Flame Nebula

Probably only really mainly applicable to Newts and cat/mak designs, but I'm interested in stories of people trying to see something, but not, then after collimation, it pops out! Plus, how did you collimate? Star test? Barlowed laser? All stories welcome! Mark

Hi, I'm wondering if this is within range of an 8" newt.

Hi, when I started reading your post, I thought you were going to point me towards the hubble space telescope 🤣 But, thanks for the info 👍

Thanks John Especially when I tell them I'd like gold plated magnesium alloy truss designed equatorial mounted, newt, total weight 9 kg, delivery in 4 weeks please. 🤣🤣🤣

Thanks JTEC, 👍 I think I've made my decision to go with an 8" newt (200pds) on AZEQ6. But, I was curious about the possibility of very light newtonian designs that could be easier to man handle. But going back to clarify my interests. I would say planetary and doubles. But I'd like to both dso and planetary AP. Visual too! I've actually been very pleasantly surprised at how good some images of Mars and Jupiter in particular are, taken by some imagers on astrobin. So, for £500 for a 200pds,plus outlay on accessories, it would be a good start. The beauty of this approach, is I am confident I can also use the scope for nice visual observations and dso AP too. If I'm really not happy with my planetary images, then I need to work out, is because I am failing somewhere in my skill set, or is it because I need more aperture. Where I might struggle with the 8" newt, is trying to match C9.25 /C11 images of Saturn's rings(although, ironically they may be a bit difficult to image by the time I get my scope later in year😉) But, if I do decide that my skillset is not the issue, and I need more aperture, maybe then is the time to jump to a C9.25 or C11. Fortunately there are a few Confucius-like people on this forum, who have steered me on a wiser path. 😊 A long time ago, I knew someone who was only 24 years old. He bought himself an 8.75" dobsonian. He remembers that the most wonderful thing he saw was that the moons of jupiter looked like discs! But, alas when he tried to zoom to high mags, he found he couldn't cope with the nudge nudge or kept moving the scope the wrong way. In the end, the scope didn't get used. That 24 Yr old swore that the next big scope he got would have to track. Time moved on 35 years (where's it go!?), and now we have goto tracking dobs😊, and heavyweight Az-eq6 mounts🙂. So, the time is near. I've not been able to afford/justify some nice kit previously (various reasons), but I've built up my funds. The hopefully soon, I'll get to sit and stare at jupiter and its moons in an 8 incher again, and relax. Anyway, if anyone is still awake and reached the end of my post, well done! 🤣🤣

Thanks John, Certainly a good idea. Interesting, if you go on CN and type Great Attractor, there's a photo of a homemade 12" equatorial mounted, looks a very interesting design. I'm not showing the image, in case I fall foul of copyright! 🤔 Various discussions on it, and our own Peter Drew gets a mention.

Hi John, I wonder if OO would be prepared to make a bespoke 12" that could get below 10kg (for the right price... 😂) and be capable of equatorial mounting. They are already down to 14 kg with their VX12, so I'm sure they could. Perhaps an ultra thin steel tube, or magnesium alloy tube, or honeycomb.

Mmm, so he's shown it is possible to get 12" mirrors down to around 3kg, maybe less? Based on the 16" 3.5 kg one. So, that's our mirror sorted. 😁😁

Apparently ts optics sell a 12" mirror at only 6.3kg. Can we go lighter?

Hi Peter Anyone make these?

Looking on Internet, I can see lots of homemade truss designs that look like they might be lighter, but all are dobsonian designs. Now, if it was possible to connect any of them to a losmandy plate....

Hi, The design would need to beat the 14kg aluminium OTA for the VX12. 😬 It would be tough, but not impossible. I'm sure a magnesium-aluminium alloy truss design would work to get weight down even lower. It would certainly cool quickly! 😊 Maybe even a wooden frame would work, if the right type of wood? Thanks Mark

Hi I'm just opening this up to thinking outside the box. What about magnesium aluminium alloy - very light but much stronger than aluminum and high resistance to bending. Obviously, one would need to see if these were commercially available, but if they were, one could imagine a significant weight saving. Not the sort of thing that would be commercially made, but if someone with skill could get them and create the truss with them, it might work.

