Posts Made By: Steven Lynn

My Sirius Optics Mars filter arrived Monday, and the clouds cleared Tuesday! On an orange tube C8, no coatings, I tried it with the following: TV 20mm plossl, 14, 5, & 4 mm Radians (seeing wasn't good enough for the 4, surprize, and pretty iffy with the 5), an older Celestron 10mm plossl marked Taiwan, and an Orion 7.5mm Ultrascopic.

In all eyepieces there was a nice salmon pinkish hue and more detail was visible. On the downside there was both a diffuse 'filled in halo' around Mars and a bright flare. Any movement observing caused the flare to jump & hop around as if on a convex surface. Someone else posted here they had a halo type problem with one of the Televue Bandmates and was told it was 'normal,' and would be worse in some eyepiece designs like the Radians. In the Radians the flare was worse than the Plossl types.

Overall, I find the benefit outweighs the downside. Although I wouldn't use them much with a Radian. I also find the 21 yellow filter to be of benefit, but different.

Of the various filters I have, the other ones being: typical colored filters, a neutral density, a Parks rear cell light pollution and a Baader Moon/skyglow filter, I find all have some signifigant downside as well as benfit, except the Baader. In other words, I'm not a filter type of guy.
Steven

Now, remember, if you're comparing disc brakes to drum brakes, the one that stops you in time is the 'best' one.

So, when comparing roof vs porro--the one that gives you a best view is the best one.

That being said, there is a reason most asto binoculars have been porro prism.

1. Porros have more light thru-put than roof.
2. Porros are easier/simpler optics to design and execute than roof, therefore they tend to be cheaper and potentially easier to make better optical performance. Many porros have a 'ring' around the edge of view of lesser performance.
3. a roof prism objective will further away from your eyes and the opitcal tube is straight. In a porro part of the optical chain is going at an angle inward or outward from the center line, and the objective is closer to your hands. This means a porro objective is moved less by hand shakes when hand held.

Of course, the over design can make up for these tendancies.
Steve

Hmmm. I started but aborted cleaning my everbright version. I don't know if yours is the same, but it's pretty straight foreward. The base unscrews (4 philips head). Between the base and the section with the big round wholes is a black gasket--make sure it stays around. The mirror lifts out, it's a thick chunk of glass. I started to to use rubbing alcohol dabbing lightly with a q-tip and drapping an old cotton t-shirt to soak it off. No rubbing!

But this seemed to spread the dirt around, so I stopped after a small test run. Televue recommends soaking with acetone, and using a lint-less cotton cloth to very very lightly drab and drab off the acetone. Again, no rubbing, let the chemical action do the work.
Let us know if you have success or problems.
Stevo

I frequently ask detailed questions about anything I'm going to buy, especially if I can't see it in person, say, an astromart or ee-hay item. It's common if I ask 5 or more questions to get only 2 or 3 answered on the first try. But, if the question: "will to accept escrow?" is ignored I move on to the next deal.

I got real scared when I bought a Teleport 10" and a Well Tempred Turntable via the well-known-auction-site-I-dare-not-speak-it's-name. They worked out fine, but next time I'll take precautions.
While we're at it, I've always wondered what't better. Ask 20 questions at the get-go, or ask a few if happy with the answers reply and ask some more?
Steven

Now, let's see, you could have saved $15 by going with Televue Everbright...What did you spend on paint? And there's gotta be a very decent but less expensive focuser. I bet with some skimping here and there you could do pretty good for only $1150! Tempting..tempting...

Maybe there's a business to be had here?

BTW, a Borg 125mm ED setup can be had for only $3600 or $3800.
Steven

I learned about the following from a Peruvian/Singaporian spy 8) who may have to kill me for revealing it.

Instead of holding binoculars the usual way near the center, grip them waaay out by the front optics. Press the eyepiece end lightly toward on your sockets and or bridge of your nose. Bwala! You have made a three point 'tripod' with the widest possible points. This makes for a much more stable grip, much less shakes.

The result of this exercise: I can kinda use 11 x 80 Celestrons for brief periods, and 7 power which were bothering me are now easy. I almost gave up my interest in low powered binocs.* I can even drink Laphraoig and use binos!

*Although the idea of a 5x100 seems really interesting in a bizarre sort of way.

A 'light canceling' device. Similiar to noise canceling headphones, you turn it on and it cancels out light pollution all around you, but doesn't affect the light your scope is collecting.

I get really annoyed (nice euphemysm) when someone asks me to delcare $3.99 on a $100 + shipment or declare it a gift. Usually these people are total strangers and all I get out of it is compromising my morals and ethics. I would never do that...for nothing. My price of corruption is $10,000 or more. 8)

Seriously, occaisionly a patient (i'm a chiropractor) wants me to commit insurance fraud or some other scam. They usually have some rationalization they tell themselves, so I respond that I would never do anything illegal, unethical, or immoral, or risk jail and my livelihood...unless my cut was $1,000,000 to retire on!

"Mon General?" Are you paraphrasing Q with "Mon Capitan?"

I agree with the general thread that customs is usually the holdup. I've shipped a few things and received a few and you just have to wait on it. When I ship I use USPS because they act as the customs agent. Fedex requires that you use their website to do that, which for some reasons I forget about won't work for me. Does anyone know if UPS or DHL will take care of the customs issues?