Tinners

I have managed to remove the drawtrube adaptor ring and measure it.. It comes in two parts. The Lower part screws into the draw trube and has an outside thread diam of 59.6mm (2 3/8") . It has two thumb screws which locks to a plain sided dovetailed upper section. The lower section hole dia is 56.8mm and the upper section (dovetail) is 56.6mm The rest of the upper section is solid with a 1.25" eyepiece holder. I want to replace all this with a "59.6mm to t2" adaptor. Would a vixen 60mm to t2 adaptor fit this? Link

I think most people would be able to find a helical focuser with a standard 1.25" nosepiece without too much effort. I'm looking for an Adaptor which will fit the Drawtube of a standard Celestron NGT focuser and will allow me to attach a baader (T-thread to 1.25) helical focuser for fine control. I dont want ...drawtube >> standard celestron drawtube to 1.25" adaptor >> 1.25" to 1.24" baader helical focuser >> eyepiece. but ,,, drawtube >> UnKnown >> baader (T-thread to 1.25") helical focuser >> eyepiece Does that make it more clear? The silver part is the drawtube ..i would like to attactch the baadder t-thread-1.25" helical focuser directly to the drawtube preferably without using gaffa tape....

Does anyone know if you can buy an adaptor which will allow you to mount a Badder (T-thread - 1.25") helical focuser directly onto the drawtube of a celectron C10-NGT . So allowing a fairly "cheap" fine focus upgrade.

Ssshhhhh...its dark matter

Here is one with a bit more colour..

My second hobby is bellringing..

I Used a key, stairs and a pair of legs ..... We saw some people on the castle mount. They must have had a good view too. Much better place to be than lugging Camera,telescope and two tripods up 60 steps!

This was from the top of Tonbridge Church at 5.36am. The clouds just opened at the end of the transit. ETX 125 Solar film filter Pentax k-5 1/125sec iso3200

I just use a length of plastic tube clamped to a table with the collimator inserted into the end. This is an easy way to deal with odd shaped Collimators The main problem is the right - tight fitting - tube diameter Vacuum cleaner tube of some makes are the right size or else ABS 1 1/4" waste pipe (36mm external dia) is the dogs bollocks ....

How about taking it apart and cleaning regreasing etc ...... excellent artical by Astronomy Boy: CG-5 Mount Improvements Also noted from Jim Priors astro blog that he had much improvement in quietness of the mount after following the guide.

r.e. tracking Wide view angle eyepieces allow the image to stay in view longer ....less hassle.

If either bolt gets bent so that It can't be removed at all then it is possible to bend it back. If you view from the base hole you can just about see the bolt with enough light shining down it. Turn the bolt so it curves upwards (towards you) and hold it in position with a spanner. Now slowly drive a threaded bolt down the mounting hole and bend it back to "straight" Eventually you will get it straight enough to remove the latitude bolts...throw them away and get new ones.

Intrestingly the £8 charge from parcel force is for an unsolicited service. If customs and vat is paid then parcelforce don't have the legal right to hold the mail. All they can do is sue for the civil charge but in the mean time they commit a criminal charge of unlawfully withholding post. So you can go down to the police station and make a statement and bring charges against them unless they deliver your parcel. The system would be much better if you could just pay HM Revenue & Customs Direct...something that you would have thought would be so easy to do given the current electronic payment technology.

As a rough guide, the cost delivered is going to be the same figure in £ as it was in $. Cost + postage + Duty (1.04) + vat (1.175) plus Parcelforce charges (£8) to collect from you any duty or vat owed to the Customs. So if you buy $250 worth of stuff + say $50 postage .. $300 -> £190 + £8 duty + £35 Vat + £8 Charge = £240

Spider?

Bolt in Vice Cut with hacksaw Rotate end against bench grinder wheel

Slightly more expensive Smaller footprint Underframe is all metal instead of wood/plastic Similar optics. Focuser feels better on orion If you can wait till Feb you could get a good deal at the astrofest

If your thinking of spending a little more then these two are worth consideration. Helios - Helios Stellar (CF) Observation Helios - Helios Quantum 4 binoculars

Image optics are excellent .they resilvered an ETX diagaonal mirror for me in very good order and at a very good price.

I suppose the real question here is what exactly are you going to run off 16 sockets? If your going to have bar heaters, A kettle and TV screens etc as well as Telescope drives and laptops ...its all going to mount up to a lot of electricity.

Rubber ring! - what rubber ring!!! I knew there was a reason not to trust these fiendish foreign fabricators..

Just the standard 50mm straight optical finder - unbranded

When i mean - slight knock - I'm talking about just touching it. The front end of the scope doesn't fit well with the inside diameter of the mount so even brushing past it will change its position...

Is it just me or is the current popular design of finder scope mount - the one with two rear screws and one spring loaded pin - a very poor design. Just one slight knock and its out of alignment. I'm sure a few other members have had similar frustrations so does anyone have a good fix for a wayward finder?

Suprised no-one suggested adding a reflector behind the wireless anttana! You can get good results just with a metal tray - but you can easily make a parabolic reflector from card and foil.