Hi Thinking about scopes on eq mounts, got me thinking. In principle, it should be possible to make one with a weight less than 14kg(wt of relatively light VX12). I'm not thinking of trying to do this, but wondered if any of you guys have ever seen such a scope on an equatorial. It occurs to me, that some kind of lightweight truss design would cut out a lot of the weight? Thanks Mark

Hi Stu, I should have read the CoC more carefully. It wasn't intentional to violate the CoC. Won't happen again. 😏 Thanks Mark

Thanks 👍 Yes, I think I can handle that weight. Well, unless something bad happens over the next few months(I'm having some worrying health issues at the moment, as well as potential job security issues, both of which have the potential to mess up my plans😔) I'm planning to buy these things in September. Mark

Thanks Acrab Well, I was thinking of getting the VX12 and putting it on an AZEQ6. I've read some good reviews. But, I appreciate all the warnings about this being a potential nightmare. I think once I get some experience with an 8" in Az mode, I may decide I'm satisfied. 😉 And if I'm not, maybe the more sensible route after that is either a SW300 goto Dob, or a 5" apo. Probably need to get some experience in first, as mentioned by Elp. Thanks Mark

Thanks Alicant Since that post, you may notice I have taken on board various warnings and have decided to go for a much smaller 200pds. It's not a huge outlay. If I can't handle that, then that'll be the end of any ideas to go larger! 😬 Mark

Hi, Indeed, for AP, at its native FL, yes, there are far more good images with C11 and C14 scopes on astrobin. But, I've seen enough images from Newts with Barlow to match the FL, to be happy enough, to go with a Newtonian. For visual, the same aperture of newt, has been reported to be as good, and often better, in the UK seeing, at least. To be honest, I had originally decided on the C9.25, but after reading more reviews and comments on this forum, I think the 8" newt may be the better option, for now. I'm satisfied, based on astrobin images, that it will be a good starting point for a 1/4 of cost of C9.25. Thanks Mark

Hi David Thanks for your suggestion. The OO route had crossed my mind, but I've seen lots of good comments about the 200pds as both a visual and imaging scope, but never any direct comparison between the scope and a VX8L. In theory, one would expect it to perform better visually, but I'd be very interested if anyone has done a side-by-side comparison for visual that shows a clear win for the OO scope under UK skies. But the main reason I'm getting the 200pds is for planetary AP (with potential for dso AP,) where I know it can be used with success. Any slight difference in contrast can be sorted in post capture processing. The shorter tube will also help on the az-eq6 mount (and give me a glimpse of what mounting much larger Newts might be like!) If I'm not satisfied with the visual views on planets, I'd probably end up getting a 4 or 5" apo, which I suspect will provide very good sharp/contrasty views on planets and shine with doubles etc. I might do this anyway, as a quicker grab and go option to the 8" newt. In the end, this might prove a more sensible path to follow than my original plan of placing a 12" VX12 onto the mount, to try for best of all worlds in one scope. Mark

Thanks Elp Mark

Thanks Elp👍 How does this improve the planetary detail? What would happen if it wasn't used? Mark

Hi John See my reply to Dweller😊

Hi Dweller, From what I've seen on astrobin, the F5 can produce really good planetary images as well as DSO, so given its smaller size, I would prefer it for going on the az-eq6. It's also a test run on how I can cope with a moderate sized tube, wrt mounting/dismantling, because if I can't cope with that scope , God knows how I'll cope with a 12" OO f4 on it, which I might want, at some point in future. The F5 seems like a good all rounder for planetary AP and visual. But, I could do DSO AP on it too. However, I'll probably try and do that on my ed80 to start with Thanks Mark

Hi Elp, I'm still learning, 😉. I've seen that a UV/IR cut filter is often used, but hadn't looked into that yet. But, I will be. Thanks for pointing this out Thanks Mark