September 2003 - UVAA - mailman.xmission.com

RE: [UVAA] Re: A Question
by John.Zeigler＠FranklinCovey.com 04 Sep '03

04 Sep '03

My personal favorite eyepieces are made by Russel optics. He makes 2" eyepieces that perform as well as those selling for several times their price. His 19mm SWA eyepiece has been the best I have seen from any manufacturer. I have compared it side by side to eyepieces costing $400 or more, and it has always performed just as good, or better. My second favorite eyepiece is his 36mm UWA eyepiece. The only problem with this eyepiece is that the outer 10% of the field of view is a bit soft, but then you have to move your eye around or turn your head to take in the entire view. I'll admit that these eyepieces are not a nagler or a pentax. Both of these have beter performance. But for the price of a single nagler, I have an entire eyepiece collection from Gary Russel, and I do not worry about using the eyepieces at a star party, or have a heart attack when someone pokes their finger in the middle of the lens asking "do I look in here?" The best part, his eyepieces all cost around $60 each, and will compare directly to those selling for $200 - $300 each. John R. Zeigler www.JohnsTelescopes.com www.MirrorKits.com -----Original Message----- From: Steve Goodwin To: Utah Valley Astronomy Association Sent: 9/4/2003 7:30 AM Subject: Re: [UVAA] Re: A Question If some of us building their collection are looking for better eyepieces but don't have $200 -$300 to sink into a single eyepiece are there other eyepiece makers that offer similar quality to pentax or televue? Or is it worth it to save up and buy these overpriced eyepieces? Steve On Wednesday, September 3, 2003, at 06:28 PM, Richard Tenney wrote: > Rob, > > I've found that everyone has their favorites, and > finding a consensus might be rather difficult! But > I'll weigh in my 2 cents, and let others weigh in as > well. > > On my old 6-inch Dynascope, my favorite and most used > eyepiece is an old 20mm Erfle. On the 16-inch, the > one that is in the focuser probably 90% of the time is > my 22mm Nagler -- I LOVE that eyepiece; worth every > penny my wife paid for it! ;-) > > I also use and enjoy (on the 16) a 35mm Panoptic for > wide-field stuff (found a cheap used one), and for > higher magnifications 13mm and 8mm TV ploessls, though > if I could afford them I would like to own a few more > Naglers and/or Radians (I've borrowed the 9mm and 13mm > Naglers, old and new, and several of the Radians, and > love the way they perform). > > At Wolf Creek Saturday, I had a chance to look through > Lowell's 20-inch obsession, and he swears by his > Pentax eyepieces. I confess the view of the Andromeda > galaxy trio was most impressive in that 40mm Pentax. > But I also remember directly comparing the 22 Panoptic > with a 21mm Pentax one night in Hobble Creek with > Debbie's 15-inch Obsession, and found the Panoptic > view better, in my opinion. Lowell will argue > otherwise, and said he sold all of his TV eyepieces > when he discovered the Pentax line. Everyone's eyes > and preferences are different... > > Chuck Hards, our resident ATM guru, doesn't favor > these "glass sandwiches" so much (though he does like > the TV Panoptics, just thinks all of them are way > over-priced, which they are!), and has many of the > University Optics eyepieces (the whole line of Koenigs > for example), and prefers Orthoscopics for high power > planetary work ("less glass is better"). > > (Chuck and Lowell, sorry if I misquoted you...) > > Don't know if that helps or not, > -Rich > > --- Rob Ratkowski <ratkwski(a)maui.net> wrote: >> Hi Rich >> >> >> Has anyone ever asked what an ideal set (FL, brand, >> type,??) of >> eyepieces would be and why?? I guess I'm asking to >> see what you all >> use the most and why they are useful. I have TV's >> of 55,40,26,21,17 >> and 10.5mm, 2.5X Barlow, a Meade 32mm 2" and a >> Celestron Ultima 30mm. >> Still looking for a 5mm TV Radian ............. >> Would this be >> called a survey w/ comments?? >> >> >> Aloha >> Rob >> >> >> PS What do you use?? Which is your most used EP?? >> > > __________________________________ > Do you Yahoo!? > Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software > http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com > > _______________________________________________ > UVAA mailing list > UVAA(a)mailman.xmission.com > http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/uvaa > _______________________________________________ UVAA mailing list UVAA(a)mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/uvaa

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Re: A Question
by Richard Tenney 04 Sep '03

04 Sep '03

Rob, I've found that everyone has their favorites, and finding a consensus might be rather difficult! But I'll weigh in my 2 cents, and let others weigh in as well. On my old 6-inch Dynascope, my favorite and most used eyepiece is an old 20mm Erfle. On the 16-inch, the one that is in the focuser probably 90% of the time is my 22mm Nagler -- I LOVE that eyepiece; worth every penny my wife paid for it! ;-) I also use and enjoy (on the 16) a 35mm Panoptic for wide-field stuff (found a cheap used one), and for higher magnifications 13mm and 8mm TV ploessls, though if I could afford them I would like to own a few more Naglers and/or Radians (I've borrowed the 9mm and 13mm Naglers, old and new, and several of the Radians, and love the way they perform). At Wolf Creek Saturday, I had a chance to look through Lowell's 20-inch obsession, and he swears by his Pentax eyepieces. I confess the view of the Andromeda galaxy trio was most impressive in that 40mm Pentax. But I also remember directly comparing the 22 Panoptic with a 21mm Pentax one night in Hobble Creek with Debbie's 15-inch Obsession, and found the Panoptic view better, in my opinion. Lowell will argue otherwise, and said he sold all of his TV eyepieces when he discovered the Pentax line. Everyone's eyes and preferences are different... Chuck Hards, our resident ATM guru, doesn't favor these "glass sandwiches" so much (though he does like the TV Panoptics, just thinks all of them are way over-priced, which they are!), and has many of the University Optics eyepieces (the whole line of Koenigs for example), and prefers Orthoscopics for high power planetary work ("less glass is better"). (Chuck and Lowell, sorry if I misquoted you...) Don't know if that helps or not, -Rich --- Rob Ratkowski <ratkwski(a)maui.net> wrote: > Hi Rich > > > Has anyone ever asked what an ideal set (FL, brand, > type,??) of > eyepieces would be and why?? I guess I'm asking to > see what you all > use the most and why they are useful. I have TV's > of 55,40,26,21,17 > and 10.5mm, 2.5X Barlow, a Meade 32mm 2" and a > Celestron Ultima 30mm. > Still looking for a 5mm TV Radian ............. > Would this be > called a survey w/ comments?? > > > Aloha > Rob > > > PS What do you use?? Which is your most used EP?? > __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com

