Here is the place to talk about all those equipment(Telescope, Mounts, Eyepieces, etc...) you have. Not sure which scope/eyepiece is best for you? Trash it out here!
views thru mewlons are way better than typical celestrons sct, rivaling those apos. views of zambutos newts are great too
Did you forget to mention price?
Not everybody needs to buy or can afford to buy a "Ferrari" telescope (Astro-Physics, Carl Zeiss, Questar, TeleVue, etc.). And a "BMW" or "Lexus" telescope (Celestron or Meade Instruments for example) does not have to meet the theoretical limits of perfection in order to provide the owner with years of excellent service.
In astronomy, what we knew all along, you pay tonnes of $$$ for a marginal performance boost.
PS: My dream scope is still 24" Starmaster , way outside my FOV
chrisyeo wrote:Can a dobsonian equatorial platform work for our latitude?
Chris
Hi Chris,
The equatorial platforms are latitude-specific with a small margin of allowable difference. I have some ideas for one suitable for our location and this is almost the same as those proposed to me by users in the Yahoo equatorial platform users group.
If you want, I can email you the diagrams they sent me (if I can still find them).
Been toying with this idea for awhile for my dob. Actually a dob platform for our latitude is even easier to build since the axis of rotation is almost parallel to the ground.
Kay Heem, were you also thinking of an oversized "barn-door"-type of platform? Should be quite easy to drive it if you use gravity to close the wedge.
thanks Kay Heem, for the links. useful info.
but, look at the prices! my eyes hurt! my eyes hurt!!
perhaps i should have said:
"the attractively-priced-large-aperture-dobs are still not good for imaging"
i can see a dob in the future though...
but let me do a barndoor tracker for my slr first....
elton wrote:Been toying with this idea for awhile for my dob. Actually a dob platform for our latitude is even easier to build since the axis of rotation is almost parallel to the ground.
Kay Heem, were you also thinking of an oversized "barn-door"-type of platform? Should be quite easy to drive it if you use gravity to close the wedge.
Hi Elton and Kingkong,
Yes, it should be quite easy to build. Seeing the prices, I am quite determined to build it, if and when I have the time. My idea is to have the axis of rotation horizontal then merely tilt 1 end 1-2 degrees up depending on location. My ultimate aim is to make a dual axis platform.
I am not looking at the barn-door type of drive, as it would mean a tangential screw drive of sorts, which would not be accurate. Besides, re-setting it would be a pain.
Here are some ideas:
Kay Heem
Last edited by kayheem on Thu Jun 10, 2004 9:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.
gwenyi wrote:heh. we should have a newtonian with zambuto mirror. it will become the next scope killer ^.^
there's already one in Singastro! have you forgotten CC's Portaball?
Look at cc, all that effort to set up his portaball...no wonder he always konk off at 1 am exactly for all Mersing trips!
rich
Rich!!! Its really quite effortless to setup the portaball, and I can be observing within 5 mins flat. There should be more of these scopes around And no, I don't knock off at exactly 1am during mersing trips... Sometimes its earlier!
I think sometimes people need to strike a balance between aperture and access time. the bigger the aperture, the brighter the images but less transportable. the smaller the scope, more easily you can take it anywhere.
Sometimes for the SP sessions, CC does not bring his portaball along for precisely the reason its big and clumsy to bring around without a car.
On the other had, it would be very easy for him to bring his TV85 and tripod...
so choose whatever suits your needs and profile, whether it is a Newtonian, refractor or MCT/SCT.
rich
The Boldly Go Where No Meade Has Gone Before Captain, RSS Enterprise NCC1701R United Federation of the Planets
hehe, was in my sch library reading s&t, found a copy with the 10" dobs list. now getting tempted to get one. hunt ard, seems like the average orion, hardin, celestron goes for roughly usd$550(works out to be less than sgd$1.5k with shipping, pretty cheap for the aperature). but the starmaster, portaball, teleport with their zambuto goes for 2-3x the price, maybe even more.
anyway, anyone here have one of those orion or celestron dobs to let me try out? must try out and see if i can get used to dobs.
, way outside my FOV 
Its really quite effortless to setup the portaball, and I can be observing within 5 mins flat. There should be more of these scopes around 
And no, I don't knock off at exactly 1am during mersing trips... Sometimes its earlier! 
