Posted by Mark S. Millen (12.88.172.216) on July 29, 2003 at 01:39:32:
In Reply to: New Cave 10"f5 owner posted by Keith on June 11, 2003 at 13:04:46:
Look at the forums for detailed discussions on mirror cleaning at astromart.com. Basically drag cotton balls across a wet surface with a few drops of dish detergent. Use plenty of water and lots of cotton balls. The aluminum is very delicate. Any rubbing can remove it. Please son't use this brief description to do the job. It's just to give you an idea of what to expect. Go to the above mentioned website and do your homework.
If I wanted to spend more for an eyepiece than I did for my telescope; I'd get the 31mm Nagler. It doesn't give the brightest image, but I'm almost 50 and my pupils won't dialate enough for anything much longer. Any Naglers shorter would be my next choices. If you want to try something really cheap that's amazingly good; get an old pair of wide firld binoculars. They have eyepieces that will fit your 1 1/4 focuser and have really wide fields. They're really soft beyond the central 50% of the field of view, but you're usually looking at the central area anyway. Some of the ones I've used have a FOV > 70 degrees! I found many pairs of these binoculars on eBay for under $20.00. Nice 32mm Erfles can be had for around $100.00, but you'll need a 2" focuser. Speaking of which; JMI makes an awesone 2" focuser available with motor drive for a little over $200.00. Highly recommended.
You can push this scope over 400x ONLY when the seeing conditions are very steady. If you want a planetary scope an f/7 is really the better choice. Yours is really designed for deep sky objects. I do use a 5mm nagler at times, but really it works best on globulars. Also, this scope lends itself well to a binoviewer because of it's large light gathering ability. My homemade one with built in barlow is equivilant too 3-5mm fl. It's great on the planets. (that kind of surprised me considering how fast the optics are.
As far as eyepiece selections are concerned; I'd add a medium and long fl (17-20mm and 32-40mm) and a 2x barlow. Buy the best eyepieces you can afford. You're the one who'll be spending time in the field with this. It's tempting to get cheap plossls but, I've done it already and the Naglers are so much better. Also, the orthoscopic ones give the sharpest and most contrasty imags, but the FOV is only 40 degrees. However the high quality ones are still around $60.00. OK enough, have fun.