The Ranger and the Pronto Are No More

The young hummers have grown up and there is a lot of aerobatics out back
these days. They sure expend a lot of energy deciding who gets to eat.


What are you feeding them?

Roland Christen

"Chris1011" wrote in message
...
The young hummers have grown up and there is a lot of aerobatics out
back
these days. They sure expend a lot of energy deciding who gets to eat.


What are you feeding them?

Roland Christen,

The standard 1 part sugar in 4 parts water. They go through it at a great
rate.

Clear skies, Alan

"Alan French" wrote in message
...

"Mike Fitterman" wrote in message
newsxSRc.10611$gd1.488@trndny05...
The OA4 is still the best deal out there. Far better than what Orion is
offering and I haven't even looked through it! The OA4 dob mounted is
less
than $1000. It's going to cost you $1500+ to fully outfit the Orion
scope.
Your done with OA for under $1000. Not only that, absolutely no color,
unobstructed views that will knock your socks off. And I've actually
only
looked through a 92mm scope not even the full 4" OA!

Mike,

You haven't seen the Orion 100mm f/9 ED. You haven't looked though an
OA4.
Somehow, though, you know which is better. You must be doing Psychic
Telescope Reviews, and I'll give them the credibility they deserve.

I have the ED80 and yes, I've looked in the slightly smaller version of the
OA4. The OA design is a phenominal scope. Jon mentioned in a later post
that I sold my 6.5" which I did. I'm getting another OA from DGM. I'm not
sure what's so bad about that one Jon? The design is really a great design
for the aperature size. Neither of you have looked through the OA, I've at
least looked though siblings of both designs.

Mike.




Clear skies, Alan

Interesting that you're not trying to sell Rat on a 9" OA (not to mention
one of those magnificent 6.5" units) so he can trash his lowly TMB 8" APO
even before it even arrives...

--
To reach me directly, remove the Z, if one appears in my e-mail address...
"Mike Fitterman" wrote in message
newsxSRc.10611$gd1.488@trndny05...

"Stephen Paul" wrote in message
...


The main reason I know of to get an ED refractor, is to have both wide
fields, and high power out of the same scope. For wide fields of view,
the
achromat 102mm F5's and F6's are good enough for us lowly amateurs. If
they
can't get it down to near 600mm, then it seems like a waste of effort.
At
near 900mm, I'd rather have a DGM Optics OA4, or a similar performing
standard newt on Dob mount with no color whatsoever at any power.


The OA4 is still the best deal out there. Far better than what Orion is
offering and I haven't even looked through it! The OA4 dob mounted is
less
than $1000. It's going to cost you $1500+ to fully outfit the Orion
scope.
Your done with OA for under $1000. Not only that, absolutely no color,
unobstructed views that will knock your socks off. And I've actually
only
looked through a 92mm scope not even the full 4" OA!

Mike.

Actually, the 9" OA weighs a lot less than an 8" TMB (it's a lot longer
though ;-) The 9" OA gives really nice clear images. I helped Dan test one
of the last ones he built. Looking at the double cluster was unbelievable in
that scope. Really bright images.

Mike.


"Jan Owen" wrote in message
news:MlURc.47134$sh.39526@fed1read06...
Interesting that you're not trying to sell Rat on a 9" OA (not to mention
one of those magnificent 6.5" units) so he can trash his lowly TMB 8" APO
even before it even arrives...

--
To reach me directly, remove the Z, if one appears in my e-mail address...
"Mike Fitterman" wrote in message
newsxSRc.10611$gd1.488@trndny05...

"Stephen Paul" wrote in message
...


The main reason I know of to get an ED refractor, is to have both wide
fields, and high power out of the same scope. For wide fields of view,
the
achromat 102mm F5's and F6's are good enough for us lowly amateurs. If
they
can't get it down to near 600mm, then it seems like a waste of effort.
At
near 900mm, I'd rather have a DGM Optics OA4, or a similar performing
standard newt on Dob mount with no color whatsoever at any power.


