--- Richard Tenney <retenney@yahoo.com> wrote:

Debbie Whitaker (who recently picked up a TV-102 on Astromart) just sent me this post from the TeleVue user group; I thought it was interesting reading and worth passing on...

Interesting post. Commentary: The Tak probably showed better contrast than the TV's because TV uses flocked paper interiors, whereas Tak's use a precision baffle system. On my homemade refractors, I use BOTH (for the ones I build for myself, that is.) The big SCT's should have shown MUCH more planetary detail than the little refractors. I am inclined to think that the SCT's were not collimated. Eyeball collimation is insufficient in a compound telescope, it must be right-on, and out-of-collimation secondaries are pandemic on SCT's. It's only been in the last few years that SCT manufacturers have even talked about secondary collimation, I suspect there are a LOT of uncollimated SCT's out there, with unsuspecting owners. This wouldn't have been noticeable on deep sky objects, where aperture is still indeed king, even when poorly collimated! Interesting post, Rich. Thanks for forwarding it. Chuck __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Send FREE video emails in Yahoo! Mail! http://promo.yahoo.com/videomail/