Chris

Ooh that's tempting just for the OTA and the Parks EP John An 90mm f/11 would sit quite nicely on the incoming eq3. I'm supposed to be all sell sell sell at the moment but got slightly talked into the EQ3 (did want it really though, nice light weight mount to get driven in RA). Infact it might be time to move the Classic 76mm f/16 on, but I might regret that so will sit on my hands? Really I should be selling everything given my recent expenses, but you have to have keep something for moral purposes, hey Certainly is amazing what you get now days for relatively little!

Oh my word that looks so right!...glad I sold it you John! Looking forward to first light as I'm sure you are I have a cheap as chips EQ3 incoming soon to take the edge of the loss, and once I've recovered from the 1138 quid to fix my cars duel mass clutch and timing belt I'll look for a cheap as chips achro to stick on it....that will be to take the edge off the ED100 loss......1138 quid.....I could have bought a Tak 76 for that! Grrrr! Anyway, looking good John and hope you get some clear skies and good seeing very soon

Hiya, has anyone mentioned dewing of the corrector plate yet? (glass bit at the front). if you don't already have a dew shield I'd make or buy one, they are an absolute must for an SCT type telescoope like this. Dewing of the corrector plate would make the image pretty soft so worth checking for. Easy way to check collimation is to defocus a star in the centre of the eyepiece, it should look like a doughnut with the inner circle dead centre of the outer circle. If the inner circle is off to one side then the scope needs collimating in which case follow this video guide (be careful of screwdrivers and corrector plates!)

Ah that's right I think you sent me a pic during our email conversations Paul I was leaning towards guessing it might be an Istar, I know they sell big lenses in cells and there can't be many others that do? That big anastigmatic long focus lens plus BV's really must be quite something on the Moon and planets! Great craftsmanship Paul, maybe I'll build a frac (smaller mind ) after I've finished grinding my mirror and building the Dob to put it in

Paul that is awesome! Any details or pics of the lens up top? I know you say it's the first public airing but I'm sure I've seen a pic of this before? Are you the chap that once sold me a Skylight 60mm f/16?

Wonderful setups you have there Rusted, they really are!

Tidy!

Much better than the pillar box red vinyl I reckon, great job

Ok, I can tell I'm going to seriously, seriously, enjoy reading this build thread once I've finished reading your other very impressive thread pertaining to the heart of this Dob, Damian Just had a quick skim through so far; all I can say is your Dob is truly priceless and unique, absolutely love the look of it! how cool is a carbon fiber secondary holder! that and the multitude of other thoughtful touches I've only glimpsed at so far. A proper labor of love. Plus you have a milling machine which is pretty cool

I don't know about the Maks but I can tell you from experience I'd pick a Bresser achro over a Skywatcher achro from examples of each I've owned, although there is a chance that I could have had bad examples of the Skywatcher and a very good example of the Bresser. Thinking about it, even if you had the Bresser and Skywatcher maks side by side to see which is best, QC does have error bars in this price bracket so you still cant be sure! I've never looked through a bad Mak though, taking on board the touch of flaring you can get with them, that's about the only fault I've found I'll shut up now

I've also owned both plus the very similar ES Maxvision 24mm which works as well as the ES68 as far as I can tell apart from not looking quite as flash on the outside. My verdict would be to go for either the ES68 24mm or the ES Maxvision 24mm. The X-Cels lx's are very good, but don't have the build, optical quality, and the more immersive 68 degrees of the other options. ES eyepieces come very close to Televue levels of performance from both my experience and many others.

Good to hear as a Synta ED100 owner, I guess it only becomes telling at really high mags. Nice to know you've got the best with the LZOS and Tak though

Wonderful John, back on track Out the four I must say that there is something about the Tak that draws the eye!

Is this the historical meaning as in Sextant? in which case do you have one? They have lenses so might pass as a frac

That blimming 200p has opened the flood gates! Very nice RC though Do we have a Show us your RC thread? I know there's one for Mak's and SCT's, maybe it can go there?

I hope you guys enjoy those lovely Taks...what am I saying of course you will! They sure are elegantly mounted too!

Astroboot is always good for a good rummage Yes, my 76mm is branded Tasco but marked circle K for Kenko Japan which is the important bit. The other maker stamp is Circle T for Towa. I think both Circle K and T scopes were often branded Prinz, Tasco, and Meade. There are other brands too but I can't remember off the top of my head. Edit: Topic was onother brand. Mine used to belong to a local school, but was eventually replaced with a Meade ETX so the Kenko was stuck in a cupboard for a decade until one of the teachers sold it to me I took it down my astro club a while ago and split some doubles, and showed Mars through it which resulted in some positive noises, so I'm pretty sure it's has decent glass in it. I generally go through scopes like water but these classic long focus achromats have a certain charm, I've not been able to bring myself to move this one on which I'm pleased about. I'm sure you'll have fun with yours, one guy who know tons about these is @F15Rules he might be able to advice if we have missed anything

I have one of these, the Japanese optics will be excellent once you take care of the moisture. As Jules has mentioned just mark the orientation of the doublet lens if removing to clean. Mine has the optical tube, craddle, mount, wooden box, and eyepieces etc but cost 80 quid, so a fiver for the optical tube assembly sounds good, even a tenner would have been good The eyepieces are 0.965" which is what they all used to be back in the day. Now days they are 1.25" and 2". There are some 0.965" eyepieces for sale here, about half way down the page: http://www.astroboot.co.uk/AstroBoot You can also buy 0.965-1.25" adapters or diagonals to allow the use of more modern eyepieces. This is what I use with mine so I can use 1.25" Plossl eyepieces.

Quick! someone Photoshop a focuser on the bottom of the 200p tube to help it blend in

Haha! that tickled me

Well I do have a pretty good grip so maybe I'm also made by Baader

Plus one for that, a great thinker and inventor of the microscope among other things.

Dr Stuart Clark wrote a good book about the relationship/rivalry between Hooke and Newton. It was written as a novel but very well researched as to give a good idea of what it must have been like at the time. Halley made a good appearance too.

I think it's great that he's on a coin rather than a note. I've collected old coins since I was 6 when I dug an old Victorian penny out the ground. I've since obtained coins going back to the 1870's but no notes, I think most of them would be long gone unless purposely put aside and framed/stored. Coins are good for longevity

Thanks Gav It's proper dark in that tube, I bet the contrast is ace! That reminds me, I really need to flock the inside of my ED100 dew shield which looks grey by comparison! I'll be really very interested to hear more about this scope, what a realistic dream scope to have for us mere mortals, awesome Gav!