Greetings from new member

[Astrolabe]

I have been visiting this website for several months now and I am very impressed with the fact that all members are courteous, friendly and very helpfull to each other. I have not noticed any signs of elitisism or upmanship relating to the types and sizes of telescopes and associated equipment and this made me decide to join the group. I would like to thank all moderators for the work they do. I also would like to thank and congratulate Mike for setting up this website.

Best regards

George V.

[iceman]

Hi George!

:welcome: to the site, and great to see you register and come out of the lurking shadows :lol:

I look forward to your contributions..

Tell us a bit about yourself, your equipment etc?

Thanks for the feedback also, it's great to receive.

[ving]

hi george! :hi:
welcome!

[nightsky]

Welcome m8, thats why I joined as well, had a lot of help from the blokes in this form.

[janoskiss]

:welcome: George! Got a scope? Binos? Do tell. :D

[davidpretorius]

damn right, they are courteous, cos they are all jealous of my 10" modded dob cos it is the best!!!


in all seriousness george, it is a great place. everyone seems happy to learn from everyone else and get pleasure in seeing improvement because of that sharing of information!

Also guys will ask questions re basic stuff and get flooded with answers and hints.

Welcome:hi:

[shelly]

My sentiments exactly. :welcome: George.

[ving]

mines bigger than yours!!! :P
;)

[acropolite]

Welcome to IIS Astrolabe, interesting name, there have been a couple of ships named Astrolabe that journeyed to the Antarctic.:)

[Astrolabe]

[/FONT]

Thank you Mike and all members for the warm welcome. Afew things about myself.

I took up astronomy about three years ago. I am a member of WSAAg for the same period. I am equally interested in both observational and theoretical astronomy,as well as in celestial mechanics and astrophysics. I mainly observe from my backyard, limiting visual magnitute 3.7 at best and only for part of the sky. Sometimes I observe from Linden and Wentworth Falls, but not as often as I would like to. Professioanlly I am a Consulting Civil and structural Engineer with about twenty five year experience which includes about 10 years of teaching at tertiary level.

My observing aids consist of the following.
10x50 Pentax and 15x50 Celestron Binoculars
Orion ED80 and William Optics Zenithstar 105mm Triplet refractors.
Orion Sky View Pro mount.
GSO 10" Dob.
Meade 8" LX90
Coronado PST
Maede series 4000 SP 40,32,26,20,15,12.6,9.7, and 6mm EP. I wear eyeglasses during observing because of astigmatism and for this reson I will soon sell all but the 40 and 32mm eyepieces.
Tevelue 35,27 and 22 panoptics and 18, 14, 10, 6 and 4mm Radiants plus barlows and filters.

Finally and for the record I would to state that mine is the smallest one around and so I pay my respect to all of you alpha male and female astronomers.

Regards

George V.

[[1ponders]]

No it's not George. I've got a 60mm Carton refractor circa 1970-80 so its probably the oldest as well :P

btw :welcome: to the site. :) ;)

[mickoking]

G,day George and welcome:) For someone who's been observing for only 3 years you sure have an impressive kit. What type of observing do you do ?

[Astrolabe]

Thanks for the welcome.
I like all planets, stars and DSO objects equally but as far as DSO objects are concerned I am restricted to the brighter ones because of my 3.7 magnitude sky. I also have a long way to go before I know the sky well enough.

George

[Astrolabe]

Thanks for the welcome Phil. I selected the name astolabe (astrolavon) because the ancient astrolabe instrument is loosely related to contemporary planisphere, and planisphere as my name will most likely sound stupid, boring or at least not cool.

Greetings
George

[Miaplacidus]

Welcome George.

I am especially pleased that your name is not David. (There are far too many Davids on this forum, notwithstanding the fact that they all seem like nice blokes.)

I have drooled over online photos of the Zenithstar 105 triplet. How does it perform in the CNC-finished metal?

Cheers,

Brian.

[Astrolabe]

Thanks for the welcome Brian.

The WO Z105 is a scaled up version of the 80mm zenithstar or Megrez. My experience with refractors is limited to the the ones I own so my opinion is very subjective and possibly not very informed.
The industrial design, machining, anodising, focusing mechanism and finish product are excellent for the price, mind you that I bought it as a factory second.
Optically it is in my opinion excellent. I get the best star images from the WO Z105 than from any other of my scopes. No chromatic abberation whatsoever. The WO Z105 images are equal if not better than the ones from the Orion ED80, but they are brighter and I can see deeper in the sky. However it needs about 20-30 minutes to cool down in order to get the best images under high magnification.

George