johninderby

Afyer setting up my secondary with a Concentre my Hotec laser gives me spot on collimation results. I no longer use a Cheshire for setting up a secondary.

I have thouroughly enjoyed using my TS-AZ5 and it has been great with virtually zero backlash in both Alt and Az unlike a Skytee. Will soon be going up for sale though when my Rowan AZ100 gets here. Sometime in November. 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🙂

The TS-AZ5 has a lot more tolerance for handling out of balance scopes so shouldn’t beed a dovetail weight. Mine handles my 100mm f/13 with no problems. The AZ5 doesn’t need any setting up. Just add the scope and start observing. The only disadvanatge I suppose would be no GOTO but that could also be seen as an advantage. And yes that is a Synscan system that I test fitted to a Skytee. Interesting experiment but now that the AZ-EQ5 is available just not needed.

The mak will be far superior to to the refractor in optical quality and will take higher mag. However it has a narrow field of view. Ideal for Lunar / planetary but the short focal length refractor will be better for low power widefield views. It all,comes down to what you want to look at.

With a PST you’ll probably need one of these to reach focus. https://www.firstlightoptics.com/zwo-accessories/zwo-low-profile-replacement-camera-cover-for-all-uncooled-zwo-cameras.html

I wasn’t goining to be attending but just so so sorry for those that had been looking forward to it so much and those that spent the many, many hours organising it.🙁🙁

It’s more things that you can do to improve the scope rather than fix any problems with it. You’ll want to search for bearing mods for Skywatcher dobs in particular. Yes the eyepieces are not that great but usable for now. BST Starguider eyepieces are a good budget series of eyepieces that will serve you well and be a huge improvemt over the stock ones. Just take your time and enjoy the experience of learning your way around the sky.

There are a few different AZ5s but all with slo mo controls. https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/language/en/info/p4537_TS-Optics-AZ5-Alt-azimuthal-Mount-with-tripod-and-fine-adjustment.html https://www.firstlightoptics.com/sky-watcher-az5-deluxe/sky-watcher-az5-deluxe-alt-azimuth-mount.html https://www.365astronomy.com/365Astronomy-AZ5-Versatile-Vari-angle-Micro-Motion-Alt-Azimuth-Telescope-Mount-with-Stainless-Steel-Tripod.html

The TS-AZ5 does have slow mo controls and is basicly the same as the Skytee but with better quality control.

While a colour camera can be set to mono it’s still capturing in colour And just showing the image in mono. Cooling is good for longer exposures but with a short exposure solar not a problem.. Quote: “A monochrome astrophotography camera can collect more signal (light) than a color camera can. (3 times as much, to be exact). ... By design, a camera sensor with a color filter array requires you to take longer exposures to record the same level of signal as a mono camera would.“ There are threads on this.

Found this. “Doubling the aperture of a telescope makes the image four times brighter at the same magnification, or allows twice the magnification to be used while retaining the same image brightness. The direct ratio between telescope brightness and unaided eye brightness still holds for point sources.” Here’s a very useful chart that will explain a lot.

First of all yes upgrading to a TS-AZ5 or Skytee would be a good idea as they handle longer scopes better but there are things you can do do to help with your existing mount. You could use a dovetail counterweight and a longer dovetail bar. https://www.firstlightoptics.com/counterweights/baader-dovetail-bar-levelling-counterweight.html Exercise ankle weights with a velco wrap can be put near the front of the scope as a cheaper alternative. Bit neater than hanging weight bags.

Essentially the longer the focal lentgh the smaller the field of view, The longer focal lengths are particularily suited to lunar and planetary observing and the shorter focal lengths with their wider field of view for DSOs. No reason you can’t use any scope for any purpose but it’s just that some are more suited to certain types of observing. Also With the longer focal lengths you can get away with using cheaper eyepieces. The shorter the focal length the more demanding they are of optical quality.

You might find this online calculator useful in matching pixel size to focal length. It does have the ZWO cameras shown in the camera option. https://astronomy.tools/calculators/ccd_suitability

Sounds like the plot for a book. 😁

Hi The stock focuser is actualy not bad at all. Solid and will do the job. I made the fatal mistake of test fitting the Baader Steeltrack though. Nice as the stock focuser is it’s not as nice as a Steeltrack. Next best thing to a FeatherTouch.🙂 I always liked the Skymax180 but this new scope is a real step up in performance. And no dew problems. 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

Very nice. 👍🏻 I had a lovely OD350 dob that didn’t get used much. Now have a 10” dob that will get used.

Read a test a while ago where they measured light transmision of the latest High end multi element eyepieces and found no difference betwenn those with six or seven and those with just a few elements. They pointed out it’s not the number of ekements that is important but the coatings used. Coatings are so good now that the old belief that the fewer the elements the better no longer applies. It’s the quality of the eyepiece.

I used to have a TMB Supermono 4mm and 5mm but found them virtualy unusable as the eye releif was so bad. Incredibly uncomfortable to use and soon moved them on. The longer fl of the TMBs were better though.

You can also remove the bottom part of the mount revealing a 3/8 photo tripod screw fitting.

How about objectives from small binoculars? https://www.astroboot.co.uk/search.php?needle=Binocular

Take a look at this place. They carry a lot of different types so you might be able to make up something suitable. https://www.brecklandscientific.co.uk/Biconvex-Small-Lenses-s/9276.htm

A couple of pics on the Rowan site although no details.

Everybody is entitled to their opinion.

Decided to replace the carry handle with a full length one from where else but WDS Ltd. 🙂