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Posts Made By: Rod Kaufman

April 2, 2004 05:24 AM Forum: Equipment Talk

DSC is installed in 2nd scope.

Posted By Rod Kaufman
Floyd,
Nice job on the DSC installation on your 12.5" dob. Another fine example of your work.

April 5, 2004 09:17 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

Books on Optics

Posted By Rod Kaufman
Richard,
Telescope Optics is a manual that covers SCT, classical cassegrain systems and others. It's described on the Willman Bell website and has updated software available as well.

April 23, 2004 02:27 AM Forum: Telescope Making

Re: The best pitch for polishing a mirror

Posted By Rod Kaufman
"All About Telescopes" from Edmund recommends Burgundy pitch and shows how to make a pitch lap with individual squares. You could also contact Newportglassworks as they sell optical grade pitch and ask for their recommendation.

April 27, 2004 12:39 AM Forum: Telescope Making

Enterprise Optics

Posted By Rod Kaufman
I called Ed Beck awhile ago and he did return my call promptly so I am abit surprised he didn't get back to you. I notice his ad states," Expect long waits and high prices". I couldn't believe he actually placed that statement in his ad but at least he's being honest. I hope there's nothing physically wrong with Ed. It does make me nervous when I deal with a single person who is essentially their own company because if something happens to the individual, you are left in a difficult situation.

May 1, 2004 04:08 AM Forum: Equipment Talk

Dark Skies in Tonopah

Posted By Rod Kaufman
The June issue of Sky and Tel has an ad that caught my eye. It's an ad for dark skies available at Tonopah, Nevada. It's sponsored by the Nevada bureau of tourism and the website is: www.tonopahstartrails.com
Check-out the website as it's a good one and send kudos to the contact link for sponsoring the dark-sky effort. The dark sky site is located midway between Las Vegas and Reno at the intersection of Highways 95 and 6.
I've got to get ahold of Floyd Blue and his crew and they can ride shotgun on our way up there!

May 3, 2004 05:40 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

GSO Eyepieces

Posted By Rod Kaufman
Kerry,
I've recommended the 2" GSO barlow to others in the eyepiece forum who have since reported how well they like it. I use it to clean-up the edges on my TAL 24mm and 30mm Optik wideangle eyepieces when used in my fast dobs.
I've read some very positive comments about the 2" 40mm eyepiece when it was used in scopes of moderate to long f-ratios.
I can't say enough good things about their 2" barlow;very good light-throughput and at about $59.00 at Owl Services,it's a heck of a deal!

May 4, 2004 07:45 PM Forum: Eyepieces

low power 1.25'' wide field

Posted By Rod Kaufman
Cameron,
The only eyepieces you have listed that will be sharp to the edge in your F-5 scope will be the panoptics based upon my experience with some of the eyepieces on your list and reviews on the others.

May 10, 2004 03:00 PM Forum: Celestron

Why so many 9.25's for sale?? Just curious...

Posted By Rod Kaufman
I am not so sure that your perception is real. At times, I see other brands or aperatures for sale, and it seems like there is a "run" on a certain scope for sale. I see the same thing on the eyepiece section where there frequently seems to be alot of radians for sale, including a slew of focal lengths from the same seller. Some have commented about the frequent sale of radians but others don't believe it's a trend. I suppose it would take some sort of statistical evaluation to determine if it's real or apparent.

May 24, 2004 07:02 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

wide field eyepiece for 16" f/4.9?

Posted By Rod Kaufman
Mike,
Another option for you to consider is purchasing the low-cost 2" 2x barlow from Owl services for $59.00 and using it with the BW Optik 2" eyepiece. It cleans-up the edges of the Optik as well as the TAL 24mm 2" widefield eyepiece in my 16" F4.5 dob and the combo costs far less than premium widefield 2" eyepieces.

May 29, 2004 03:53 AM Forum: Eyepieces

tak vs Pentax

Posted By Rod Kaufman
Stephen,
I don't have any direct experience with the eyepieces in the focal lengths you have mentioned nor have I read any reviews of them. A difference of a few mm may not seem like much but it makes a direct comparison imprecise. I have compared a 10.5mm pentax XL with a 10mm XW and I had the impression of slightly greater lightthroughput in the XW versus the XL but another observer thought they were identical. Either way, it's somewhat remarkable as the new XWs have more elements in most of the focal lengths versus the XLs. You can also reference a cloudy nights review of the XWs versus XLs as a pay per view lab report. Hope this helps.

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