Woohooo!

Got my 114GT aligned a lot better last night and got to see quite a bit of
detail on Jupiter. Starting to figure out this collimation thing although it's
not so straight forward as it seems. Saw three bands on the planet and I
imagined that I saw a "speck" as well. Too small to be the red spot but I
might have been thinking I was seeing something.

After not looking through a tube since I was a young teenager it felt good to
be getting excited about star names and constellations. I've forgotten so much
since then.

Something's still out of whack with my optics but I'll keep playing with it
and learning. I built a laser collimator but the barlow makes things
difficult. I'll try removing it and try again.

Saturn was behind the trees last night so I couldn't give that one another try
with the 10mm EP. The scope was only good enough for the 25mm the last time
but I was able to make out the Cassini division quite clearly. The GOTO seemed
to work really well, going to the Orion nebula and a few clusters very
accurately. Most were behind trees since I was ust in my back yard and in
about the worst lighting conditions.

I've built a custom accessory tray, installed LED lighting, an LCD heater,
and a 5Ahr gell cell to power it all. My other love is windsurfing and believe
me, it's not any simpler than this to do it right.

I'll be trying again tonight to get it even better and may be getting some
other eyepieces before too long....maybe. Trying to not get my hopes up too
much with this scope.

Glenn

Glenn,

I just got a 114GT a few days ago. I got a very cheap 3" reflector for
christmas but returned it. I found the 114GT at Costco, the last one,
marked down to $158.00! I've seen a few bad remarks about this scope but I
am impressed with it, being my first telescope.

The only thing I seemed to have a problem with was that it seemed to shake a
bit while tracking. I may have to check that I have everything on the mount
tightened up.

I also saw Jupiter last night and saw three bands. Things looked good
through the 10mm eypiece and I also picked up a Meade accessory eypiece pack
that has a 2x Barlow and 6mm and 4mm eye pieces. I can get some good images
of the moon with the 6mm but not the 4mm, might be too much magification for
this scope?

I would be interested in your gell cell plans and where you got all the
parts, as well as your other customizations. Im having a blast with this!

Bill
"Glenn Woodell" wrote in message
news:3HVJb.68246$hf1.12439@lakeread06...
Got my 114GT aligned a lot better last night and got to see quite a bit of
detail on Jupiter. Starting to figure out this collimation thing although
it's
not so straight forward as it seems. Saw three bands on the planet and I
imagined that I saw a "speck" as well. Too small to be the red spot but I
might have been thinking I was seeing something.

After not looking through a tube since I was a young teenager it felt good
to
be getting excited about star names and constellations. I've forgotten so
much
since then.

Something's still out of whack with my optics but I'll keep playing with
it
and learning. I built a laser collimator but the barlow makes things
difficult. I'll try removing it and try again.

Saturn was behind the trees last night so I couldn't give that one another
try
with the 10mm EP. The scope was only good enough for the 25mm the last
time
but I was able to make out the Cassini division quite clearly. The GOTO
seemed
to work really well, going to the Orion nebula and a few clusters very
accurately. Most were behind trees since I was ust in my back yard and in
about the worst lighting conditions.

I've built a custom accessory tray, installed LED lighting, an LCD heater,
and a 5Ahr gell cell to power it all. My other love is windsurfing and
believe
me, it's not any simpler than this to do it right.

I'll be trying again tonight to get it even better and may be getting some
other eyepieces before too long....maybe. Trying to not get my hopes up
too
much with this scope.

Glenn

In article ,
pamm says...

The only thing I seemed to have a problem with was that it seemed to shake a
bit while tracking. I may have to check that I have everything on the mount
tightened up.

I tied my legs together better with a custom accessory tray. It's made of 1/2"
Bakelite and attaches to the tripod center piece with three thumbscrews from
underneath. This really steadies the tripod.

I would be interested in your gell cell plans and where you got all the
parts, as well as your other customizations.

The gel cell is just a simple battery made for home security systems. Look up
a local battery retailer...not Radio Shack, and they should have quite a
selection. This one was $21.

The pictures of my mods can be found at http://www.windvisions.com/C114/mods/

Most are self explanatory. I chose to surround my LCD display with resistors
rather than run them on only one side. I'm now using a second generation LED
tray illuminator which is just an auto tail light that I got from a local auto
parts store. You can see it in the accessory tray view. I plan to add a
control panel with my power inputs, switches, and a rheostat to control the
illumination level and future tray/eyepiece heaters.

Glenn