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#11
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new telescope
When I lived in Hawaii, I used to take my 12.5 Dob down to Wikiki Beach area
for sidewalk astronomy. Now in that area, they have some kind of light amost every 15 to 20 ft, at midnight it's almost like daylight on the main blvd that runs through it. But even with all the LP in that area, I could and did show off the major planets and a few stars and even m42 from the sidewalk there. -- The Lone Sidewalk Astronomer of Rosamond Telescope Buyers FAQ http://home.inreach.com/starlord Sidewalk Astronomy www.sidewalkastronomy.info Astronomy Net Online Gift Shop http://www.cafepress.com/astronomy_net In Garden Online Gift Shop http://www.cafepress.com/ingarden Blast Off Online Gift Shop http://www.cafepress.com/starlords "Starboard" wrote in message oups.com... Good advice, Errol. Well Phil, pat yourself on the back. I have a pretty good teacher(s). (Thanks again for all your past help) Tell me, in *badly polluted* skies, does one benefit *as much* from more aperture? I mean doesn't it seem that at some point, additional aperture would, along with gathering more light from the object under observation, also gather more light from the pollution as well? Errol |
#12
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new telescope
Go with the XT-10
Will outperform any tiny aperture refractor out there. ;o) Telrad 2" wide AFOV eyepiece |
#13
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new telescope
wrote in message oups.com... Go with the XT-10 Will outperform any tiny aperture refractor out there. ;o) Telrad 2" wide AFOV eyepiece Beware the aperture monster. It _can_ overwhelm and defeat enthusiasm. I suggest getting a look at the XT10 in person before making a decision. While portable in two pieces for the strong of will and strong of back, it's awkward and difficult to move as an assembled unit without a handtruck. An XT8 that you take outside every chance you get, is better than an XT10 that sits in the corner, defeated. If I had to make the choice, I'd go with the 8. I've had the 10, and have concluded that a scope I can carry assembled from point A to point B, at will, is going to see more use. So, it may depend on whether or not you are the type of person who likes to get out a few times a week, or a few times a month. If the former, then smaller is better. If the latter, then by all means, get as large a scope as you can transport and pick your spot carefully, so that you can see as much of the sky as possible without having to move the scope. |
#14
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new telescope
You might consider whether you're going the Intelliscope route. Why?
Without the Intelliscope's altitude encoder, the Classic is super easy to assemble and disassemble. Not that the Intelliscope is all that hard. Disassembled, the XT10 is easily transported. Also, the XT10 Classic comes with a 9x50 finder. There's no reason to limit your aperature due to light pollution. In fact, a large aperature makes better light pollution filters more practical, since they dim the image. The downsides of an XT10 vs. an XT8 are more careful collimation (get a laser collimator), longer cooldown (get a fan), and slightly more coma with cheap eyepieces (use widefield designs like Orion Stratus, Meade QX and UWA, or Televue Nagler and Panoptic). The weight is a minor difference. |
#15
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new telescope
On Mon, 6 Mar 2006 07:58:57 -0500, "Stephen Paul"
wrote: wrote in message roups.com... Go with the XT-10 Will outperform any tiny aperture refractor out there. ;o) Telrad 2" wide AFOV eyepiece Beware the aperture monster. It _can_ overwhelm and defeat enthusiasm. I suggest getting a look at the XT10 in person before making a decision. While portable in two pieces for the strong of will and strong of back, it's awkward and difficult to move as an assembled unit without a handtruck. An XT8 that you take outside every chance you get, is better than an XT10 that sits in the corner, defeated. If I had to make the choice, I'd go with the 8. I've had the 10, and have concluded that a scope I can carry assembled from point A to point B, at will, is going to see more use. So, it may depend on whether or not you are the type of person who likes to get out a few times a week, or a few times a month. If the former, then smaller is better. If the latter, then by all means, get as large a scope as you can transport and pick your spot carefully, so that you can see as much of the sky as possible without having to move the scope. I live out in the country where there is little light pollution. I have an open area about 350 ft x 700 ft that is surrouded by trees but I don't think that I would have to do a lot of moving once set up. I will probably order one or the other in the next couple of weeks. I appreciate everyone's input. Like I said, I am very green at this, but looking forward to exploring the sky with a telescope. |
#16
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new telescope
If you have that large an area under dark skies, then get the biggest
scope you can manage with a handtruck. :-) I have roughly 200ft by 400ft of open space and I absolutely loved having the 12.5" F4.8 in a Discovery PDHQ structure because the square box base made it easy to handle with a handtruck. It only took a moment to move it from one spot to another. Unfortunately, where I live the temperatures change faster than a 12" mirror can keep up with. Only on rare occasions did the scope perform to its full potential. The 10" scope really didn't do much better in that regard through most of the year. The 6" Newt that I'm using now has little trouble tracking the temperature changes and takes but a half hour to 45 minutes to acclimate a full 20 degrees (F) from the garage to the backyard. Interestingly enough, the C9.25 does pretty well too, once it's cooled (I have a Lymax SCT cooler if needed, but letting it sit out for an hour or so before use is usually sufficient). I also have a feedback regulated heater on the corrector end, as well as an aluminum dewshield. I think that level of control over the corrector (consistent temperature differential with the outside air), and the closed tube design make it less susceptible to tube currents caused by changing temperature for the primary mirror. Of course, nothing helps in bad seeing. Anyway, enough rambling.... Good luck with your decision. |
#17
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new telescope
I believe an acquaintance owns one and I've looked through it. If it is the
same scope, don't worry about planets. It's a good telescope on all objects, a nice package. If it is the same scope though (darn this memory!) then you might keep in mind that the mount seems to be underweight for this large a telescope, and suffers from unsteady tracking because apparently the dovetail bar that allows the telescope to attach to the mount is too small and flexes as the scope is wobbled from side to side. The cure is to simply make a beefier version of the dovetail bar. Good Luck ! --- Dave "Friendly Advice" Nakamoto -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Pinprick holes in a colorless sky Let inspired figures of light pass by The Mighty Light of ten thousand suns Challenges infinity, and is soon gone "96redneck" wrote in message ... I have been watching post here for a couple of years. I took the advice of some of you and bought a pair of binoculars and have been star gazing for over a year now. I know a little about the sky now, but still very green. I'm about to buy my first telescope, and so far I've narrowed my choices to the Orion XT-8 or XT-10, but remain open for suggestions. If I go with the XT-10, how does it perform on the Planets and what accessories do you recommend? |
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