ALCOVE Database ®

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Our Observing Instruments                                               

On this page, I provide you with a list of our observing instruments and accessories we use with Gamze during our observing sessions. As you can see, both our telescopes and their accessories represent a wide variety and range, most of them commonly available in the market to the dedicated amateur astronomer. You may also notice that this list is enlarging every other day (especially after astronomy conventions), as a result of our never-ending drive for new and improved gadgets!

 

Equipment Reviews:

For the last couple of years, since we have started our ALCOVE Database ® website, we kept receiving queries for insights regarding the scopes and accessories we own. I tried to provide individual responses to these queries on a case by case basis so far. Finally, we have decided to include short reviews for some of these instruments, representing my own comments, problems I noticed during our observing sessions and solution recommendations. Please feel free to contact us as usual to ask your questions on topics not covered in the below reviews. We appreciate your visit to our website! To read more in-depth equipment reviews, please check out the links below.

 

SELECTED ASTRONOMICAL EQUIPMENT REVIEW LINKS 

Astronomical Equipment Reviews
Astronomical Observing with Telescopes
Chip Baines' Product Descriptions and Reviews
Cloudy Nights Telescope and Accessories Reviews, by M8 Inc.
Darwin Bagley's Reviews
Excelsis Ratings, ratings for many instruments including astronomy equipment. 
Joe Bergeron's Equipment Reviews
NOVAC Telescope Reviews
Rick's Low to Mid Range Telescope Review Web Site
Rod Mollise's SCT-User Mailing List Home Page
SCT Tips, by Ted Kurkowski
SkyNews Magazine Telescope Reviews
Sky & Telescope Test Reports, pay per report.
Telescope Owner Resources, by The Open Directory Project.
Telescope Reviews by Jason Blaschka  
The Telescope Review Web Site, by Ed Ting of New Hampshire. A short note: when I met Ed during my wife's and mine first Stellafane convention in 1998, I did not know who he was. He gave me his astronomy business card when we were observing in complete darkness. Very much later, when I checked the card and read his name, I said to myself: "Darn! I should have talked to him more to ask his advice on many things".
Todd Gross' Equipment Reviews

 

OUR PREFERRED VENDORS 

Adorama Camera, New York City, NY
Apogee Inc., Union, IL
High Point Scientific, Montague, NJ
Jim's Mobile, Inc., Lakewood, CO
Orion Telescopes and Binoculars, Watsonville, CA
Rivers Camera Shop, Dover, NH
Scope Tronix, Cape Coral, FL
Behind-the-scenes stories coming up soon !

 

Monocular:

1) 8x30 - Russian made (used as a finderscope on the 8" Newtonian)
2) 20x60 - Russian made (used as a finderscope on the 8" Newtonian)

Binoculars:

3) 4x20 - Russian made
4) 10x25 - Tasco
5) 8x21 - Orion Visulite  (acquired in April 2003)
6) 8x30 - Zeiss/Jena (manufactured in 1938)
7) 8x40 - Tasco  (purchased in March 2003)
8) 7x50 - Russian made
9) 10x50 - Bushnell  (purchased in December 1997)
10) 15x70 - Barska (purchased in June 2002), you can read a third party review at this link.

HALDUN'S REVIEW: I heard about these binoculars the first time from Tal Mentall of Sky and Telescope at a monthly meeting of the ATMoB. I was very impressed by their quality that I ordered one pair right away. I also had in mind to take them to our trip to Hawai'i for the AAVSO's meeting in July 2002 (which I did). These are a heck of good pair of binos, with blue-colored fully-coated optics, BAK-4 prisms, nice 4.4^o field of view and retractable rubber eyeguards (a handy feature for observers wearing eyeglasses). Their weight of less than 3 lbs (1.75 kgs) allows the observers to easily hold them in their hands for a prolonged time. To tell the truth, I never felt the need of using a tripod with these binos. The only drawback with these 15x70's (at least with my unit) is that the central focusing mechanism gets loose quickly, especially when turned upwards and pushed toward my glasses. This requires refocusing very often. Similar products are sold under different brand names, for instance Galileo and Oberwerk.

