Acer wrote:
...Celeste being a 2000mm f:10 Celestron Schmidt-Cassegrain scope ;-)
One phrase sums it up: Oh my poor aching back and neck. <moan>
Yessiree, picked up this monster, along with 16, 32 and 40mm eyepieces
(the last two being Tele-Vue, 32's a Plossl, whatever that means), and I
forget the same of this doohickey at the moment, but it shines a
bulls-eye
type target of variable brightness onto a screen; view sky thru screen
and
use that to pinpoint object of interest, fine tune with the side-mounted
spotting (?) scope, and view thru the main eyepiece. Name ends with a
- -dar, I think.
Tripod must've weighed 50pounds by itself. Perhaps 20 for the scope,
and mounting hardware, including (yes!) the motor that moves the scope
with the earth's rotation.
Hard part was craning my neck and bending down at various angles to view
the moon/planets. Killed my neck, knees, and back. Oooo.
---------------------------------------------------------------
I have the same scope. Mine's probably a bit older though since I
bought it in 1974. Of course, a little later on I just HAD to have an
OM-1 to stick on the end.
Some comments:
I didn't repeat all of your post but you mentioned chromatic
abberation. If there's chromatic abberation it's not likely from the
scope. Mirror optics do not have chromatic abberation and the Schmidt
corrector plate on the front is so thin as to introduce only a teeny
tiny amount.
Tele-Vue is very expensive stuff so the eyepieces should be of excellent
quality. "Plossl" is a particular optical design for eyepieces. 4
elements in 2 groups. Gives a moderately wide "apparent" field of view
of about 50 degrees. Apparent field is what you'd see if you were using
the eyepiece as a loupe. Actual field of view is the apparent field
divided by the magnification. Magnification is scope focal length
(2000mm) divided by eyepiece focal length.
Your comments about the weight of the tripod and mount along with so
many contortions for viewing lead me to believe that 1) This scope is
mounted on a German equatorial mount instead of the more common
Celestron fork mount and/or 2) Maybe you didn't pick up the star
diagonal.
You can't do anything about the type of mount but you can go back and
look for the star diagonal if you didn't get one. A star diagonal is
two tubes at right angles with a prism or mirror at the corner. You
insert the star diagonal between the eyepiece and the scope whenever it
would mimimize your viewing contortions. Erecting diagonals are also
available (correct right/left and top/bottom). These have a 45 degree
bend.
Your T adapter will allow you to get great pictures of the moon and
nebulae. Nebulae will be tougher since you need to make a long
exposure. The polar axis must be accurately aligned with the polar axis
of the earth and you must accurately guide the scope to make up for
alignment, motor speed and gear train variations. Planets will be very
tough. You will need some way to magnify the image beyond the
telescope's 2000mm focal length. Long as it is it ain't long enough...
even for Jupiter and Saturn. Good luck!
ps: If you're in a sufficiently dark area and your eyes are dark adapted
you should be able to see some color in Jupiter's belts with an 8 inch
scope. The colors will be very faint, pastel shades of blue, brown and
maybe even pink in the red spot.
Chuck Norcutt
Woburn, Massachusetts, USA
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