Chris

Happy xmas all Robert, I'd be surprised if there wasn't a noticeable difference between f5 and f6. There is a huge amount of coma and focus depth difference between f5 and f4 I found woth 8" Newts, and when I had my F8 6" Dob I ran alongside my f5 6". The f8 was clearly sharper in the centre and much sharper at the edge, plus showed better contrast. I maintain that an 6" f/8 is like a 5" Apo with diffraction spikes. The contrast is only a touch less as the central obstruction is so tiny (Around 1/4th the obstruction of an equivalent SCT).

Sorry I can't help myself lol Happy Christmas to everyone by the way

Cheers, I thought the same for wheeling it out the garage

Thanks. The mount originally had a 6" f/8 aboard when new so I knew it would be a safe bet. I still had to pad out the rings to stop the tube from slipping though, so it might have come close to taking an 8". The mount is a bit of a gamble really, I'm not sure how well it will track, hopefully ok for lunar? I didn't really want to consider it before as the pillar mount is too large to store at the back of the house away from all the street and security lights without building a special little rolling roof shed for it. There is a narrow passage way to the back garden but I would need to dismantle the legs of the mount each time. Ultimately I'm going to need a front of house garage setup and a more portable back garden setup, or an obsy. This is by far the cheapest option right now which swayed me

Ooh! well reminded!

Mwahahaha!

I've planned for the continued rain. The foam in between the rings is a buoyancy aid

I might nick name it Vader - it's black, shiney and kills planets 😜

What an incredible view you have! Well, unless those mountains block the south No seriously, I forget there are places like this in the world!

I bet he doesn't. I wouldn't

This one's also f8 Robert https://www.firstlightoptics.com/reflectors/skywatcher-explorer-150pl-ota.html

True, I was impressed with the contrast and sharpness of the Skyliner Dob version I had. It wasn't a million miles away from refractor like contrast and sharpness to be fair. I'll post up some thoughts on this one when I have it all up and running.

Order placed! The mount appears to work fine so hit the button on the 150pl Newt. Saturday delivery wasn't much more so if I'm very lucky I could have it to test out soon

Good call. I've removed the counter weight so it's more balanced, and I'll leave it running for a few hours to see how well it moves. If all looks good I'll place an order for the 150PL. I've been paid for this month so I've transferred an extra couple of hundred over into paypal so I can buy this scope, and the original budget will be intact purely for a small DSO imaging rig if needed I have a decent Newer ball head for photography, so I can first try piggy backing my camera on top of the 150PL for wide field to see how it fairs? I don't think the wind would move this mount like it would an EQ5. It may track ok for 200mm or 4"/pixel if I can rig up a sight tube for PA. The only downside is that it's the kind of mount that's better off in a fixed location. It's super heavy and wide at the base lol If it works ok I could probably knock up a little shed with a slidey roof with the remaining budget. If not it will obviously get go back into plan A. Well at least now I've finally decided to buy something! (Assuming the mount works!)

I do actually have this old mains powered RA driven beast in the garage. It's a bit on the crude side with no polar scope and the massive RA axis is based on a friction plate. It's at least eq6 class in terms of payload and is designed specifically for a 6"f8 Newtonian looking at the integrated rings and pillar height. I've never tried it with a scope as I picked it up cheap and it's just been stored since, so it's a gamble, but I could pick up a 6" f8 Newt from FLO for £185 to cover the lunar planetary side of things? Or I could flog it to add a little to the budget. Not exactly mobile though hmm

I'm sure you'll be great Helen I've got a lot on with work, kids, and you tube channels, but it's only roughly 3 hours a week so I may well join in. It does indeed look fun

I've Just taken a look and it seems like a valuable course for people stating out with an interest in Astronomy. You need to upgrade to the £52 course to be able to print a certificate at the end, but that's incredibly cheap for any kind of education! I'm tempted even though I can remember most of the concepts it covers (maybe not the math for it though lol) One of the bullet points reads "learn about what's special about Earth's position" which is intriguing! Maybe it's just regarding it's habitable (goldie locks) zone?

Thanks Helen. Even though one of my degrees is in Astronomy, it has been 15 years since that finished so I'm interested in taking a look at this . Cheers

lol as per usual then Well It has been a while since I've sold you something I find Newts up to 6" pretty easy on an EQ mount as long as you have the focuser opposite the counter weight bar you can reach the focuser from any position the telescope sits in.

vlaiv, you know your stuff!

You're right. It's certainly equally about how fine the camera pixels are as well as the focal length. The combination of which giving the sample rate. My Fuji mirrorless has a weak IR filter so I'll probably use that over my Pany GH3. The Fuji also has the larger APS-C sensor at 24MP, so these are pretty fine pixels. I'm not sure if I can bin 2x2 etc with a Bayer sensor? I know you can do this with Mono astro cams. Certainly a good thing to point out to me though, and I agree you can do basic DSO imaging with a basic but sturdy mount as long as you're aware of how to get round periodic error. I don't know. I get paid tomorrow. I didn't want to stretch my budget as there are other things to buy, but if an extra 200 quid made a difference I can't over look how little this is in the scheme of things. Our replacement front door cost nearly 1800!

Hi both, with regards to the DSO imaging side of things there are two sides to me: 1) the sugar coated side which thinks I would regularly get a big enough gap in the weather and my schedule to setup a mobile goto rig with guiding, laptop, plus the fine tweaks of PA needed for longer focal lengths etc. Then there's person 2) Slightly depressingly realistic individual that thinks using my 200mm lens camera combo on a motor driven mount is the most I'd realistically get do both regularly and with any great success. Person 1 would with my tight budget probably buy FLO's 130pds EQ3 Pro combo for £628. Or try and scrape more money together for an EQ5 Pro thus waiting until early next year. Person 2 would probably buy an EQ5 with motor drive, and use it for DSO imaging with a camera and lens. Then a separate OTA for visual, planetary, and lunar such as a 150pds, or even a 200p or 127Mak or whatever.

lol Don't...just don't I could probably afford an 100mm achro lol I might have a look around today and see if I can find anything else to sell to increase the budget!

It's just the money mate, else I'd jump at an ED100, especially as a self confessed refractor man. I just can't escape the fact that a Newt is over half a grand cheaper.