haitch

1 hour ago, Adreneline said:

 

Is that the original Baader motor? I was thinking of making a belt driven one for mine but didn’t know the spec of the teeth to order belts and a pulley for the motor end

Make it 3... home made focuser on my C11... 

Just for visual? 

It's a long f/l so I'd go for a full 2" visual back or Crayford focuser and a 2" diagonal to make us of lower mag wider view eyepieces.

At f10 you shouldn't need super duper expensive eyepieces but some half decent ones should improve your viewing.

I've just bought my first 3D printer and my first design is a bracket to motorise the focuser on my C11. Just thought I'd post it up in case any other C11 users find it useful. It just needs a Nema 14 stepper motor (& some way to control it), an MXL belt and a few screws. I'd post a photo but I've not managed a print I'm happy with yet 🙄😂(currently trying to get my head around printing in PETG).
https://www.tinkercad.com/things/0kgcgn3A1Vm

Cheers

Paul

I know there's been a lot of shipping insurance threads over the years where there's been concern over expensive insurance not covering a telescope for damage because it has glass components.

Anyway I just thought I'd share an insurance company I came across when looking for a solution to ship a scope... www.secursus.com who don't appear to have any such exclusions and even make a point or saying they insure valuable and delicate items. Insurance is just 0.6% of value so much cheaper than any courier option I've come across.

HTH

Paul

If you do flock the tube be careful what you use - I had a friend with a 9.25 who had no end of problems with shedding fibres 

2 hours ago, johninderby said:

Orientation used to be important in earler Celestron SCTs when mirrors were hand finished and were a matched set but now with machine finished mirrors doesn’t seem ro matter any more.

I think there is still some matching involved with primaries and corrector plates just not secondaries

2 hours ago, x6gas said:

 

I am led to believe that the orientation of the secondary mirror is not crucial; that would seem to be borne out with my experience at least; I had the same issue as you in that my secondary was spinning so I had no idea of the original orientation.  Star tests and analysis with CCD inspector didn't show any appreciable difference with different orientations of the secondary (and I wasted a fair few clear nights confirming this), but that could, of course, just be my scope...

Given that Celestron are willing to sell replacement secondaries I would very much doubt there is any matching involved.

1 hour ago, Cosmic Geoff said:

I have collimated one SCT and checked the collimation on another.  My non-expert opinion is that the video does not show any need for collimation and you should leave well alone. Just check that you have not made things worse by twisting the Fastar around.

I’d like to know that the secondary holder is sufficiently tight though. Collimating SCTs is fairly easy with a star test.

If you have to remove the corrector plate don’t worry it’s not as  major an operation as it seems - just remember to make sure it is marked for alignment before you take it out m.

Hold the centre part still whilst you turn the outer ring - have you got Bob’s knobs like mine? They might give a bit more purchase on it.

1 minute ago, dweller25 said:

The fastar unit can only be tightened up by taking the corrector off.

If you do that make sure you mark it’s orientation as it must go back in exactly the same position.

I’m assuming something like a tree was in the way when you took that video as the flat edge should not be there ?

You can undo the outer ring with the grip on that holds the secondary mirror, take the secondary out then put your finger through the hole to grip the other side to allow you to tighten the secondary holder. Jusat be careful not to drop the secondary - I had a £139 bill and a 12 month wait for a new secondary to arrive from the US! 

The rings look quite concentric apart from the flat section - are you using a flexible dew shield? They sometimes flop across the aperture which could cause the flat edge.

1 hour ago, jinchuriki said:

C14 on EQ6???? How is that even possible? The maximum payload is around 20kg, and the C14 tube itself is about 22kg, that makes no sense to me? Am I missing something?

I know but he's doing it - look up the group "Amateur Astronomy - Telescope, Binocular and Imaging Forum" on Facebook and there's a guy in there called Rolf Karlstad doing some amazing things with a C14+Hyperstar on an Eq6-r (just checked & it was the R model but pretty much the same thing) 

Not sure if it's an open group so apologies if it doesn't open here... ...https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10221186765281949&set=gm.3015886375094860&type=3&eid=ARCHb6SnHtcIBWcbNm9oQSMwkOJE5jayJdCFiuWYsCQDo9VgcD2tZWT6bTBn_Xr7AqGQ-_tMNwx6LRPy&ifg=1

44 minutes ago, jinchuriki said:

Yes I've heard that the C11 with hyperstar is a beast, I'm not worried about getting a C11 with hyperstar, but if I decide to get the CPC1100 with wedge, that is a concern to me, as I'm not really sure if that would be enough for long exposures, even though from what you state, that sounds like it could be good enough.

