Yup, Chris, you are da man with da scope! Hehe. Now, I don't want to say
that the other two SCT's were bad, because they weren't. But, the view
through yours was definitely the best of the three.

Bill


"starburst" wrote in message
.. .
And, I'll have you know boys and girls, that that orange tube that he
looked through belonged to ME!!!!! No Kiddin'!

HA!

The SCT in question is a vintage celestron pacific, produced in about
1974. The diagonal was the original stock issued with the scope - prism
style. The eyepiece was a newer celestron plossl.

As I type this I am proud enough to bust!

Chris

Rank Amateur wrote:

Last night I attended a star party here in Central Texas. The seeing
was
unusually good for this area, and, among other things, I observed the
Trapezium through three SCT's -- an old orange-tube C8, a brand new
one-arm
C8, and a recent-vintage Meade 10". Through the orange tube, the
Trapezium
stars were beautiful, sharp points and the E and F stars easy to see.
Through the other two scopes, the Trapezium stars appeared a bit "dull"
and
lackluster, and the E and F stars were barely perceptible.

Was the orange tube just an unusually good SCT, or maybe it was just
better
collimated? The eyepieces and diagonals were comparable on the two
C8's,
and the Meade had high-dollar TeleVue eyepieces and diagonal.

I tell you, after observing through the orange tube, I am convinced that
SCT's can give excellent views.