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[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Hi Joe,

Interesting website you have here, and nice to find one locally. I've been involved with Cloudynights.com for a few months now and look forward to participating in this one as well.

A little about me, I live in Naperville and work as an industrial hygienist for the U.S. EPA. I work downtown in the Federal Center. I'm an engineer by degree and have been interested in astronomy since junior high school. I started out in high school with a Criterion RV-6 Dynascope, a nice, GEM mount 6" Newt, kept that through college and ended up selling it as it was too much to move around with me. I spent most of the next 20 years or so really just using my binoculars.

About two years ago, I bought a Nexstar 80GT and that rekindled my interest. I also discovered Astromart!

Currently I have three scope, an Orion ED80 refractor, residing on the modified Nexstar GT GOTO mount, a Meade ETX105 and Skywatcher 102mm achromat on a Skyview Pro mount. I've also built a mount which allows me to use a apir of binoculars on the Nexstar GOTO mout as well. I've also accumulated a nice collection of eyepieces, almost all of them bought off Astromart. I've got a pretty complete set of Sirius Plossls, 32, 25, 12.5, 10 and 7.5mm, plus my premium kit which consists of a 2" GSO 30mm EP, a 24mm Panoptic, a 19mm Axiom, a Pentax 14mm XL, and a 9m Nagler, plus an Orion Shorty Plus barlow and a 2.5x Powermate. i look forward to posting more in the future!

Take care,

John

[Al Degutis]

John,

Welcome. I see you have an Orion ED80. I keep reading a lot of good things about that scope. Of all your telescopes, where does the ED80 rank?

[jglover]

Al said:

John,

Welcome. I see you have an Orion ED80. I keep reading a lot of good things about that scope. Of all your telescopes, where does the ED80 rank?

Thanks Al, for the welcome!

The ED80 is my favorite scope overall. If you've read the reviews on this scope, it really does perform like an APO for about a quarter of the cost. The optics are superb, the mechanics are what you'd expect from a Synta-made scope. The Crayford focuser is good but you do need to take it apart, degrease it and relube with a good quality lithium grease, then is is is pretty nice. I also replaced the visual back with a Mercury Systems compression ring back.

I also like the size, it is small enough to use as a grab and go scope when I don't feel like dragging out the Skyview Pro mount. I modified a Celestron Nexstar 80GT mount with a Baader bracket, so I can run my ED80 as a grab and go GOTO scope when time is limited.

For planetary work and close double, the ETX105 still has the edge over the ED80 simply because it has double the focal length and more aperture in the 105 is a bit better for DSOs but for sheer convenience and nice, crisp contrasty views, the ED80 is a great scope.

[Al Degutis]

John,

You NEED to bring the ED80 out to a Chicago Astronomer star party one of these days so I can see it in action. I'm tired of reading about all the different equipment. I want to see through it.

[jglover]

Al said:

John,

You NEED to bring the ED80 out to a Chicago Astronomer star party one of these days so I can see it in action. I'm tired of reading about all the different equipment. I want to see through it.

I'd love to bring the scope out sometime, it is just a matter of schedules right now! And, although maybe I should not bring this up, but the ED80 is on sale right now at Orion, for only $399.............

[Al Degutis]

jglover said:

And, although maybe I should not bring this up, but the ED80 is on sale right now at Orion, for only $399.............

A $100 savings. For those not familiar with the ED80, or ED100, the $399/499 price is for just the OTA, no mount or tripod. If I only had the money. My next purchases will probably be eyepieces but not until 2005. I was told by the CEO (my wife) that I've reached my spending limit for this year. Hmmmm, I need to up next years budget somehow. ;D

[jglover]

Al said:

A $100 savings. For those not familiar with the ED80, or ED100, the $399/499 price is for just the OTA, no mount or tripod. If I only had the money. My next purchases will probably be eyepieces but not until 2005. I was told by the CEO (my wife) that I've reached my spending limit for this year. Hmmmm, I need to up next years budget somehow. ;D

When I got my ED80, I went for an Orion "second" scope, the price was about $430. I'm kind of in the same boat here with my chief financial officer as well. I'm afraid my next purchase is going to be carpeting.....

My next gear purchase is going to have to be a bigger aperture scope. I've been keeping my eye on the Meade outlet as they've been feature 8" Newt OTA off and on on eBay for right around $200. I figure all I need is a set of rings and I'm good to go with my Skyview Pro mount. Unfortunately between my ED80 purchase this year and my eyepieces, I've used up my budget here as well.......next fiscal year I suppose!

[jglover]

Ok, a bump from the past! Been some time since I've been on this board as I've had a bit of a hiatus from observing, but just thought I'd get back into the swing of things here and update my intro. No change in job status or work but my current equipment has changed quite a bit. now my two main scopes are a William Optics Zenithstar 66SD and a Megrez 102SV. The 66 usually rides on a Vixen Porta Mount or on a used Celestron SLT while the 102 sits atop a Celestron ASGT. Both are terrific scopes and to me just about the perfect set up.

For a change of pace I also have a Meade ETX105 UHTC when i want stupid, ridiculous high powers!

I'd thought of doing some imaging a few years back so I acquired second a pair of Orion scopes, a Skyview Pro 6 inch f/5 Newtonian and an F/5 ST120mm achromat. I've also got a Vixen f/12 A70Lf which came as an extra on the Porta mount. Nice little scope for planets but a crappy focuser with outstanding optics.

Finally my son has a 6 inch f/8 Dob,, which I guess is my light bucket (or pail perhaps?).

I've also seriously upgraded my eyepiece with some green glass, I've got a TeleVue 32mm Plossl, a 24mm Panoptic and three Naglers, a 13T6, 9T6 and a 5T6, all supplemented by a TV 2x Barlow. I also added a Burgess optics binoviewer with two pairs of 17mm and 12mm WA EPs. There's also the odd assortment of Plossls lying around, which shipped with the scopes, so I also have pair of 25mm Plossl to use with the binos.

The WO scopes also came with bonuses, some SWAN EPs, a 33mm and 25mm 2" eyepieces, a SWAN 15mm and a WO 8-24mm zoom.

Finally, I couldn't resist a sale on the PST/Hard Case combo from Woodland Hills a couple years ago, so I can keep busy during the daylight hours.

So that's the latest update here on the gear. Hopefully this will hold me for a while. i do find I tend to enjoy using the refractors more than the mirror scope, though the ETX does have some seriously nice optics in it as well.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

John,

It certainly has been a long while since I last heard from you.

Great that you are back in the game and with an arsenal of top shelf instruments.

Hope you have the chance to join the Chicago Astronomer crew sometime soon....before the chill of winter.

[jglover]

Definitely Joe, I'll try to find the time. Taking a break now from messing around with a couple of scopes tonight, working on getting Skytools and Sky Safari set up wirelessly to run the ASGT mount. Wired has been no problem but tackling the wireless issue with the Android tablet is a chore. Looks as if I'm going to have to go with a Bluetooth serial adapter to make it work. My Samsung tablet just will not see the WiFi signal like the laptop or iPhone does. I've ordered a couple of cheap BT parts off eBay and hope they'll do the trick!

I did not see you were at Adler on Tuesday until after I had gotten home. A shame too as I had driven in to the office that day so it would have been a breeze over to Adler from my office at Jackson and Clark. Hopefully next time!