The B52's rock!



This is my favourite:

 

This is always fun!

​

 

Yeah, I like Devo.

 

Yup, that's the little POS. Grrrr. I had a choice between that and the Celestron 130SLT, which was (and is) actually a decent scope. I chose poorly.

 

That's a Bird-Jones reflector - obviously by the super-short tube and the 1000mm F.L.

They put that POS on an expensive computerized mount?? Geeze! What were they thinking! Numbskulls...

"Look at the Black Hole, dear!" ​

 

I bought the scope about a dozen years ago as my first foray back into the hobby since leaving it in my teens in the early 80s. (Well, I sold off my 8" Meade for beer money in college, actually.) I had no idea of the existence of these POS Bird-Jones scopes and got completely snookered. I've devoted and dedicated the rest of my life to alert and inform others about these insults to astronomy.

You know, right after me and OJ look for the "real killers" on this golf course. Fore!

 

Yeah, you wouldn't have expected a Meade scope to be that bad. It probably seemed like a good idea at the time to someone at Ningbo Sunny's marketing department. They say hindsight is 20/20 lol. I've bought a few turkeys in my time.



Turkey #No.1 ~

This is an 'Omegon' 90mm Maksutov. They're also marketed as the Kasai Pico. I wanted a small Maksutov that could be mounted on a tabletop Dob or a Vixen style mount as a grab'n'go. It was this or the Orion SkyMax. I already had a Synta (Sky-Watcher) 102mm Mak so I knew Synta Mak's were good. The Orion and the Omegon were roughly the same price. The Omegon is f/11 so that swung it for me as I thought it might make it more flexible.



Unlike Synta Mak's the Omegon seems to be manufactured predominantly out of Bakelite lol. The Dob base was difficult to use and the entire ensemble didn't really impress me build wise. Worse still, the Omegon Mak won't produce a sharp image above about 25x. I'm not the only person to notice this either.



On the bright side, this bag that came with it came in really useful for carrying this below ...



... the Orion StarMax I should have bought in the first place. I've had a sharp 208x on the Moon with this little Orion scope. Live and learn right? lol

 

Welllll . . . that ain't quite so.

All of the major astro vendors sell these crappy Bird-Jones scopes, with one important exception. It wasn't as if the scope I bought from Meade was a one-off from their marketing department; they continue to sell these B-Js today to anyone driving by in their passenger seats. (heh heh)

I've got a list over at my blog (scroll just past 1/3 of the way down):

https://jgroub.wordpress.com/2016/06/28/june-27-2016-spring-doldrums-stock-wisdom-and-sage-advice/

As I stated there, the one major exception is Orion. (Skywatcher doesn't sell scopes in this size range, so they don't really count.) Kudos to them for taking a stand against them, although I don't like Orion for other reasons.

But we are waaaaay off topic at this point. As we've already discussed, I know there aren't any fascist moderators here, but we should at least try to talk about what the OP intended. Back to Mars!

 

I doubt I'd buy a Bird-Jones, and I've never owned one. A lot of people really dislike them though.

(Skywatcher doesn't sell scopes in this size range, so they don't really count.)

130mm?



Back to Mars! Opposition in 47 days and counting ...

 

Oops! I suppose that's the Skywatcher 130M in your signature? I'll add it to the list.

And now back to our regularly scheduled program.

 

Yeah, Sky-Watcher/Synta do a few of these, mine's the slightly unfashionable f/6.9 version. Although, for me, it's been largely replaced by a 150mm f/6 TS Optics (GSO) Newtonian.

I believe the Sky-Watcher 130mm 'Explorer' is also marketed by Orion, and I'm pretty sure this 'Omegon' is the same telescope.

https://www.astroshop.eu/telescopes/omegon-telescope-n-130-920-eq-2/p,13762



Although TS Optics round it down to a 900mm focal length.



Oh yeah, I forgot, Mars. I've seen Mars with my version of this scope, does that count? lol



I seriously needed filters, but I could see recognisable surface areas. Baader Neodymium, naturally helped, but the #11 Yellow Green revealed as much. I can't recommend the #11 enough. I've just been using it on Jupiter to great effect. It's de rigueur on Saturn.


Mars Opposition ~ 46 days ...

 

Hey Gabby! I got something for you.

As a fellow 'Filter-Nut,' I've been busy finding more info on the FL-D Photo-Filters. I'm down to following all leads. Found this little piece while looking around CloudyNights/RowdyFights about the TeleVue® Mars Filter (long gone):

FL-D 49mm Photography Filter.pdf

There's a lot of historical-data in such a small piece.

Enjoy!

Dave