11) 12x80 - Perl Vixen  (purchased in June 1988).

HALDUN'S REVIEW: I bought these Japanese binoculars when I was living in Paris, France. Although they are rather heavy (almost 5 lbs = 2.5 kgs) and a good camera tripod is highly recommended, they can still be hand-held for short periods of time. Their generous 4^o field of view yields one of the best images I have ever witnessed.

12) 25x100 - Apogee (purchased in December 2002)
You can read some reviews at Excelsis Ratings (click on Astronomy, Equipment Reviews, Binoculars).

HALDUN'S REVIEW: I believe I was one of the first customers to order these new binoculars from Apogee Inc.. After their delivery in mid-December (usually there is a back order for a couple of weeks) I was able to take my binos out to the field and to use them in my variable star observing session on January 12, 2003. It was a freezing (30^oF, -2^oC) but very clear New England night. The Apogee 25x100's performed exquisitely well. The feeling was like looking through a rich-field binocular-telescope thanks to the huge objectives and 2.5^o field of view. The optics were perfect and I did not notice any defects. The only difficult thing to do was adjusting individual focus barrels of eyepieces with gloves on (since the binos were new, there was more friction on the barrels). Even though I was wearing my glasses, the eye relief was quite comfortable (15mm per Apogee Inc.) and the binos did not show any sign of vignetting. When I made my estimates of variables, I was able to go down to magnitude 9.5 easily, despite a first-quarter moon and heavy light pollution from Boston (just to the north of my observing site). To conclude my session, I turned the binos to Jupiter. The planet's huge disk and its Galilean satellites popped into view. That was a breathtaking sight! When the seeing conditions were perfect for a couple of seconds, several belts on the planet were easily visible. On the outside, the binoculars look very nice, sturdy, showing good coated (multi?) optics. BAK-4 prisms yield crystal-clear images. No false colors were visible when I looked at Jupiter. Of course, they are very heavy, weighing around 10-12 lbs (5 kgs). I mounted them on an Orion AZ3 altazimuth tripod through a 1/4"-20 adapter. There is an aluminum central support bar between the objectives and the eyepieces (similar to Orion's Mega View 80mm). Attached on it, there is a large tripod mounting support sliding along the bar to provide the optimum balance. The bottom of this support vertical to the central bar is threaded with a standard 1/4"-20 socket allowing the mounting of the binos on a regular camera tripod. All in all, I absolutely recommend these Chinese-made powerful binoculars to anyone who want to use them in general sweeping of the skies, deep-sky objects or variable star observing. One last note: It looks that similar size binoculars (maybe from the same Chinese manufacturer) are now offered by Burgess Optical and Celestron as well. Another note: Apogee Inc. is offering another version of this instrument in spring of 2004. Happy Observing!
 

Components of my first scopes; clockwise from top left: the 15mm eyepiece,
the focusing barrel, the 50-mm objective lens, the 40-mm objective lens.

 

Refracting Telescopes:

13)
Brand : Homebuilt refractor, optics made in Germany (built in spring of 1980)
Aperture : Objective diameter 50 mm
Focal length : 1000 mm (f/20)
Mount : Homebuilt steel tripod and aluminum fork mount (altazimuth)
Other Features : Aluminum tube, rack and pinion focuser

14)
Brand : Orion ShortTube 80 Rich Field Refractor (purchased in September 1998)
Aperture : Objective diameter 80 mm
Focal length : 400 mm (f/5)
Mount : Regular photo tripod used as mount
Other Features : Thin aluminum tube, rack and pinion focuser, can be used as a telephoto lens thanks to built-in thread (via a T-ring)

 

 
Our two small companions, Orion ShortTube 80 and Edmund Astroscan during an astronomy display in Boston in November 1998.

