net/neighbor/one-subcategory?id=2

Paul Gustafson

Mine's on order at Company 7. You'll know the new Nagers are shipping when you see a bunch of 27 Panoptics on the used market.

Paul Gustafson

Not blind, you just wouldn't think of looking under Uncensored. :-) There was a Takscopes group originally, but it was heavily censored by its moderator. Someone set up the uncensored group and everyone migrated to it immediately. The old group moderator disbanded Takscopes in retaliation.

Paul Gustafson

From AP's web site:

"This 10" Mak-Cas design has a 23% central obstruction for highest possible planetary contrast at high powers. This obstruction also acts as a baffle to keep stray light from the sky from falling directly on the eyepiece. For high-power eyepieces, a 23% obstruction is enough to fully shield the field of view from this stray light. When the field of view exceeds about 1 inch diameter, light from the sky can leak past the front baffle and reduce the contrast at the edge of the field. Therefore, for low-power, widefield viewing with 2" eyepieces, we provide a larger secondary baffle that will increase the front baffle size to 32% to block this stray light in the outer portions of the field. This is needed primarily when sky light-polution is high and you are using low-power widefield eyepieces to observe faint deep-sky objects. Under dark skies, there will be no difference in contrast. Note: this secondary baffle threads onto the front of the corrector."

If you ever get a chance to see an AP mak in person, shine a flashlight at the meniscus and you'll see another reason for the scope's superb contrast. The coatings, which cost AP ~$800 per scope, are incredible. The secondary appears to be floating in mid air. Experienced observers' initial comment upon first observation with this scope is to express awe over the contrast.

Paul Gustafson

I received mine from my dealer last week, and so far it is a _very_ impressive eyepiece. Sharp to the edge in my scopes, excellent contrast. Looks like the 31 Nagler's little brother. My 27 Panoptic, an eyepiece I use a lot, is now superflous and will be sold.

Paul Gustafson

You might want to have your pupils checked by an ophthalmologist first. Not everyone follows the "rule" and your pupil may still dilate large enough to take full advantage of the 31 Nagler.

Personally, I'd keep the 31, then jump down to the 22 Nagler.

Paul Gustafson