Message posted by Joerg (Webmaster) on November 09, 2009 at 15:44:27 PST:
Agreed! The Celestron C-5 that I have been using for many years is more than enough. 5" lens, 2000mm focal length with my digital camera, compact and lightweight enough to fit in a backpack. Even on the clearest morning I have seen up there, the day when I took my 2005 panorama, the atmosphere, not the quality of the lens was still the limiting factor. I have taken panoramas on at least 10 occasions with the same lens, with hugely different results. The only time I could see a larger lens, resulting in faster shutter speed, being an advantage is on a windy day. One problem that may not be immediately obvious is the difficulty to focus the scope. You are looking at a very low-contrast image in the tiny view finder of the camera, and to make matters worse the image shakes every time you touch the focus knob. Chuck Clark once told me he always used the checkered water tower to focus, which has worked very well for me. Another problem, early in the morning is the focus point drifting with the scope warming up. I always keep the scope wrapped in some insulating foam, which also protects it on the way up and down.
In Reply to: Re: Telescopes at tikaboo peak questions. posted by paulw on November 09, 2009 at 14:09:20 PST:
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