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Posts Made By: Jim Carpenter

February 26, 2003 09:22 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

Adorama Pro Optic 500 Mak

Posted By Jim Carpenter
See the Cloudy Nights review at http://www.cloudynights.com/reviews2/mc90.htm

Jim

March 10, 2003 03:35 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

Mount for Burgess 25X x100mm Binocular

Posted By Jim Carpenter
Take a look at the Universal Astonomics line of mounts -- either the Unimount series (parallelograms) or Unistar with binocular adaptor. http://www.universalastronomics.com

Jim

March 12, 2003 03:11 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

Making a "Televue" type alt-az mount??

Posted By Jim Carpenter
Tom,
This may be more elaborate than what you need for a temporary solution, but take a look at this:
http://www.cloudynights.com/mounts/homebuilt.htm

Jim

March 14, 2003 03:15 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

Couch Potato Binocular Chair

Posted By Jim Carpenter
Stuart,
I tried one briefly at a star party once. It was actually pretty cool. The chair selected for use is very important in terms of ease of reclining, etc.

Jim

March 30, 2003 10:27 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

mount/tripod advice for Sky 90

Posted By Jim Carpenter
Hi Mary,

I like my Unistar Light Deluxe on a Bogen 3246 tripod. The Unistar Light has large Teflon bearings which give very smooth movement in both alt and az axes, and holds balance very well with a variety of eyepieces.

Jim

April 16, 2003 09:00 PM Forum: Birding Optics and Photos

Digiscoping Adapters

Posted By Jim Carpenter
Dave,

I have a Canon digicam without threads on the lens so I tried the EZPix. I found it very difficult to a) get the camera lens correctly aligned with the eyepiece and b) to get the camera focused in that configuration. I sent it back for a refund and am now saving for a camera with threaded lens so I can use something like the DigiT adapter.

Jim

April 29, 2003 02:33 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

Telrad Reflex or Rigel Quickfinder?

Posted By Jim Carpenter
Jay,

I have both the Telrad (on a 10" Discovery Dob) and Rigel QF (on a Celestron G-5 SCT). Both are excellent and each has its advantages and disadvantages:

Telrad Pros:
* Large bullseye - very good for starhopping.
* Many charts are printed with Telrad circles (Sky Atlas has one pre-printed on the clear plastic overlay). Telrad circles are also included as an aid on many planetarium software programs, like SkyMap Pro.
* Good dimmer control
* Alignment knob location at back (user) side

Telrad Cons:
* Not too heavy, but heavy enough that weight can cause balance problems on some Dobs and alt-az mounts
* Physically too large to mount on many small refractors
* Pulse feature an optional add-on

Rigel QF Pros:
* Comes with two mounting bases for use on different scopes
* Height above OTA makes sighting easier
* Pulse feature
* Light weight -- no as critical for balance
* Small footprint -- OK for small refractors

Rigel QF Cons:
* Upright configuration easy to dislodge
* 2 deg bullseye not as good as Telrad for star hopping (but better than red dot finders)
* Alignment knobs and dimmer control on front side
* Small battery can pop out while mounting or dismounting the QF and easily get lost in the dark.

You really can't go wrong with either choice for your 8" Dob.

Jim

April 30, 2003 08:09 PM Forum: Birding Optics and Photos

Digiscoping options

Posted By Jim Carpenter
Joplin,

I just acquired a Coolpix 4500 and am still at the low end of the learning curve. Here's a shot taken with the Scoptronix Wide Angle 18mm and a Stellarvue 80mm/f6 (480mm) with the camera at the zero zoom position. I believe this is a Say's Phoebe. Sorry the background is just a blur -- the camera was set at 1/125 sec - F2.3. As I said, I'm still learning. Next time I'll try to shoot at higher F-stop to get more depth of field.

Jim

May 1, 2003 09:18 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

adapter exist?

Posted By Jim Carpenter
Give Scopetronix a call or e-mail. If this is the same as the ETX-90 or Celestron C-90, they have a "Large Accessory Ring" and a "STVB Visual Back." These will allow you to use standard 1-1/4" accessories and may work for camera mounting. I use the latter on my C-90 for to get way from the .965-to-1.25" hybrid diagonal. The guys at Scopetronix can answer your questions.

Jim

May 1, 2003 09:20 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

Overkill: BORG 45ED + 72mm Plossl

Posted By Jim Carpenter
A very nice (but expensive) finder scope?

Jim

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