Fred Ley

Hi, Here are a few images of the telescope on the Zeiss web site when it was being assembled at the Zeiss factory that gives us an idea of what it looks like. Everyone would like to have a 90-inch telescope or 2.3-meters for those that use the metric system. Sorry about that, but I can't get used to metrics. -Fred

Andreas, Enjoed posting number II from the convention. Pictures certainly are worth a billion words. Perhaps at the next get-together I will give a couple of talks. Again, thanks for the updates. -Fred

Andreas, Thanks for posting the images of the convention. I can't be there this time and greatly welcome your postings. Have Lots of Fun, -Fred

Hi Andreas, Yeah, when I logged on this morning and saw the "Astrovox" logo where photographs should be I figured that Dr. Astrovox was busy in his laboratory working on the site. -Fred

I mentioned, a while back, and on a different Astrovox thread that the person I mainly listen to, among others, is Jonn Serrie. Have seven of his cd's. At Amazon.com one can hear short samples of his music. Here is the amazon link and the link to his web site. -Fred His site... http://www.vipinfo.com/jonn/ Amazon samples... http://www.amazon.com/gp/recsradio/radio/B00008IUWP/ref=pd_krex_listen_dp_img?ie=UTF8&refTagSuffix=dp_img

These sites may be of help. -Fred http://murison.alpheratz.net/calculators/OrbitalElements http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/iau/Ephemerides/ http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/neo_elem

I was unable to make it, hope to be able to make it next time. At least it looks like the event was well attended. -Fred

Well, I guess I know where I'll be this Saturday night. Looking through an eyepiece and sucking up photons. Actually I have seen and taken some nice slides of the telescope but have never observed through it. I have heard that the 16-inch lens is of a superior quality. -Fred

I thought that I might throw in a few suggestions. Before you go out and purchase a telescope, it would be better if you went to a local star party and looked through other individuals instruments. That would give you an idea as to what they can do. Ask questions (how else do we learn) as to how heavy is the telescope, does it come with a clock drive or can one be bought later on, pricing, accessories available, ease of use, issues with collimation (maybe a person would prefer a refractor as they pretty much do not need collimation), market resale value, how much weight can the mounting support (one doen't want to buy an instrument and load up the mount with a guide scope, ccd camera, electric focusers, heavy eyepieces only to find out that they have exceeded the laws of physics). How one plans to use the instrument also plays a role. If galaxies is your iterest, then buy a light bucket. The comfortable chairs that pivot in azimuth and altitude are great for binocular viewing. As to making one for a telescope, I would proceed with caution. Many years ago a club member made an 8-inch Newtonian binocular. It was alt-azimuth in configuration. It worked great. The one drawback is that the high magnifications also amplified his heart beat and the image "jumped" with each beat in the eyepiece. I suppose that one could make an instrument that could mask out the heart beat, but it would take additional work to get to that point. Wayne Schmidt's telescope was featured in a back issue of Sky & Telescope in the 90's. Here is a link that will show you his instrument on my web site. It is on the third row and first one on the left. http://www.instrumentsoflight.com/iolsampler.html -Fred

Hi Ourania. I noticed that you have applied felt to the inside of your tube. From looking at your photos, it looks like the felt is grey in color. It would be preferable to use optical black flocking paper. You can read more about that at this link to Edmund Scientific http://www.edmundoptics.com/onlinecatalog/displayproduct.cfm?productID=1502 One could get some flat black paint in a spray can as a last resort. You may be aware that most issues in a Newtonian arise from the thermal current that are located immediately above the surface of the primary mirror. By having a fan perpendicular to the surface of the mirror, it would continually draw the air currents away form the mirrors surface and greatly imrove the image quality. There is an article about this procedure in a past issue of Sky & Telescope. I have it stored somewhere on my computer. Once located, I can post the link here for you to further read. Don't forget to place a baffle inside your focuser, that also helps immensly. Again, there is information on that at the S & T website too. -Fred

The view of Mars is not the same as it is observed at night. The main difference is the contrast. There is very little contrast. I have never sat down and used my collection of color filters to see just what details they may improve upon. But the view is interesting since the observation is being done in broad daylight. -Fred

Hi, Just want to add my two bits. I have seen Mars during mid-day in a telescope and have also seen Sirius through an 8x50 viefinder. There are roughly about 600 stars that can be observed during daylight hours. -Fred