 

15)
Brand : Orion Explorer 90 mm Altazimuth Refractor (purchased in November 2000)
Aperture : Objective diameter 90 mm
Focal length : 910 mm (f/10)
Mount : Altazimuth mount on adjustable aluminum tripod with stabilizing center brace and accessory tray
Other Features : All-metal rack-and-pinion focuser, cast-aluminum tube rings, thin aluminum optical tube with dew/glare shield, built-in thread for T-ring

HALDUN'S REVIEW:  coming up soon.

  
Left: Orion Explorer 90 has been set up the day it arrived by mail.
Right: Orion Short Tube 80 during a sunspot observing session in the park.

 

Reflecting Telescopes:

16)
Brand : Edmund Astroscan 2001 (purchased in October 1996)
Aperture : Primary mirror diameter 108 mm (4.25")
Focal length : 454 mm (f/4.2)
Mount : Ball type cast aluminum altazimuth mount
Other Features : ABS tube, rubber roller focuser, unit-power aiming device

HALDUN'S REVIEW: This red-colored, chubby-looking, bowling ball-like reflector has struck my attention the very first time I came upon an Edmund Scientific catalog in 1980. As I mentioned on the Building My 8" Newtonian Reflector page, the same catalog launched my ever-lasting love for fork-mounted telescopes. Between you and me, I believe the classic German equatorial mount is the worst-ever invention in the history of astronomical instrumentation (no offense - astrophotographers!) and one of the major reasons why newcomers to astronomy quit after getting a scope equipped with one (especially a wobbly one from department stores). Astroscan which has been in my dreams since I have first seen its picture, finally made into my armada of binoculars and telescopes in the fall of 1996. This lovely little "big" scope is undoubtedly the single best "first scope" for young astronomers and general astronomy enthusiasts alike. I believe this statement holds true, not only because its ease of use (no bolts, no mounts, no bulky counterweights, no cumbersome tripods) but also its quite nice optical performance. Its 4.25" inch mirror is large enough to enable me to see magnitude 12 stars in heavily light polluted skies of Boston, and 12.5 magnitude stars in suburban Greater Boston area. Since there is nothing to prevent the scope to move around in its aluminum craddle (unlike many Go To scopes or German equatorial mounted ones) all sky is yours to discover. Just point the Astroscan to anywhere in the sky and look through the eyepiece. Although the earlier versions lack it, the newer versions have a protective layer of glass in front of the tube (do not confound this with the corrector plate in front of Schmidt-Cassegrains). On the positive side, this glass makes the tube a closed environment, preventing dirt and dust entering inside. On the downside, it causes dew to form on its surface. A home-made dew cap from rolled cardboard (I use a red colored file folder whose two ends are coming together with velcro strips) will be very helpful. When you are used to the simplicity of its mounting and ease of finding your way in the sky, I hardly imagine you will be willing to go back to your outdated German equatorial mounted telescope ever again!

17)
Brand : Homebuilt reflector, optics from Meade (optics purchased in March 1984, telescope completed in fall of 1990)
Aperture : Primary mirror diameter 203 mm (8")
Focal length : 1200 mm (f/6)
Mount : Portable equatorial fork mount, ready for sector drive for star-tracking
Other Features : Fiberglass tube, brass focusing mount, woodwork fork and base, rotating tube for convenient eyepiece positioning and optimum balance

You can read the story of making my homemade reflector in the Building My 8" Newtonian Reflector page.

 

 
My 8" homebuilt Newtonian reflector, with its French-type equatorial fork mount, back in Turkey in 1991.

