RE: [Utah-astronomy] Re: Auto Find Feature that could still allow for equatorial rotation...
I would recommend that you find someone who has a high end Celestron GPS scope and visit with them about it. I know that there are two of them in the Ogden Club but I don't know if they are on the this list. I could forward your message to them and you could see what their impressions are. I know that I would be very wary of buying anything from Celestron right now because I have had several bad examples of their low end goto scopes that didn't perform at all. Based on that and the fact that I have seen several nice LX200s that functioned real well, I would buy the Meade unless someone that owns a Celestron can tell me of good performance without having to send parts back for replacement and getting new computer programs. When someone spends a couple of thousand dollars on a product, I think it should work. Let me know if you want me to put you in contact with one of the guys I know up north. Dave -----Original Message----- From: JohnRenstrom@Hotmail.com [mailto:JohnRenstrom@Hotmail.com] Sent: Friday, February 28, 2003 2:40 PM To: utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Re: Auto Find Feature that could still allow for equatorial rotation... Jim Wrote:
One other thought. I bought a Meade 2130 5inch telescope with Autostar. It cost about $300.00. I would suggest considering something like this. I believe it would satisfy all of your (John Renstrom's) criteria. I like playing with the GOTO and allot of the time I just like pushing the tube around by hand. I figured if I didn't like the telescope, I could give it to my son and then I would have a better idea what I really wanted after my experience with the Meade. I have thought about buying a small cheap version of the nexstar, but as I keep asking people why they are selling these types of scopes, it almost always the same story...they are upgrading. I have several thousand dollars that I am willing to invest into my scope and despite how anxious I am to buy, I enjoy reading and learning more about this field...Also, the prices on this equipment just keep getting better and better...
Jim Wrote:
It sounds like, John, you have been looking at telescopes for a while. If you haven't gone to a Star Party or two that would be a good move before you actually plunk down a sizeable investment. Yes, you are correct, I have been reading up on scopes for over 2 years now...I really like to take my time before buying anything...I consider this a very expensive and time consuming hobby and I want to be as prepared as possible before plunging in...I consider myself a very caucious buyer and like to buy for the long-term...As for the star parties, I am very anxious about attending one...I have some friends with scopes, but I think the idea of a bunch of people all draging their scopes out for a party sounds like a total blast! I anticipate I will be that nosy person asking a lot of questions and roaming around mindlessly.
To Kim: I my bark sounds worse than my bite...I actually liked what you said...In fact, I think I was replying to Chuck's email more than yours... To Chuck: I know someday it might be nice to roam the stars and to be able to know where everything is...But until then, I must rely on the auto find feature. I don't think the auto find feature is bad at all...I compare it to calculators in the class room...when I went to school, we couldn't use calculators because the teachers felt like the students wouldn't learn how to do the math...Now days, the tests are so complicated, you would be crazy to even try to take a test without a calculator...I just think that the auto find technology is the beginning of more intelligent scopes...Having more intelligent scopes only opens the door for the lazy people like myself...and let me assure you, when I say lazy, I mean lazy! I am so lazy that I am extremely tempted by the GPS unit simply because I don' want to have to care where I set the scope up...I want to plug it in start playing without having to key in any numbers! :-)
Good topic. Dave, I think most of the low-end Celestron and Meade product is imported. Only the larger SCT's & Maks are made in the US. (somebody correct me if I'm wrong!)Too, they don't want to leave any niche untouched. They know some people will buy "department-store" telescopes without doing the homework, so they supply that market also. John, I applaud you for doing the consumer research first. Obviously you've given this a lot more thought than I originally thought, please accept my apology. You are very firm on your criteria and I can't question that! My whole relationship with commercial astronomy & products is strained at best, with a few exceptions. Going to a few star-parties is very good advice. Get hands-on experience with a variety of makes and models. Patrick, you get up here in the hotseat with Brent and I. You've done more imaging than about anyone I know, both emulsion-based and CCD, and done most of it with SCT's. What are you doing right now? Positional astronomy mostly? Deep imaging? What can you tell us about your experience with this equipment? Rich, thanks for that explanation. Does the telescope look for you, too? ;) Were I to come up with a user-friendly high-tech system, it might look like this: f/5 to f/7 Dob with "flying align"-type drivers, like the DobDriver2000. Digital setting circles. Maybe a database, if I could define it. For imaging I'd use a field de-rotator. OR, same Dob on an equatorial platform. No de-rotator needed, but declination only lines-up with altitude motion near the meridian. You'd have to polar-align the platform, but that could be done with a Telrad-type sight in about ten seconds. No need to align with the DobDriver. The digital circles do require initialization on 2 or 3 stars. Too much work? C. __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - forms, calculators, tips, more http://taxes.yahoo.com/
Once I'm out of the huge financial hole I'm in, my next major telescope purchase will likely be a decent EQ platform for the 16-inch. The DSC's are cake to use; on my scope the setup time is 2 or 3 minutes max. Rich --- Chuck Hards <chuckhards@yahoo.com> wrote:
Were I to come up with a user-friendly high-tech system, it might look like this: f/5 to f/7 Dob with "flying align"-type drivers, like the DobDriver2000. Digital setting circles. Maybe a database, if I could define it. For imaging I'd use a field de-rotator. OR, same Dob on an equatorial platform. No de-rotator needed, but declination only lines-up with altitude motion near the meridian. You'd have to polar-align the platform, but that could be done with a Telrad-type sight in about ten seconds. No need to align with the DobDriver. The digital circles do require initialization on 2 or 3 stars. Too much work?
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For those of you looking for an O-III filter (in the wake of Lumicon's demise), it looks like Meade now offers one: http://www.meade.com/catalog/meade_4000/meade_series_4000_nebular_filters.ht... FWIW, Rich __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - forms, calculators, tips, more http://taxes.yahoo.com/
Chuck Hards wrote:
Patrick, you get up here in the hotseat with Brent and I.
I think my previous comment already has me there. :-) But, what the hey, maybe just to throw fuel on the fire, I'll also add that in my quarter century of selling scope at the HP I never had a return on any of the orange telescopes. Same held true even after they went to those yucky dark colors. Alas, the same could not be said for the other brands we sold. But, to be fair, as long as I was in charge, we only sold the higher end scopes and left the cheepies to other stores in the area. Also, I've been out of the business for a couple of years now and things may have changed.
You've done more imaging than about anyone I know, both emulsion-based and CCD, and done most of it with SCT's. What are you doing right now? Positional astronomy mostly? Deep imaging? What can you tell us about your experience with this equipment? At the moment I'm not doing a whole lot of astronomy. Taking a bit of a break. But just before the break I was probably 99% CCD and 80%+ of that was chasing asteroids (astrometry) and measuring star brightnesses (photometry).
Patrick
participants (4)
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Chuck Hards -
David Dunn -
Patrick Wiggins -
Richard Tenney