[ATMoB-discuss] Mario's First Light

[valleli at rcn.com]

Matt,
I had it up at Stellafane to observe the Comets and everyone
loved it. I paid 

the WSP show price of $999 for the deluxe version and then $75
to ship it back 

to Boston. 

The main reason for buying it is to use at star parties where
fast setup is 

important.
  
I had the tube and struts put together at home, folded the
front and rear 

seats of my Jeep down and it fit with lots of room to spare.
The Rocker Box 

went to the other side behind the driver's seat.

It only took two or three minutes to set the 30 lb. rocker box
on a flat, 

level spot and added the 50lb. OTA by lowering it into the
bearing pads. 

I absolutely love the rifle sight because it has a dichroic
red/green-blue 

filter that maximizes the brightness of the stars without
affecting the red 

dot. 4 different targets on a turret. A wide range of target
brightnesses.

The optics are essentially perfect, although I have not pushed
it beyond 180X 

yet - atmospheric turbulence. But we easily saw Io transit
Jupiter and Saturn 

is its usual spectacle.

The light grasp gives it the wow! factor for beginners. 

I do not intend to take photos with it, but if Orion or
someone comes up with 

an alt-az drive, I will consider it.

It certainly will be easy to put encoders on it for finding
faint objects. 

In addition to the better finder, the EP holder is a 2"
Crayford, complete 

with adjustments and a 1 1/4-inch adapter      .

The Azimuth bearing is a ring of roller bearings sandwiched
between two thin 

steel plates. Friction is adjustable.

The Meade wide field 26mm EP that comes with it is nice, with
70 deg. apparent 

Field but does not compare to a TeleVue.

The field covered the entire Orion Nebula and many faint
filaments showed that 

are difficult to see. 

However, there is a lot of coma at the edge of the field
because of the F/5 

primary mirror. It is made of water-whiter plate glass and the
cooling fan is 

properly located at its center, where most heat is retained. 

To me the deluxe version is well worth the extra money.
Al Nagler loaned my a 2-inch ParaCorr and it worked perfectly
to remove the 

coma without introducing color. There was a small residual of
astigmatism 

which can be removed with one of the Panoptic designs. I spent
$300 the next 

day to get my own ParaCorr but do not yet have a Panoptic EP.

I hope I don't sound like a Meade salesman but I really like
this scope. It 

doesn't have the bells and whistles of my vintage C-8 but will
be a lot easier 

to set up.

Initially it takes about 30 minutes to screw together the
rocker box pieces. 

After that, I leave it together because it makes a good nest
for the 

eyepiece-diagonal cage. I just wrap the cage in a soft cloth.
I lay the three 

strut pairs alongside, also protected against scratches. The
Mirror Cage
is about 40 lbs. but I have a telescope tote from Mike
Costanza at Astronomy 

Shoppe that makes it very easy to lift into the car. 

I plan to number the struts so they always go back to the same
location. The 

hexapod design is superior to the Surrier Truss for this
application. Lighter, 

but just as strong.

On arriving in front of the Porter Turret, I set up the scope
but noted a 

small mis-alignment. This was probably because the OTA was
suspended between 

mirror and diagonal cages. 

I forgot my Glatter laser aligner but a small tweak of the
primary mount fixed 

the adjustment.

One must be careful not to ding the primary or diagonal cages.
They are made 

of thin metal and also. the baked enamel can chip away.

I have no doubt that this scope would fit in a VW or
Mini-Cooper. If the 

weight of the primary sub-assembly is too much for you, go to
one of the 

smaller models.

There are a few things that need improvement:
A black cloth shroud to go around the struts.
The aforementioned encoders with digital readout.
A method of removing and adding counterweights. The Panoptic
and ParaCorr add 

about 10 lbs.! Currently, I am using sheet lead to wrap around
the back end of 

the primary cage.
Sturdy plastic covers to protect the spider and diagonal when
disassembled, as 

well as the primary cage. The current thin plastic cover is to
weak should 

something accidentally be dropped on it. 
Hope this helps, (without being confusing)
Paul