The OA4 is still the best deal out there. Far better than what Orion is
offering and I haven't even looked through it! The OA4 dob mounted is
less
than $1000. It's going to cost you $1500+ to fully outfit the Orion
scope.
Your done with OA for under $1000. Not only that, absolutely no color,
unobstructed views that will knock your socks off. And I've actually
only
looked through a 92mm scope not even the full 4" OA!

Mike.

"Robert Cook" wrote in message
om...

The only Tasco I ever owned, came
from Synta. Go figure. Synta builds okay stuff, but not great.

At least they build OK stuff. What has Tasco done to deserve anything
but contempt?

Sell Synta scopes?

"Alan French" wrote in message
. ..

You haven't seen the Orion 100mm f/9 ED. You haven't looked though an
OA4.
Somehow, though, you know which is better. You must be doing Psychic
Telescope Reviews, and I'll give them the credibility they deserve.

I have seen a couple of the OAs, but have not had an opportunity to really
check one out. The one that showed up at our public Star Parties was
never
collimated. I once had a big interest in various off-axis reflectors -
Schiefs and Tri-Schiefs - but after seeing a bunch decided they had
nothing
to offer over a good, well made Newt, and Newts are easier to collimate.

Do I detect the pot calling the kettle black?

"Mike Fitterman" wrote in message
news:miURc.10766$gd1.9660@trndny05...
I have the ED80 and yes, I've looked in the slightly smaller version of
the
OA4. The OA design is a phenominal scope. Jon mentioned in a later post
that I sold my 6.5" which I did. I'm getting another OA from DGM. I'm
not
sure what's so bad about that one Jon? The design is really a great
design
for the aperature size. Neither of you have looked through the OA, I've
at
least looked though siblings of both designs.

Mike,

You seem very good at making assumptions. Dan has brought an OA to The
Conjunction some years, and I have indeed had a chance to look though an
OA4. There was also an OA 6.5 (or something around that aperture) at a
couple of local star parties.

Even though I have looked though an OA4, I have not spent a lot of time with
one, nor have I had a chance to compare one to a 4" APO, so I am hardly
going to express my opinion about how the two compare. I do have a good
idea what a phenomenal 4" scope can do, since we have had one here for many
years, but I am hardly going to pass judgment on two telescopes that were
not tested side by side.

I will say that, based on looking through a lot of scopes at a lot of
conventions, the differences between well executed scopes of different
designs having the same aperture are generally rather subtle (allowing a
little for central obstruction), and there are no telescopes that magically
overcome the limitations of their aperture.

Clear skies, Alan

"Stephen Paul" wrote in message
...

"Alan French" wrote in message
. ..

You haven't seen the Orion 100mm f/9 ED. You haven't looked though
an
OA4.
Somehow, though, you know which is better. You must be doing Psychic
Telescope Reviews, and I'll give them the credibility they deserve.

I have seen a couple of the OAs, but have not had an opportunity to
really
check one out. The one that showed up at our public Star Parties was
never
collimated. I once had a big interest in various off-axis reflectors -
Schiefs and Tri-Schiefs - but after seeing a bunch decided they had
nothing
to offer over a good, well made Newt, and Newts are easier to collimate.

Do I detect the pot calling the kettle black?

In what fashion? I said I have never had an opportunity to really check out
an OA, and my only comment was that the one at our star party was not
collimated. That was obvious to several folks who looked through it. I
don't see that I offered any opinion on how they performed - and I won't
unless I get a chance to use one extensively and compare it to another
quality 4".

As to my comments on other off-axis reflectors, I have actually seen and
tried a bunch of these over the years, and compared them to Newtonians of
similar aperture set up near by. The designs got a lot of good press, and I
was quite tempted to make one, but I have always been a fan of seeing a
scope in person before taking the plunge to make or buy. A bit different, I
would say, than making a guess about two telescopes I had never seen
(including one, I believe, that no one has seen).

Clear skies, Alan

BTW, do you know the variation of focus across the spectrum for the TV-76?

I don't, but I know my TV 76 is an "apo" when I look through it, and my Ranger
was a well corrected (and fast) achromat.
rat
~( );

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