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Posts Made By: Peter Glus

February 22, 2006 03:14 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

Do it Yourself Coatings

Posted By Peter Glus
Does anyone know any way to coat the corrector plate on a vintage C8? For that matter, is there any way to purchase the anti-reflectivity coatings used by Meade, etc.?

March 14, 2006 02:46 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

Advice on Light Pollution Filters

Posted By Peter Glus
Does anyone recommed a good light pollution filter? In in NYC and would hope that this helps somewhat.

- Peter

May 19, 2006 03:47 PM Forum: After Dark

Light Pollution Thoughts

Posted By Peter Glus
Been in the hobby for about a year, and have read much on light pollution -- I live in NYC so this is obviously an issue for me. Seems like limiting mag is about 3.5, since I can't see any of the chain on Ursa Minor. Have been, and will continue to be extreemely jealous of these guys whose limiting mag is in the high 5s and 6s.

Initially, I thought light pollution was an upper atmosphere effect (measured in miles). I partially deduced this by ballparking how far the light pollution affect travels out from a shoreline. However, I have read many accounts of amatuer astronomers "closing" their home domes due to the construction of a strip mall, etc. (measured in blocks) This implies a more localized effect, which seemed curious to me. In my own experience, moving to a local dark park 1/2 mile away doesn't affect limiting magnitude. It simply helps my eyes adjust more quickly to the dark and remain so.

Does anyone have information or personal exsperience with the more "local" effects of light pollution? Are there any more technical articles on this?

May 19, 2006 04:09 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

Celestron Not Selling Ultimas Anymore?

Posted By Peter Glus
Am I mistaken? Why has Celestron taken Ultimas off the website? Are they not selling these new anymore? It appears that the X-Cell line is now their top product?

Anyone know anything about this?

June 9, 2006 02:35 PM Forum: Celestron

Converting a Orange C8 to GOTO

Posted By Peter Glus
Fellow Celestron Users!

Got an old C8. Bought a used lxd55 and a Meade Field Tripod a few months back, and am trying to bring everything together. Figured out the mount/tripod problems, and now just need to understand this "dovetail" stuff....

As a passing thought, the whole dovetail thing makes my leery. I mean, with a fork mount you have very significant, balanced OTA support. With the dovetail, it seems much more flimsy. Particularly since the aftermarket plates use only 3 holes (1 in the front and 2 in the back) for the orange tube C8. Even moreso since some of plates you can buy don't follow the curvature of the tube!...I guess you build up the gap with washers?

Anyway, does anyone have any experience with attaching a dovetail to an old C8?

- Peter

June 23, 2006 08:00 PM Forum: Eyepieces

Experience with Zoom Eyepieces

Posted By Peter Glus
Does anyone have any recent experience with zoom eyepieces? Strangly enought, there doesn't seem to be a review of these on AM Reviews and no forum threads on this subject. I am interested becuase it seems like the perfect accessory for planets / db stars.

There appears to be a wide range of prices, from 59 bucks to hundreds +. Also, the reviews for the GSOs and Scoptronix's (lower price end) seem very positive (?). Can anyone share their experience here on the subject? Particularly the performance of the lower price end models?

July 18, 2006 12:43 PM Forum: After Dark

Very Poor Vacation Planning

Posted By Peter Glus
I live in NYC and have been in the hobby for about a year, constantly struggling with my local light pollution (lim. mag of ~3.5). When my wife and I decided to go on vacation near the outer banks of North Carolina I got EXTREEMELY exited. I quickly looked up the town we would be staying at on the light pollution map, and saw that it was the darkest rating ("milky way is ANNOYINGLY bright"). So, I bougght my binocs, my super finder, my charts, etc. (couldn't justify lugging the whole C8 down) and with eager expectation awaited night. Unfortunately, I CAUGHT THE FULL MOON! THE LIMITING MAG WAS BARELY BETTER THAN NYC! I never saw the milky way, but I did see the full Ursa Minor towards the end of the week, so I am thinking 4.5ish was lim mag. Anyway, the moral of the story is to plan the dark sky vacation with a new moon!


August 8, 2006 03:37 PM Forum: Beginning Astronomy?

Focal Reducer Questions / Recommendations

Posted By Peter Glus
I have a old orange C8 and bought a relatively inexpensive GSO/KO 30mm 80 degree UWA eyepiece. As I understand it, my actual FOV is about 1.2 degrees (80 degrees divided by the magnification, which is 66x).

Anyway, I am interested in buying a focal reducer to expand the FOV even more. My understanding is that a f/6.3 reducer would drop my magnification to about 40x, thereby increasing my actual FOV to about 2 degrees. My questions:

1. Am I right, or confused regarding my above numbers?
2. Is there any downside to using a reducer?
3. I have seen 6.3, 5, and even smaller ratios. Seems like the 6.3 is the most common. Any real differences besides the numbers?
4. I have also seem a lot of sub 50 dollar reducers, and a recent batch of APO reducers for 100 or so. Is there any review or recommendation for these on AM that I have missed?

THANKS!

- Peter

August 9, 2006 02:15 PM Forum: Meade

Autostar - Drive Training

Posted By Peter Glus
Here's a basic question...I trained my drives twice last night and did not notice any improvement in the drive test on the second iteration (i.e., the amount of slewing on the first iteration was about equal to the amount of slewing I had to do during the second iteration). Does the drive training always require the same distance to slew? Or conversly, if everything is working perfect would I not have to do any slewing to correct at all?

August 28, 2006 06:13 PM Forum: Eyepieces

Experiences with Denkmeier Powerswitch ??

Posted By Peter Glus
I am trying to build an eyepiece collection, and came across this product in S&T. It seems like a tempting idea...however, is it too good to be true? I mean, can I buy a Meade 5000 SWA 24mm and then expect to get decent peformance for the "12 mm", and "48" (??) slots? Or does this thing only work better for non-wide angle EPs? Does the "slot sliding" mechanism introdce slight mis-alignment, and maybe dust? I have a C8 SCT w/ f/10.

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