RobertI

Thank you! We built it from the ‘scrap yard’ of Lego bits which covers the floor. 😆 It actually moves in Alt-Az. My son built the finder which I really like too. My favourite bit is the focuser - there just happened to be a Lego piece with two spindles at the right angle - amazing luck. 👍

Just had fun building this with my son. 🙂

Thanks Nick. There’s certainly plenty of them!

Just a quick update - I had another session with the ETX90 tonight, this time in manual push to mode, and was more impressed with the views than the previous night. I gave the scope proper time to cool down this time and found it to be a very nice double star splitter, managing the double double in Lyra and spotting Polaris’s faint secondary. Alberio and Algieba both looked very nice. M13 showed nicely with some suggestion of resolution of outer stars and M57 was visible but faint. Despite the very cheap 10mm and 25mm Kellners I was using, there were lovely diffraction rings on the brighter stars. Based on my initial experience, I think I would rate the performance on a par with a good quality modern 70mm refractor. My first experiences with a Mak and all very educational. 🙂

Thanks Chris and Roy. A great in depth background Chris, I thought I remembered that you had Meades in the past. That’s helped a lot actually, especially with the pricing, as you say, work on the basis that the motors might not have long left. I actually felt there was a lot to like about the scope including a nice metal screw on objective cap, a nice handset display with a useful little little red torch on the end, easy to use goto and a really nicely finished OTA. I felt the views were a little underwhelming but I was probably expecting too much of the optics, it’s only 90mm with an obstruction and not the most up to date coatings - can’t really compare with a modern 4” apo refractor which I’ve been used to. But it is all in working order - it’s just those noisy motors! Thanks again - let’s see what happens!

I’ve offered to help sell a Meade ETX90 on behalf of the family of an astronomy acquaintance who has sadly passed away. I have been checking the scope and tested it last and wanted to check a few things to see whether it’s normal. The scope appears to be from 1999 and has a full Autostar goto package. It also has a field tripod. It appears to spotless, collimation was fine but I really to do more visual viewing on a dark night to test the optics. The questions I have are: It slews ok and the goto is fine, but the motors are incredibly noisy when tracking - alt is worse than az- but both noisy - is this normal? There is a lot of play in the alt axis when locked - I don’t think this is backlash in the motors as the scope responds quickly to handset inputs. The scope is front heavy so this isn’t a problem, but if you put a heavy eyepiece in it can move the scope upwards and spoil the alignment. Is this normal and can it be adjusted? Anything else I should be checking. Another thought is what would be a reasonable asking price? There are no eyepieces or finder (the pic shows my 6x30) but it does have a field tripod. I was thinking around £300? Any thoughts appreciated. Thanks. Rob

Very enjoyable read! Binoviewers have been a revelation for me and in my 102ED they are remarkable. I have even really enjoyed observing the full moon at low power with them. And also high power observing of sunspots with Herschel wedge. Somehow the image seems bigger (more panoramic, more spectacular) and more detailed than cyclops viewing at the same mag. Not tried in the C8 yet....

Interesting, so there seem to be 4 subs there, so does that mean it took 60 seconds to move across the FOV? If so that seems far too slow for a plane and unusually slow for a normal satellite. Also my initial thought was the flashing was due to satellite ‘tumbling’?

Superb. The NV experience must be something else. One day..... 🙂

Excellent software, will definitely use this, thanks.

Nice scopes, but just a little Takky.

That must have put a smile on your face! 😁

Nice report John, the 12” seems perfect for those faint fuzzies this time of year. Just been out myself and the seeing was really remarkable. I’ll post a brief report tomorrow.

Scopes ready to go for tonight. Fingers crossed.

Definitely counts Chris! Though I feel a Monty Python sketch coming on ..... “...camera, well I call it a camera, it was more like a shoe box with a pinhole in the side....”. 😆 Anyway don’t want to divert from your super vid. 👍

Great result Chris, informative and entertaining as always. Sounds like the the 462 is a great cam, although the sensor makes even my Lodestar look large! Nothing wrong with doing things the hard way by the way. Your next challenge is to image without electricity. 🙂

A worthy instrument if it got you hooked on this wonderful hobby. 👍 As part of my ‘O’ level in astronomy way back in 1982, I built a refractor made from a Woolworth magnifying glass lens and cardboard tube which used to contain a bottle of Glenffidich Whisky. It was awful! Fortunately I was lucky enough to already have a Charles Frank reflector, so the Frankenscope didn’t last long. 😁

Very nice, I like the design too. You can can develop the rest of the garden around your observing site! 👍

Nice report. It’s not much fun trying to observe with an unsatisfactory setup, but you observed plenty in the end.

🤣🤣🤣

Peashooters can be deadly in the hands of an expert. Some nice catches there. 🙂

Great haul Mark. I was also lucky enough to get a wonderfully clear night last night and the neighbours played ball and a couple of street lights are out - heavenly! The H130P is a great little scope - it must easily have the best aperture to portability ratio around. Mine is a perfect match for my SkyProdigy mount - I may venture forth tonight if I can stand the arctic weather! I actually did a comparison of my H130P with my Tal 100RS (not an apo though) and I posted the results here: Although the Tal did well, I think if I had done more comparisons on faint fuzzies the 130P would have been the clear winner - I have had some stunning views of the Veil during the summer with this scope. 👍

Great report and image of an object I’ve never seen. Thanks!

Popping my head outside at 10:30pm revealed a beautifully transparent sky. Having work the next day meant a quick session was in order. Unable to find my binocular I quickly set up the 102ED-R atop the Skytee 2 for a quick squint. Completely unprepared, I had nothing listed, so went to a couple some well known favourites. Izar was beautiful and easily split at 160x. Seeing was really excellent (not a breath of wind either) so I upped the magnification to 200x and the stars remained tight with lovely unbroken diffraction ring. The pair looked wonderful with the tiny white 'cub' sticking close to its yellow parent. Out of interest I zoomed out to see the lowest magnification where I could still split it - I reckon I could still just see a black line at 100x. M13 was climbing in the East, so I had a play with different magnifications. At 200x a lot of stars were resolved in the core and outer regions, but were quite dim. Zooming out resulted in a smaller and brighter cluster but also a brighter sky. I think x80 was about the ideal combination of object brightness, sky darkness and star visibility. Surprisingly I spent an hour on just these two objects. Wish I could have stayed out longer.

Some interesting challenges there Nick, well caught.