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UVAA in the news
by Patrick Wiggins 04 Sep '03

04 Sep '03

Some nice quotes from UVAA folks in today's D News. http://deseretnews.com/dn/view2/1,4382,510051739,00.html Patrick

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Mars comments
by Richard Tenney 03 Sep '03

03 Sep '03

Joe, There's nothing like being at 9,000 feet (Wolf Creek Summit) with pristine seeing; at 1:30 Saturday night the view of Mars in my 16-inch at 350x was unsurpassed -- the best I've seen so far anyway (and perhaps likely in my lifetime). Others nearby had essentially equally good views in most of the scopes up there. It was also particularly good in Don Colton's SCT with the binocular viewer. Special thanks to Jo Grahn and her husband for hauling up the 24 inch; it gave them a lot of trouble, but it gave all of us some stunning deep-sky vistas, and a very clear, unmistakable view of the central star in the ring nebula. That alone would have made the 90 minute drive up there worthwhile, but the seeing was some of the best I've ever experienced, and combined with a great Mars showing it all made for a very memorable evening (didn't get home until 5 a.m. Sunday, and then only because I had a lesson to teach at church a few hours later!). For those of you who haven't made the "pilgrimage" to Wolf Creek, you should try it sometime; it's truly a religious experience for me. You stand under a milky way that, looking up, truly takes your breath away... -Rich --- Joe Bauman <bau(a)desnews.com> wrote: > Dear friends, would anyone on the news list like to > give me comments about > viewing Mars for a roundup article I am about to > prepare? thank you, Joe > > Joe Bauman > science & military reporter > Deseret News > bau(a)desnews.com > (801) 237-2169 > > > > _______________________________________________ > Utah-Astronomy mailing list > Utah-Astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com > http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com

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RE: [UVAA] Interesting blackout photo
by Gibson, Jim 03 Sep '03

03 Sep '03

Rich I will bet that in an upcomming issue of S&T there will be articles about how good the viewing was during the blackout in the eastern states. I had heard somewhere (I forgot now where I heard it) that the blackout photo was not authentic. Somebody used Adobe Photoshop to blot out that area. Never-the-less, I'll bet the viewing was very much improved back east during the black out. Jim -----Original Message----- From: Richard Tenney [mailto:retenney@yahoo.com] Sent: Wednesday, September 03, 2003 11:34 AM To: Utah-Astronomy; UVAA Subject: [UVAA] Interesting blackout photo Now if we could just figure out how to kill the rest of the grid sometime around the next new moon... ;o) http://www.utahastronomy.com/Richt/blackout -Rich __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ UVAA mailing list UVAA(a)mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/uvaa

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Interesting blackout photo
by Richard Tenney 03 Sep '03

03 Sep '03

Now if we could just figure out how to kill the rest of the grid sometime around the next new moon... ;o) http://www.utahastronomy.com/Richt/blackout -Rich __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com

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Mars comments
by John.Zeigler＠FranklinCovey.com 02 Sep '03

02 Sep '03

Joe, A small group of us went out to Skull Valley on Saturday night. We had two 8" scopes, a couple of binoculars and a very nice 12.5" F8 planetary scope I built last year. The skies were awesome. The Milky Way was a cloud of stars with dark ribbons threading their way throughout. The Andromeda Galaxy was an easy naked eye object as were a few star clusters near by. With the 12.5" scope, you could just barely make out the central star in the Ring Nebula with averted vision, and we had great views of a dozen or so M objects that night that were all easy pickings because they were SO Bright against the ink blank night sky. The biggest problem we had was that there were so many stars it was difficult to pick out the constellations compared to what we are used to here in the Salt Lake Valley. At the end of the evening, we were treated with wonderful views of mars. We could see the South polar cap, a dark band around the cap, tons of surface features, and what looked like a storm or possibly the very edge of the northern polar cap directly opposite the Southern polar cap. John R. Zeigler www.JohnsTelescopes.com www.MirrorKits.com

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Re: [UVAA] Star Pary at Wolf Creek Saturday Night
by UTAHDEB＠aol.com 01 Sep '03

01 Sep '03

Rob, I was thinking about going to Hawaii next spring to view Caldwell objects in Vela, Centaurus, Carina, Pavo, Lupus, and Pavo. I want to see Caldwell 80-102 except Caldwell 87 which is a winter object. Have you seen the Caldwell objects. Stephen James O'Meara's book, "The Caldwell Objects" is a wonderful book to read and has motivated me to see those wonderful objects. I haven't been to Maui and the big island in over 20 years and I am looking forward to a visit. The climate there is also good for my health. I need to do some research on those two islands as far as sighseeing. Debbie

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