RobertI

Love the mono captures. 👍

FLO don’t seem to mention that as a selling point of the StellaLyra , so I doubt it the knobs are better, but it wouldn’t surprise me if the knobs have been improved on all versions at some point so may no longer be such a problem.

Yes, hard to believe but it’s true. There are several reports of this that I read. The problem in my case (and I assume others) was the poor quality alloy knob being stripped of its threads over time a finally failing and popping off. My 72ED fell to the floor - fortunately it was carpet and not concrete! I replaced the knobs with better quality metal, which seemed to work, but I lost faith in them and put an ADM on one side to support my C8 and one of these on the other for my lighter scopes. You get a lot for your money with a Skytee, it’s solid and stable, but built to a price if you know what I mean.

The other thing to factor in with the Skytee is you will probably want to buy a replacement saddle; the stock saddles had a habit of failing and the scope falling off (happened to me). I think they have been improved and probably much better now, but many people (including myself) replace one of them typically with an ADM. Perhaps other people with more recent Skytees can chime in here.

Actually I have found the top saddle counterweight bar to be a very useful panning handle. 👍

One thing to note about the Skytee 2 is that the azimuth slo motion does not move round with the scope, it is fixed to the bottom part of the mount which does not move. So if you use slo mo cables, and you are panning round to different parts of the sky, you have to lift the entire rig to keep the slo mo cable in a convenient position close to hand. You can also end up bashing the scope against the slo mo cable as you move around. Not so much of a problem if you are observing just one object during the night, but most of the time a bit of a pain. So much so that I have removed the cables from my Skytee now. Some mounts are designed better and don’t have this problem (eg: AZ100) but it’s definitely worth considering if buying a mount with slo motion. The other thing about the Skytee is the “top saddle”. What’s the point of it? I never really found a use for it, especially with the inconvenience of the extra counterweights needed. I ended up drilling some holes and attaching the saddle to the end of the alt axis as I use two scopes every now and then. I suspect most people use the Skytee with one scope though. The Skytee definitely represents value for money, especially if you’re on a budget, but if I was splashing out on a dual-scope mount now, id try and stretch to an AZ75.

What a dream setup. Sounds like the mount and scope (and observer) are well suited. Perhaps a picture when you get a moment? 🙂

Superb image and interesting background information.

Must have been very a rewarding evening. Good tip on the chair, I’ll remember that one.

I have a 150PL (1.25” focuser) and Tal 100RS and my experience has been as follows: - Newtonian has greater ability to split close doubles but achro has more aesthetically pleasing stars and airy discs - Newtonian is better at revealing DSOs and resolving globs, but not so good at wide field - Newtonian has more accurate colour rendition, the achro gives everything a yellow cast but does make yellows/oranges/reds stand out. - Achro gives nice clean edges to planets and dark backgrounds, but more planetary detail visible in Newt - Mars was not very good at all in the achro for some reason (perhaps someone can explain?). - Newtonian was easier to use at or close to the zenith - Achro was easier to mount and focus without vibration Which is “better”? Of my two examples, the Newt is the better all rounder, but it does feel like comparing apples and pears!

When I was researching which refractor to buy, one of these was on my shortlist - they are quality ‘solar system’ scopes made by Long Perng and I really wanted one, but in the end I felt that a 4” F7 would be a more versatile all rounder which is no more difficult to mount and use. I haven’t done a side by side comparison but I would think the extra 22mm of aperture (28% increase on the 80mm) would allow the 4” to reveal more of those micro-planetary details, and would have a much bigger effect than the differing focal length.

Swapping between 1.25” eyepieces causes no balance problems on the AZ4. If the scope becomes very unbalanced from swapping from a light eyepiece to a very heavy one, I generally rebalance the scope by sliding it along rather than tightening the alt axis - it’s easy to do with a lightweight 4” especially if you have a handle fitted. The Skytee can cope with significant imbalances better, especially when there is another scope on the other side, but the AZ4 is pretty good.

A quick scan of SkySafari suggests M108, M109, NGC3184 in Ursa Marjor, NGC 3227 in Leo and NGC4490 in CVn. Perhaps none as interesting or close as Mirach’s Ghost, but worth a go?

My 102ED spends most time on the AZ4 with the 1.75” tripod as it’s much lighter to set up than the Skytee on the 2” tripod. It’s actually rock solid, even at high powers with that scope. The lack of slow motion controls really doesn’t bother me these days as there is no stiction and it pans very smoothly. The main advantage of the Skytee for me is that it requires less balancing when loading up with heavy eyepieces, binoviewers, etc, and you can lock the axes. I should mention I am a relatively recent convert to 4” refractors and absolutely love mine for visual.

Fantastic idea, thanks! 👍

At this time of year, perhaps patrolling the brighter galaxies for supernovae?

This looks great, lots of detail in the core now. More detail all round too. Great job. 👍

Do you mean the focus knobs or the rotating focus assembly (which allows the orientation of the camera/eyepiece to be changed)?. If the latter then, the friction can be adjusted by loosening/tightening the three grub screws. I also found a very light greasing of the threads also worked wonders to smooth the action. I’m afraid I can’t help regarding the focuser.

Looks like it’s the single bolt just ahead of the OTA - nicely demonstrated in the following review of the scope. HTH.

Might be worth posting a picture of the scope?

👍

I’ll be taking my tent so I’m hoping for some weather like that this!

I would say the two main advantages of your setup is the longer focal length gives better image scale for smaller objects, in particular galaxies, and the mono camera is more sensitive than colour, and in my opinion gives much more contrasty images than colour.

Fascinating video John. It all seems rather low tech, with dust flying around and blokes smashing the glass with wooden sticks! The end results are clearly not in question though. I love the bit where the lens is carefully polished prior to placing it its cell. I notice the guy spray painting the tubes isn’t wearing a mask. 😲

I enjoyed reading the backstory to this wonderful acquisition - may you have many happy years together under the stars.