Oh to view through the scope again!!!

Seems like forever since my last session. The moon can do that to you, but couple that with bad weather and some aches and pains and it's been over 2 weeks since my last long session. Hopefully the weather changes soon here while the new moon shows up. I have a few Messiers I would like to check off before they leave for the year.

Update on the BO/TMB Eyepiece Sale

It seems that this is not a sale, but an actual reduction in price. The new retail price is $59. Here is a link to the High Point Scientific price list.

Great Eyepiece Deals

Seems like the holiday season has started early for eyepiece lovers. Televue and Baader have some great sales running and it seems BO/TMB has joined them, well at from one vendor.

To start, in honor of the newly released Ethos, Televue has commissioned a 13% of sale on many of their eyepieces and some barlows. Radians that were selling at $249 are now $212. The Naglers and Panoptics are also on sale. Here is a link to the Televue sale at Oceanside Photo and Telescope which runs until December 31, 2007.

Baader Planetarium has a $30 off sale on their Hyperion series. Normally these run at $129 and are now $99. The series ranges from 3.5mm to 21mm in focal length, while the FOV is 68 degrees with 20mm of eye relief. Here is a link to the Baader sale at OPT which runs until December 31, 2007.

The BO/TMB sale is not well advertised. It seems that Highpoint Scientific has them on sale for $59, which is $40 off their normal price. This would make them the bargain of the year. I have the 4mm abd would love to add another to my collection. Here is a discussion over at Cloudy Nights where I first heard about the sale.

Of the sales so far, the BO/TMB fits right in with my budget, or lack there of. I hope the sale runs for a long enough time for me to decide.

First Venus Sighting of the Season

This may sound like an odd observation, but I just went up to shut off my little one's feeding pump and decided to pull up her window shade for a look out at the sky. Her window is on the second floor and faces due east. As I looked out all I could think was, "boy oh boy, Venus is huge." Can't wait to get the telescope out and view it and Saturn. I have not seen either with the new scope.

My First Scope

This piece of history has been hiding in my parent's basement for nearly 20 years. I decided to open the box and present it for whomever to see. The views through it are not good anymore, too much fungus on the glass.

The scope is a Jason Empire StarSearch 303. It has a 50mm objective and is 625mm in focal length. This makes it an F12 scope. With it, I used to view Mars, the Moon and even caught Halley's Comet back in 1986.

Gallery of WO EZ-Touch Images

Because of my interest of the EZ-Touch mount, I decided to ask Cloudy Night forum members to post pictures of their scopes on their mounts. I have received some great results so far. The capability of the scope seems to be even better than I thought!

EZ-Touch Gallery

Alt-AZ Mount Research (WO Easy Touch vs Vixen Porta)

I have been looking at a couple of Alt-AZ mounts to replace my EQ1 style mount. The current mount came from the Bushnell Skychief III and is not meant to handle the weight of the fully loaded Orion 80ED. Views through the scope are not steady and I have to resort to using the scope as an Alt-Az to easily move it.

I have resolved to get an Alt-AZ over a GEM(German Equatorial Mount). I don't really need a computer right now to locate objects. I enjoy using an atlas or 2 to help me locate objects. Also, I figure if I go for a GEM it would have to be for astrophotography., and for that I would consider no less than an Orion Sirius. This means a minimum investment of $750 for a used mount. I would like to spend no more than $450 for a mount at this time. Another reason for an Alt-AZ would be portability. It would be nice to just throw ever thing in the car and go for a drive to a dark sky and then be set up within minutes.

The mounts I like within that price range are the Vixen Porta Mount and the William Optics EZ-Touch mount. The Porta can handle up to a low weight 4" refractor. The sweet spot for stability is probably a 3" APO refractor. The EZ-Touch can handle up to a 5" scope, with the sweet spot being a 4" tube. The latter mount can also handle 2 scaope at ones.

I have seen the Port for as low as $275 used. While the EZ-Touch has been listed as low as $400 used with a tripod. I am now leaning toward the EZ-Touch because of the ability to add larger or multiple scopes.

The Search Has Begun

For as far back as I can remember I have had an interest in the dark skies. Maybe it is because I am part of the Star Wars generation or maybe it was Carl Sagan's old Cosmos PBS series. I first started looking up with a Jason 50mm tabletop refractor telescope back in the early 1980's. I remember the nights when I would set it on the family coffee table and point out the window with the light out. With that little scope, I had my first closeup views of the moon and some decent views of Mars. Also, this little scope did some hard work on Comet Halley. What wonderful sights it gave me


In the early 1990's I moved up to a Bushnell SkyChief III. It is a 60mm f15 refractor scope. This scope really served me well. Mars, Venus, Saturn and Jupiter were all tracked with this great scope. In 1997, the scope was set to work on Comet Hal-Bopp. It did quite well.

During the late 1990's and early 2000's the scope was not pulled out much. This was due to full time work and apartment living. It was not until we bought our house that the scope was setup again. Even then, because of some run ins with some rather smelly nocturnal animals, skunks that is, viewing was limited to sa couple occasions per year.

In 2004, my wife surprised with me with a nice Orion Scenix 10x50 binocular. It was used handled to scan constellations and the moon. Not until early 2007 did I decide to mount the binos. I ordered an adapter from OrionTelescopes and placed them on my video tripod. This made for much better viewing.

At this time, I also decided to upgrade the eyepieces on the scope to 1.25". Also from Orion, a hybrid diagonal and 20mm Sirius plossl was ordered. What a difference this made. Now armed with a mounted binocular and "souped" up scope, I decided to search for DSO's (Deep Space Objects). I first viewed the easy ones, M42(Orion Nebula), M45(Pliedes Star Cluster), M44(Beehive Star Clister). Saturn also proved a very nice subject. later in the winter I added 10mm and 25mm Sirius plossls. The 10mm gave me some really nice views of Saturn.

Springtime came and I was itching to get a scope with better optics. Refractors were still my favorite, so I start looking high and low for one. After doing quite a bit of research, especially on the Cloudy Nights website, I decided to go for an Orion 80ED APO telescope. It is an 80mm f7.5 ota. My reasoning was that the scope was portable yet could work well at higher mags because it was an apochromatic. As a Father's Day gift, I ordered the scope and a WO 1.25" dielectric diagonal from Oceanside Photography and Telescope. Because of costs, I decided to keep the same mount that carried the SkyChief III. A new mount would be much better but I am making due for now. I also added a 9x50 RACI find from Smart Astronomy on ebay.

The scope has been a pleasure to use this summer. With it, I have had great views of Jupiter. On a couple of occasions at 60x, a couple of cloud bands have been seen across the planet. The scope has also provided me with first time sightings of globular clusters M13 and M92, galaxies M31, M32, M81, M82 and also a few star clusters. The apo optics give a crisp contrasty image, especially on the moon. Here is a picture of the moon I took at prime focus with a Sony Alpha A100 DSLR.

At the funds permit, I would like to add a higher power eyepiece. The BO/TMB Planetaries look real good. Later I would like to replace the plossls with some better glass, maybe Vixen LVWs or the TMB Paragons. Also, a better mount is in order, ALT/AZ first, then a good EQ mount for tracking and picture taking. For now, I am enjoying the views that the scope gives me.