zx12zx11
Expert Class
Posts: 471
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posted August 28, 2003 12:10 PM
Off Topic, Pics of mars.
Go to http://www.hubblesite.org Right now the site is really slow, and currently completly dedicated to the pics of Mars. Still slow as hell though.
  
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necro
Needs a job
My Grandma Is A Virgin
Posts: 2148
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posted August 28, 2003 08:19 PM
I must say.
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3829
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Y2KZX12R
Needs a job
CompetitionCNC.com
Posts: 3762
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posted August 28, 2003 08:42 PM
I just came in from checking out Mars. It was great tonight. Better than the last few nights, here in CT anyway.
I was using a #21 orange filter with a 13.8 mm superwide and a 2x barlow on a 10" schmidt/newtonian reflector. The magnification was about 147X and it was good. I could see the polar ice cap and some mountain ranges with some detail.
The transparency wasnt as good as it could have been. Lots of humidity.
Otherwise the 9.7mm or the 6.4 would have been awsome. I tried seeing the 2 moons using an occulting bar on a super plossl 15mm but It wasnt enough magnification. One of these nights we'll have a perfect night for seeing it. Maybe if a thunderstorm comes thru tomorrow night and clears out this humid weather. Plus when my wife got home and jumped in the hot tub, the steam from the hot tub was condensating on the corrector lenz. That didnt help. I guess I need a better dew shield.
Now I'm waiting for the gas giants to come around to use some other new filters I just got.
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Y2KZX12R
CompetitionCNC.com
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frEEk
Administrator
ummm... yeah
Posts: 9660
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posted August 28, 2003 10:55 PM
practising your Greek are you? 
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Y2KZX12R
Needs a job
CompetitionCNC.com
Posts: 3762
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posted August 29, 2003 10:29 AM
Freek doesnt speak greek? LOL I figured there must be some other amatuer astronomers in here... no?
Nothin like cracking a beer and looking for new comets. I havent found a new one yet but when you do you get to name it. Kinda cool. Almost all comets are discovered by amatuers.
I wanted to order a new ultrawide eyepiece for mars but it seems Mars has everyone buying up everything lately. I couldnt even find a special filter I wanted.
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Y2KZX12R
CompetitionCNC.com
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frEEk
Administrator
ummm... yeah
Posts: 9660
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posted August 29, 2003 11:30 AM
actually, i used to speak a little greek, but only ancient greek (and latin). not the modern language 
i read one article in the paper yesterday that mentioned it actually comes about this close every 50 years or so. the fact that this is the closest in however many tens of thousands of years is just an academic issue. i guess that means this time it's 55million miles instead of 57 million or something. but it's definitely generating alot of sudden interest. i actually spent the last 3 nights wondering what the hell that bright light in the sky was. way too bright and too yellow for a star. thought it was a plane but not when it was in the same spot every night when i took the dogs out. figured it had to be the space station, cept the station supposedly moves quite fast. got especially freaky cause for some reason teh city didnt pick up the yard trimmings (garbage) for those 3 days all along the route where i take the dogs, so it was almost like i was livin a Groundhog Day kinda thing 
but re the astronomy interest... can't say i'v ever gotten into it much, mainly for lack of time, but i do love jsut staring at the night sky on a nice clear night. did that once in a while when i lived in WHistler, where there was little ambient light or air pollution. esp good on cold winter nights (below -10 celcius). the sky absolutely sparkles. those are the times when ya really feel good to be alive gotta find me some time to do more of that.
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zxlnt
Needs a job
Kawpuke Extraordinare
Posts: 2853
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posted August 29, 2003 02:09 PM
quote:
Freek doesnt speak greek? LOL I figured there must be some other amatuer astronomers in here... no?
Nothin like cracking a beer and looking for new comets. I havent found a new one yet but when you do you get to name it. Kinda cool. Almost all comets are discovered by amatuers.
I wanted to order a new ultrawide eyepiece for mars but it seems Mars has everyone buying up everything lately. I couldnt even find a special filter I wanted.
Ha I do. I just got a new Meade AR-6 Achromatic Refractor in the other day. Pretty kewl, on a German Equatorial mount. Just stuck with the 26mm eyepiece right now, so not much magnification. But still enough to see some surface detail and the polar icecap. I take it your scope is Meade as well maybe????
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Y2KZX12R
Needs a job
CompetitionCNC.com
Posts: 3762
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posted August 29, 2003 07:05 PM
Yea its a LXD55 GEM with a SN10" tube and the uhtc coated optics.
How do you like the refractor?
If you just got the LXD55 GEM mount then you should do a few things to it. You need to check the set screws on the gears on the motors. 9 out of 10 of them loosen up. Use blue locktite on the set screws and they shouldnt come loose again. You'll notice alot of play before the gears slip on the motor shaft. After you tighten the set screws you should retrain the drives. Actually you should retrain the drives anyway when you first get the mount. Make sure the bottom castings on the legs are tight.
Look on yahoo for a group for the lxd55 mount. You'll get some good help on there.
Bang for the buck the lxd mount is great even if it needs just some TLC at first.
Check out thee sites.
Weasner has some good info for ya... http://www.weasner.com/lxd/index.html
http://www.lxd55.com
http://www.astronomics.com/main/
Meade has a good 140 2x barlow thats $80 that will pull mars in better even with the 26mm that you have. It will double and eye piece you have/use with it. Stay with the 140 barlow instead of the 127 and you wont loose any image quality.
That 6" refractor must really pull in Mars nice!!
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Y2KZX12R
CompetitionCNC.com
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zxlnt
Needs a job
Kawpuke Extraordinare
Posts: 2853
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posted August 29, 2003 07:17 PM
 Edited By: zxlnt on 29 Aug 2003 20:18
I have only used it a couple times. Seems pretty decent. The 26mm is allright but not quite enough mag to see much detail. I used a borrowed 10.5mm televue that gave around 120X or so but it didn't have much eye relief and was kind of hard to use. At least for the newibies at the Observatory Open House I went to.
Yep allready on the lxd55.com and checked out the weasner site tonight. Astromart.com has a pretty good message board and classifieds section. Probably 200 emails a day on the classifieds.. I would love to pier mount the drive but probably wont let me over here at the townhomes. Sooo just stuck with the tripod for now. Heard of some people filling the legs with sand or shot to lower center of gravity and improve stability. Dont know if I will do that or not. Weasner had some pretty good tips on just about everything for the scope.
So far its great. Its no Takahashi but then it dont cost as much either....
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