 

Catadioptric Telescopes:

18)
Brand : Bausch & Lomb Cassegrain (purchased in August 2004)
Aperture : Primary mirror diameter 100 mm (~ 4")
Focal length : 1000 mm (f/10)
Mount : Regular photo tripod used as mount
Other Features : 1.25" star diagonal with built-in focal reducer that reduces the effective focal length to 500 mm (f/5)

19)
Brand : Celestron Schmidt-Newtonian Comet Catcher (purchased in September 2005)
Aperture : Primary mirror diameter 140 mm (5.5")
Focal length : 500 mm (f/3.64)
Mount : Used as attached to the Hercules mount on top of the NexStar aluminum tripod
Other Features : classical orange tube, sliding focusing mechanism (diagonal attached to the focusing plate), a very versatile wide-field nice scope to capture Milky Way star clouds! (or lots and lots of variable stars)
You can read the following reviews about this rare-to-find scope: Excelsis Ratings; Mischa's Review; Cloudy Nights Reviews.

20)
Brand : Celestron NexStar 8" Go To Schmidt-Cassegrain (purchased in April 2001)
Aperture : Primary mirror diameter 203 mm (8")
Focal length : 2000 mm (f/10)
Mount : Altazimuth single tine fork mount on adjustable aluminum tripod with stabilizing center brace and accessory tray
Other Features : computer controlled catadioptric scope (you can purchase Sky and Telescope's review article for further information).
You will find Michael Swanson's wonderful and very useful NexStar site indispensable if you want to get more from your NexStar scope. Mike is also the author of "The NexStar User's Guide", published by Springer-Verlag.

HALDUN'S REVIEW: I bought this automated SCT from a local store in Braintree, MA. Unfortunately, it came with a factory-defect in its the internal battery compartment (cables were coupled incorrectly causing the batteries to warm up extremely) that required me to ship it over to Celestron factory in California for a free repair. Luckily, Celestron customer service was rather friendly and quick in fixing the problem. So, make sure to check your scope in and out at the dealer and ask if it is possible to power it by using both the (supplied) external AC adapter and the internal battery compartment. Apart from that minor problem, the optics are impeccable and it is a very user-friendly instrument. However, I realized two other subjective "issues" which prevented me to use our NexStar very often.

First of all, the Star Pointer finderscope included in the NexStar package proved to be rather useless, especially under light polluted urban skies. At Stellafane, where the sky is considerably darker, it has been possible to orient the scope using that 0-power reflex sight finder. In order to remedy this problem, I got a regular 8x50 finderscope from Apogee Inc. at the NEAF 2001 show. I definitely recommend every potential NexStar user to get a regular 6x30 or 8x50 finderscope. I'd be even more glad to see if Celestron replaces the current reflex sight finder with an optical finder.

This was the first SCT scope I started to use continuously and I immediately disliked the mirror-reversed images it yielded (I have been used to Newtonians' upside-down views). Although I used Orion's 1.25" 90^o correct image prism diagonal to correct that "nuisance" at first, then I gave up because of another problem prone to SCTs. With a focal length of 2000mm and an effective f/ ratio of 10, my 8" SCT's actual field of view with the factory-supplied 1.25" 40mm NexStar Plossl eyepiece is only 0.92^o. I have read many reviews about the Go To scopes, but neither of them mentioned by how far the object you look for falls away from the center of the field using the standard 40mm eyepiece. Since the first time I tried to align the SCT either by using 2-Star Alignment or Auto-Align option, NexStar was not able to center any object even once (forget about all the reviews you read before, I am talking about setting up the telescope at different locations each time, with rough and quick alignment). I had to move around the scope using the direction keys on the handcontrol to find out the object I selected to view. After making some searches over the internet, I decided to get an f/6.3 focal reducer-field flattener, a 2" diagonal and a 2" eyepiece, to get the most from our NexStar. Eventually, I purchased of all the above at the NEAF show in 2002. That made my life easier since the new combination provided a field of view of 1.4^o, allowing me to better align the scope and either centering or leaving almost every object within the larger field.

One last addition to the NexStar 8", was the JMI's MegaWedge in fall 2004. This equatorial platform now allows the scope to point to the zenith without hitting the base. It is a superb and sturdy product with which polar alignment is a cinch. I have been having the most of our NexStar lately!
 

