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Post by Vondragonnoggin on Mar 13, 2014 11:27:04 GMT -5
Mikey, it wasn't really meant for existing scope owners. I came by this sight researching Istar scopes. If anyone reads this thread, I didn't want to leave the impression that I just never heard back on anything.
Ales provided me the information I was looking for and the rest is personal and won't put it out here. Suffice to say that I was impressed with Ales response and appreciative. He was very professional. Already know a lot of customers experience and many happy Istar owners. My reasons for not being an owner shall remain locked up. It's personal. Sorry. Know what you mean about the scrolling. Ughhh. I'm IIE binoviewing by the way. All I can say is WOW! Amazing what an IIE in binoview does (it's a biocular unit).
Sorry if it seems cryptic. Was not meant to be. Was meant to show the public that Istar exhibits professionalism despite type of customer or situation out of their control. It was supposed to be a good goodbye. Not bad.
See ya around.
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Post by Vondragonnoggin on Apr 7, 2014 9:39:57 GMT -5
I couldn't resist to come back and post a little info that might be interesting to potential comet hunter owners or existing comet hunter owners.
Image intensified astronomy. The comet hunter is geared towards IIE use with its fast F/5 focal ratio. The large 6" aperture should bring in whopping huge detail that cannot be matched in heavy light pollution with proper IIE filtering.
For general scanning, I'm using a Baader Red Longpass 610nm filter and for nebula and HII regions, a Baader 7nm H-Alpha narrowband. Let me tell you what IIE does with a 72mm ED doublet - from my backyard in white zone - Horsehead and flame nebula. Pillars in the Eagle nebula. With my 6" MCT and .5x reducer, the views of Orion's nebula and early morning at this time of year views of Lagoon, Triffid, Omega, and Eagle - views that are photo like in detail. My MCT is 141mm tested clear aperture by Dennis at Sky and Telescope, plus 38% CO. Now imagine what a 6" F/5 comet hunter from Istar could do....
Globs easily resolved to core, huge detail on HII nebulae, beautiful cluster views and even wisps of nebulosity around Pleiades.
This stuff is blowing my mind with detail.
Of course there is a somewhat hefty admission price buying a mil-spec Image Intensified device and adapters to be found (c-mount or T2 to nosepiece), but the rewards are outstanding.
Can't do planetary. Too bright and would damage IIE. Same with the moon. But then use your regular eyepieces for that stuff and Comet Hunter is not geared to planetary anyway.
I found used items and even instructions to build your own IIE for $200 if you make housing and find loupe for eyepiece. DIY eyepiece uses gen1 cascade tubes which are three gen 1 connected fiber optically and each stage amplifies the next. Just as bright as gen 3 but lower resolution, but still great for a lot of targets including globs and nebulae.
So, entry price to intensified viewing is variable depending on used or new and manufacture built or home built. Search around for. DIY instructions. They show up on several sites.
I went with a gen 3 monocular, a gen 3 biocular in 18mm tube format, and a gen3 25mm device and one gen 2+ in 25mm with Russian panoramic biocular eyepiece. Yes, I went crazy on it, but the views have proved to be all that and then some.
If no interest, then I'm sure Comet Hunters would be good in regular widefield views too, but if you want to see stuff similar to what the posts about the 9" H-Alpha scope does, you got to consider it.
Good luck to everyone in their viewing and clear skies!
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