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#11
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I have used a lot of telescopes in my time, but usually other peoples! However,
I went out and purchased a skywatcher 8" f5 on an HEQ5 mount just a couple of months ago. The mount is very good, and the optics are at least good, if not excellent. The OTA was collomited out of the box, which says a lot for the quality of the mirror cell. Cost? £575. The 2" 28mm lens is crap, but I have converted it to fit on my casio 8000SX. Not a bad deal! Just a thought, really. Regards, Geoff GJ |
#12
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Jonathan Silverlight wrote in message ...
You're right, but I'm saying he should save some money for later and just point the digital camera he's probably already got toward the eyepiece :-) As I found out a while ago, it really is that easy and the first picture will get him hooked! Agree entirely Jonathon. Having featureless pictures of the details you can't see is great fun. g Seriously though, it is unbelievably easy to capture as much as one can see visually. And sometimes more than one can see easily. Even with the camera just held up to the eyepiece like I do with the scope drive running. Highly recommended for those slightly jaded with visual observation due to endless poor seeing or light pollution and wondering what to do next. The Moon is a perfect target for "snaps". Just blast away and dump the rubbish frames when you've downloaded onto the computer. Remember to get a nice big storage device with the camera. 128Megs at least. They usually cheat and give you 16 or even only 8Megs which isn't much fun reformatting every five minutes. Don't buy cheap batteries either. Like I did and missed capturing most of the Mercury transit after the cloud had cleared! My Sony ones last for ages and I use a £12 turbo recharger from the supermarket for the new Sony spares. (which deflates them before pumping them back up again to ensure full pressure)g The Sony recharger was very expensive and put me off a fast recharger for far too long. Unless you like waiting 13 hours + to use your camera every time the batteries go flat. Then stick with the original Sony "Snailspace" (reg.) charger. This obviously won't apply to other makes. Oh, and get a Barlow to go with your digi camera. Trying to stick the camera up against a 6.4 (or even less) leaves you looking through a small round keyhole. With similar shaped pictures. A bit like Hollywood's idea of a telescopic view. The Barlow lets you use lower power eyepieces with nice big eye lenses to hold the camera up to. Am I getting too technical again? Chris.B |
#13
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Jonathan Silverlight wrote in message ...
You're right, but I'm saying he should save some money for later and just point the digital camera he's probably already got toward the eyepiece :-) As I found out a while ago, it really is that easy and the first picture will get him hooked! Agree entirely Jonathon. Having featureless pictures of the details you can't see is great fun. g Seriously though, it is unbelievably easy to capture as much as one can see visually. And sometimes more than one can see easily. Even with the camera just held up to the eyepiece like I do with the scope drive running. Highly recommended for those slightly jaded with visual observation due to endless poor seeing or light pollution and wondering what to do next. The Moon is a perfect target for "snaps". Just blast away and dump the rubbish frames when you've downloaded onto the computer. Remember to get a nice big storage device with the camera. 128Megs at least. They usually cheat and give you 16 or even only 8Megs which isn't much fun reformatting every five minutes. Don't buy cheap batteries either. Like I did and missed capturing most of the Mercury transit after the cloud had cleared! My Sony ones last for ages and I use a £12 turbo recharger from the supermarket for the new Sony spares. (which deflates them before pumping them back up again to ensure full pressure)g The Sony recharger was very expensive and put me off a fast recharger for far too long. Unless you like waiting 13 hours + to use your camera every time the batteries go flat. Then stick with the original Sony "Snailspace" (reg.) charger. This obviously won't apply to other makes. Oh, and get a Barlow to go with your digi camera. Trying to stick the camera up against a 6.4 (or even less) leaves you looking through a small round keyhole. With similar shaped pictures. A bit like Hollywood's idea of a telescopic view. The Barlow lets you use lower power eyepieces with nice big eye lenses to hold the camera up to. Am I getting too technical again? Chris.B |
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