Gamze dubbed our NexStar 8 "Mary Ann", after the character in Gilligan's Island.

 

Eyepieces:

Notes: Focal Length is in millimeters; Apparent Field of View is in degrees.

Optical Accessories:

 o Burgess Optical 1.25" binoviewer
 o Celestron f/6.3 focal reducer-field flattener for SCT
 o 90-degree 2" prism diagonal for SCT from Apogee Inc
 o 45-degree correct image 1.25" prism diagonal from Orion (two)
 o 90-degree correct image 1.25" prism diagonal from Orion
 o Celestron 90-degree 1.25" mirror diagonal for SCT
 o 2" 2x Barlow from Scopetronix
 o 3x Meade Barlow
 o 2x Orion Shorty Barlow
 o Thousand Oaks type II 8" glass solar filter
 o Orion glass solar filter for 70-90mm refractors
 o Orion Skyglow filter
 o Orion Ultrablock filter
 o Meade Series 4000 Nebular Narrowband filter
 o moon filter from Orion
 o mylar filter (as rolled sheet) for solar observing
 o Celestron color filters for planetary observing: Wratten #8, #12, #15, #21, #23A, #38A, #47, #56, #82A
 o Meade Series 4000 color filters for planetary observing: Wratten #11, #25A, #58, #80A
 o Celestron Star Pointer finderscope (reflex sight)
 o Orion EZ Finder (reflex sight)
 o 8x50 finderscope from Apogee Inc
 o 5x40 finder (homemade)
 o 6x30 finder from Orion (two)
 

Other Accessories:

 o Hercules single fork alt-az mount
 o JMI Megawedge equatorial platform for NexStar 8 Go To SCT
 o Beta green laser pointer (0.5 mW)
 o T-ring for Nikon FG reflex camera
 o Celestron Universal T Adapter (1.25")
 o Celestron T Adapter for SCT
 o Meade Variable Projection Camera Adapter
 o Meade Variable Tele-Extender for SCT
 o Multi-Mate alignment tool for Go To SCT from Scopetronix
 o tripod accessory bin from Orion
 o large aluminum accessory case (identical to Orion's)
 o small aluminum accessory case from Orion
 o large padded scope carrying case from Orion (for Explorer 90mm)
 o small padded scope carrying case from Orion (for ST80/90)
 o Lite-Write red flashlight pen from Orion
 o six-pocket filter case from Orion
 o special folder/clipboard and binder to hold star charts
 o Celestron Night Vision red flashlight
 o Orion Red Beam II LED red flashlight
 o Celestron telescope carrying extra large hard case
 o piggyback camera adapter for Schmidt-Cassegrain scopes
 o Celestron mid-size telescope carrying bag (two)
 o 1/4"-20 telescope mount adapter from Orion
 o 2" all-metal Japanese-made focuser for my homemade 8" Newtonian
 o telescope protective cover made from mylar (for 8" scopes)
 o Orion FlexiShield dew cap for 8" SCT
 o "Heat Rope" 12-volt dew remover from Apogee Inc for SCT
 o 17-amp hour portable jumper/charger used as a power source for the 8" NexStar Go To SCT
 o Orion Roll-A-Table portable observing table
 o 34" aluminum portable observing table from All-uminum Products (identical to Orion's)
 o three folded stools for observing at the telescope
 o PVC tackle boxes used for eyepiece and filter storage
 o soft cooler bag used as accessory case
 o luggage cart to carry our NexStar 8
 o two folding crates to carry all of the above!
 

 

Disclaimer: Mention of the above products and brand names do not constitute an endorsement of these products by ALCOVE Database ® and or Gamze & Haldun I. Menali. These references represent subjective personal views of the owners of this website. Any prospective buyers of the above products are cautioned to make their own research and judgment before reaching a conclusion. ALCOVE Database ® and or Gamze & Haldun I. Menali cannot be held responsible for any such decisions made by third parties.

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