Re: [APML]: Just a Starfinder user...

[a.vannini@mclink.it (Alessandro Vannini)]

The Astro-Photography Mailing List
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Alessandro Cavallari <a-cavallari2@ti.com> on Tue, 08 Sep 1998 09:53:19
+0200 wrote:

>>What i want to ask to you is: There is anyone that is trying to get the 
>>best from his Starfinder and has some suggestion for me (everything!)?
>>I'll apreciate very much...!!!

It should be a good idea to improve the quality of the visual
observations by purchasing new eyepieces, such as the Series 4000 by
Meade (which you can save forever, even for future instruments).

I can't see othew ways to improve your starfinder: the equatorial german
mount isn't exactly a rocky mount, so it should be better to change it
from the scratch, rather than trying some exotic upgrade manouver... :-)

About the LX200, why don't you consider a new steady german mount? It's
billion times better than every fork mount you can find around,
especially if you plan to reach larger apertures, to go beyond the 8
inches diameter. A german mount, moreover, let you a great freedom in
choosing the optical tube, since it can easily carry refractors, little
SCT and heavy Schmidt cameras, and if you have both, you can think to
install them at the same time, or switch between the instruments in
seconds. Not to mention balancing problems, which arise very strongly
with the fork mounts... And what about the possibility to install a
payload at the end of the counterweights shaft? :-)

I've had a fork mount for about ten years, before purchasing my
FANTASTIC Losmandy G11 GEM; now I live happy and satisfied, waiting to
receive my new apochromatic 150 mm. diameter (f/6.6) refractor, and
finishing my TC245-based CCD camera in the meantime... :-)

-------------------------------------------------------------
Alessandro Vannini (from Rome, Italy) - a.vannini@mclink.it
http://www.mclink.it/personal/MC7872/deepvoid/deepvoid.htm

<< Nihil computandum a nobis alienum putamus >>

P.S.: it sounds very strange for me to speak english with an italian...
:-))) L'italiano e' una splendida lingua, amici miei :-)