Do you also use the C11 for observing? If so, what do you think about it?

It's a great planetary/small dso scope visually.

I should add that mine is mounted on a Skywatcher AZ-EQ6 which seems to handle it well although if the tripod were extended fully I imagine it could get a bit wobbly but the mount head is solid enough to take it. A Gem would be my preferred option but given the capability of the some of the new CMOS cameras you should be able to get decent images with exposures too short too worry about tracking accuracy.

PS I know someone using a C14 & Hyperstar on an EQ6 and getting good results.

2 minutes ago, jinchuriki said:

Well as I stated before, whichever scope I'll use, it will probably be with a hyperstar, so DSO should be fairly great with either of them.

As for going out for half an hour, that probably won't happen, I rarely do that right now, and even if I were to want that, I could still do it with the refractor.

I've seen 1 option for second hand CPC1100 with wedge and hyperstar, that could save up a lot of money, but I don't know if that'll be good enough for DSO, do you know about it?

I did consider getting one scope for visual and one for planetary, but eventually that might just be more expensive than 1 good scope for both, I still don't know about that, but what I'm generally thinking in mind, is having that big purchase so I won't have to spend more on anything else in the future.

Which scopes do you have? That really comes down to what you chose and how far you went, even though you might be right

Possibly, but C11/C14 seems like a really great option for both visual and imaging to me, I might be wrong though, that's why I'm asking for advices

As for the price, I don't really think it will end up cheaper tbh, that really depends on what I end up choosing.

Thanks for the comments guys

I own a C11 & Hyperstar combo. Great scope that captures photons incredibly efficiently with the Hyperstar - do not underestimate f2: it captures light 12 times faster than f6.3. Think about it... a 4 minute exposure at f6.3 is equivalent to 20 seconds at f2.

No need for guiding or even particularly good polar alignment in fact it is possible to do deep sky imaging in alt az mode!

My Hyperstar is the mk3 but here is a Mk4 out now with even better specs for a bigger flat field and point sizes. Not cheap but well worth it in imo.

It always has a larger angular size than the moon and even my 50 year old eyes can just about make it out from a dark sky site.

We just need a decent power cut so we can all see it naked eye. 😈

On 28/06/2019 at 11:56, John said:

Ooops !!! - I missed that crucial point

I guess that might mean that getting an older mirror re-coated might be more challenging ?

but it'll probably deteriorate slower over there too

Of course, another consideration when recoating is OO's Hilux coatings, whilst pricey, are rumoured to have a 25+ year life

Edit: oops - should read the whole thread!

I'll just point the Hyperstar at the Summer sky for 30 seconds and submit an all white frame 🙄

Just now, haitch said:

 (message FLO if you need help)

Sorry - just saw you're overseas

8 minutes ago, Sunshine said:

Question answered, thank you!

Happy to help. Mine's one of these... https://www.firstlightoptics.com/solar-filters/astrozap-baader-solar-filter.html 

Nice and secure - just make sure you get the one that suits your tube size (message FLO if you need help)

PS I have successfully used my C11 for white light with Baader film.

3 minutes ago, Sunshine said:

Is there any way to us my 150 Mak for white light? maybe a wedge combined with a film on the front? i understand that 6" is too big to aim directly without some kind of front filter, it would definately heat up quite a bit and destroy the mirror.

Baader Solar film would be the way to go - no need for a wedge as well (it's either or but a wedge won't work with a Mak, as you say, it needs a front filter not because of it's aperture but because of how concentrated the light (& therefore heat) is when it reflects back off the primary and hits the secondary silver spot.

Make sure it's secure (especially if you make your own filter rather than buying a ready made one).

You can also improve the visibility of surface features with a Solar Continuum filter.

Hi Olly, just to allow slightly wider fields and collect photons a bit quicker. The dedicated flattener I’ve got purportedly gives a flat field over a 35mm image circle so perhaps a bigger sensor is what I should be looking at 🤑