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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;kaparthy, post: 7837817, member: 57463&quot;]My other hobby is astronomy. I am an Amateur Affiliate member the AAS and several other clubs, including Astronomers Without Borders. I serve on an AAS committee for professional-amateur collaboration and I edit a monthly column for the History of Astronomy Division. My observing programs are modest, but ahead of changing jobs and taking a pay cut, I put some investment into my future viewing. I am still building the equipment set--I need a finder and a tripod--but so far...</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH]1347767[/ATTACH]</p><p>Nagler is famous as a top-tier engineering firm dedicated to eyepieces. Most of their products cost what I have paid for a telescope. However, I found this on the shelf of a retail store (electronically, not in person). It was inventoried in 2014. It is two generations old in terms of engineering. I was able to buy it for about a third of the price of a current model. It is a wide view 82 degrees. The 7mm focal length with my new 115-mm (4.5-inch) apochromatic f/7 refractor will deliver about 115X. (Magnification is not everything, sometimes not much of anything, but in this case, the wide view will be fine.)</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH]1347769[/ATTACH]</p><p>This is nominally a Meade, but it does not have all of the Meade markings. It was on close-out as a warehouse left-over. Also 82 degrees field of view and waterproof. It was a steal of a deal. 14mm will be about 57.5X.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH]1347773[/ATTACH]</p><p>What they will be used with is an apochromatic triplet refractor. It has three lenses up front tuned to reduce aberration to near zero. The aperture is modest (again, 115 mm), but the quality glass promises uncompromised viewing -- once I get to an uncompromised viewing site. I live in the city.</p><p>[ATTACH]1347779[/ATTACH]</p><p>I also bought a lot of hard work with a pretty face: an 8-inch Newtonian reflector that was factory reconditioned after a return. At 22 lbs = 10 kg it is an easy carry for me. But it is heavier than the rating of my current tripod and it and the 115 mm refractor will get a new mount and stand. So, far, everyone is out-of-stock on just about everything. The supply chain is still recovering from Covid.</p><p><br /></p><p>The price was hard to pass up, 55% of retail. Then, after I pulled the trigger, I began building my documentation flle and discovered that the very (very) short focal length makes this f/3.9 telescope difficult to collimate. My first rough guess at alignment verified that: the stars are lots of little lines and not many circles. So, I spent a sizable fraction of the cost on collimation equipment and a standard handbook:</p><p>[ATTACH]1347774[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>The thing is that back in February, I finally got tired of trying to collimate my Celestron 130 -- my first adult scope from 2014 -- and I donated it to the Goodwill along with the collimation tool I bought. I thought that I was dedicated to refractors. Like numismatics, astronomy has its dark side.</p><p>======================</p><p>Michael E. Marotta</p><p>Member AAS&nbsp;&nbsp; BAA&nbsp; SAS&nbsp;&nbsp; SPA&nbsp; ASP ALPO AWB</p><p>=======================[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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