Archive for the 'Astronomical Instruments' Category
Starfinder by DK Publishing
When I received this planisphere, my first impression was “Wow, this is a big guy!”. Well, it definitely is. Starfinder is published by DK Publishing which retails for USD30. Starfinder contains a mounted planisphere, a 72-page hardback beginner’s guide to the night sky, a red light and 44 constellation cards. For USD30, they sound cost-effective.
Continue reading ‘Review: Starfinder - Best Handheld Night Sky Learning Tool’
You can see the cmos clearly by clicking for a larger image. Yes, I mean very clear and large.
I was so happy to see the QHY5 arrived at my doorstep on 13 July 2007. This CMOS camera is designed by Prof. Qiu Hong-Yun for autoguiding and planetary imaging. Its violet hue metallic casing looks very nice and solid. It has a IR filter attached. Below the filter is the CMOS which has 1.30Mpixels and each pixel has an area of 5.2µm x 5.2µm. It has a guider port and a USB port. There’s a red LED too.
2 ports and 1 LED on the bottom of QHY5
Anyway, review on this cmos camera will be made within one weeks time. The curse of new equipment has come, the weather has changed to hazy. A lot of amateur astronomers have this weather curse (normally, cloudy days) after they got their new equipments but mine is due to the forest burning in Indonesia.
Image shift and mirror flop are the common phenomena seen on mirror type telescope, especially SCT. When either of them happens, you can see the image through the eyepiece shifting. The reason for these phenomena is the not-so-perfect movement (slightly to left or right) of the mirror. What’s the difference between them?
While focusing, “Image Shift”.
While slewing, “Mirror Flop”.
Both are actually the same thing. When focusing, you are doing the shift of the mirror back and forth, thus you made the imperfect movement and the movement caused the image shift; when slewing, gravity is doing it and it causes the mirror flop.
This diagoanl is probably the best investment I have done so far. The instant changing of magnification is really handy. Since a high quality 2″ diagonal with 97% transmission silver coating (dielectric coating available at $120 more), a SCT to 2″ adapter, 2″ to 1.25″ adapter and a dovetail connector is included in the package, S2 is really worth the price and is highly recommended for SCT users, especially those doing visual observing.
From top left counter-clockwise: 2″ to 1.25″ adapter, dovetail connector, SCT to 2″ adapter and the Denkmeier Power x Switch S2 diagonal
I bought the S2 (refer to the whole assembly) from OPT at USD389 before a 5% discount. I replaced my stock diagonal with this. I haven’t had the chance to try it under the starfield yet. The curse of clouds just come after I received the parcel.
Continue reading ‘New Equipment May 07 - Denk’s Power x Switch Diagonal’
Hello guys, I just got my Denkmeier PowerXSwitch diagonal, Baader Visual Solar Film, Bob Knobs, Telescope Optics and New CCD Astronomy yesterday from the Custom. I am going to post the photo and let you know more tomorrow. Tomorrow is the last day of my exam and I will be back with full force! 
If you want to know how to clean a mirror or a lens, I suggest you read Dr.Clay’s article first.
I learned all these after I just did my second cleaning (just for fun) again. It’s totally not advisable to clean the optics without absolutely need.
- Don’t clean the mirror or lens if there is absolutely no need
- If you can clean the optics with very soft brush, do it. Afterthat, you judge whether it’s still necessary to clean the optics.
- Dr.Clay judges the capability of the brush by pushing the tiny ends of the bristles hard against the cheek of your face, if you don’t find it pricking, the brush is suitable for optical cleaning. I find this very good.
- I did my cleaning under 0 air flow condition (Fan turned off). I was worried about the dust got onto the surface again.
- Do the cleaning under bright light source condition so that you can see the stains or anything left on the surface of the optics.
- When cleaning, you are advised to clean the optics by doing rotational motion in one direction. Never ever reverse.
- Don’t rub, just softly press through.
- Everything is done softly, no pressure applied.
If you remember, the price of Meade Max Mount rose from $29,999 to $39,999 this January. The price has been adjusted again and it’s effective from 1 April onwards. Not an April Fool job though.
The new price is $49,999. Why did they decide to raise it again? Meade had their Max Mount shown during CES 2007. Several stupid visitors said that the price of this gigantic mount must be around $100,000. The new Meade president was there… you know… their words made the president make this decision. Luckily the price is not $99,999. 
Holyshit… The cable bundled with the LPI is totally a shit. Just after using several times (How many times? I forgot…), the computer told me that the USB device is unable to be recognised. This made me extremely frustrated because I was planning to do the collimation the Monday night. I plug in, plug out, reinstall the driver, uninstall the driver and reinstall again. None of them helped. My experience told me it might be the cable problem so I replaced it with a spare USB cable stored in my drawer. The new cable works.
Why can’t Meade choose better cable for their cameras? Astronomical stuffs are so expensive but they included such a lousy cable in the box. Please, every manufacturer please make everything bundled with your product up to the standard. I just recalled, the diagonal bundled with my Meade 8″ LX90 was down.
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