Lennie the Lurker wrote:
skuke wrote in message .. .

I agree! Better quality optics, prisms, brightness, field of view size,
sharpness at the edges, ease of use... I've used Meiji and Bausch and Lomb
stereo 'scopes and the Meiji's were far superior. I've also used Olympus
and B&L(?) compound (biology) 'scopes and the Olympus was better.

YOu've got a sorry case of "japsuperioritis". If you used one of the
last B&L scopes sold, just bear in mind that it was from the same line
that made Olympus. Optically, mechanically, the same, the only
difference, the name tag. The best one I've ever used was a B&L
Balplan, not popular because if anything happens to the objectives,
you're screwed, no other company on earth has ever marketed a flat
field scope that was of that quality and as well accepted.

i don't hope to speak to higher skills and equipment, but i finally
lost patience and went to Fry's tonight and bot a Celestron "basic"
scope. full size (DIN?) optics, price 149.00. it seems quite good
mechanically and my first view w/the least power was impressive.

what i was asking is about the focus, this model 4030 is supposed to
have that. it also should have coated optics (but does not). the
focus is indeed impressive. i do not know the actual mechanics, but
about 20 turns of the fine knob = 1/8 turn of the coarse. the surprise
is that you _cannot_ feel _any_ motion on the rack when turning the
fine knob.

i am guessing this is some type of friction coupling. --Loren