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brantuk last won the day on December 26 2015
brantuk had the most liked content!
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Telescope40 started following brantuk
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£150 'ish would be a good average depending on age and condition and negotiating skills.
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Slow scope, fast scope...what does it all mean?
brantuk replied to i Drew's topic in Getting Started General Help and Advice
Only in terms of field of view. With a slow scope you have a narrower field of view and an object will travel across the fov in less time than a fast scope with a wide fov. However, if you're using an alt/az mount with tracking motors, the motors will be working to track in two planes. An equatorial mount which is accurately polar aligned will only be tracking in a single plane cos RA is handled by the spin of the Earth and mechanically it's much easier - especially for astro photography. The moon is very close compared to dso's so a slow scope will give more magnification and brighter views. If it's a manual mount though you'll need to be turning the slow mo controls quite frequently to cope with the narrow fov. Hth -
On a side note - this problem is one of the reasons a lot of folks sold their NEQ6's and got the newer AZEQ6-GT which has the much more substantial mechanism for set up and polar alignment. It's stronger and can be adjusted under load. If you get no joy from the return and you have the top up money required - maybe they would do an exchange for you - just an idea.
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The issue with Skywatcher providing hardened steel bolts is that the mount is made of a softer steel, and with heavy use, the internal soft steel threads would eventually strip and that would create a bigger problem for them. So they provide bolts that match the mount and leave it to the consumer to decide the best "personal" way forward. My advice is get the harder bolts (especially if you live North of Birmingham) and don't over load the mount when doing adjustments. Well worth it cos the mount is a cracker when it's set up right.
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The EQ6 bolts anomaly has been a topic of discussion for at least the ten years I've been doing astronomy. The problem is they actually are perfectly adequate when used as per manufacturers advice. The advice is to use them to set up the mount before loading the scope and other equipment on. Any further adjustment after loading is usually only tiny tweaks to perfect PA. The problem of bent bolts and stripped mount threads only occurs with overuse (frequent large adjustments) when heavily laden, and particularly at higher latitudes of 52 degrees and over (literally at the extreme end of the bolt threads). It's a common solution to re-lug the mount and use harder steel bolts - but even then the mount threads are "more likely" to be stripped e.g. if using a heavy dual imaging rig. When I had my NEQ6 Pro I used it on the move a lot - so I was always resetting it. It came with the hardened steel bolts but I still only did minimal adjustments when loaded. Most of the mount setup and PA was done unloaded. Of course if your scope is in a permanent setup e.g. in an observatory - the process is only ever done once so the chances of a problem are vastly reduced. Hth
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If you think about it, when you shave with a flat mirror you stand a certain distance away. But if you put a convex curve on the mirror you have to stand a little nearer cos the focal point is closer. If you put a concave curve on the mirror you'd have to stand further away. You're not magnifying anything, you're just changing the point of focus. In telescopes, a lens is used to magnify or reduce the size of the focused image, at the focal point. Depending on the size of the lens used and the focal length of the scope objective (mirror or lens), you get a different size of magnified image. With a normal camera, the lens does the magnifying at a fixed focal length. When you switch the lens for a telescope you're working with a different fixed focal length - the primary focal length of the scope. Hope that helps.
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brantuk started following First telescope & mount for beginner
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Looks fabulous Jim Are you going to paint or stain it? Does the alt axis feel stable turning the scope at lower elevations or d'you reckon it might need a brace near the end?
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Received a Lego Saturn 5 Rocket today - spent all afternoon building the first stage. It's a fabulous kit and amazing how all the little bits go together to make a strong free standing 1m high model. Will pop a build thread and pics up once it's complete.
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These guys are usually at most astro trade shows and I've used them a couple of times via mail order. They're also very good with advice if you give them a call: http://www.awrtech.co.uk/miscprod.htm#PTFE
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Hahaha! Yep - I've done that too - had to totally rebuild a mirror box cos of one little slip - but you won't find any photos it no matter how hard you try. lol
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Looks fabulous - and there's gonna be a lot of weight in that mirror box so you'll be able to mount loads of accessories on the top tube.
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HA SOL_1006051-4-17. mono madness
brantuk commented on xtreemchaos's gallery image in Member's Album
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HA SOL_1006051-4-17. mono madness
brantuk commented on xtreemchaos's gallery image in Member's Album