Ratlet

1 hour ago, Clarkey said:

OK found it. The adaptor is one of these:

T2 Male Astronomical Telescope Adapter T2 Male Thread To M48X0.75mm NDE | eBay

The outside thread is M48x0.75 and the inside is M42x0.75 (T2). The other end is M42x1 to attach to the camera. If you exclude the thread depth on the camera side, the depth is just under 6mm so should work. Alternately if you use the M48 connection it will not add any length to the imaging train as both threads will be used.

BRILLIANT.  I've been looking for one of these for ages.  Got a couple of lenses that I couldn't adjust the infinity focus and this will sort that out.  Cheers dude!

Not in the same range as the other zooms (and since op mentioned the nagler zoom), but it would be remiss of me to not mention the svbony sv215 3-8mm zoom which is absolutely fantastic (provided you don't wear eye glasses).  Completely blew my 8mm BST out of the water at 8mm and with an ed X2 barlow at 4mm.  Generous +/-60° FOV, needs only minor focus adjustments across the entire range better colour contrast than the BST.  Absolute gem of an eyepiece.  So good it made me enjoy planetary and regret selling my Mak.

28 minutes ago, LDW1 said:

The 8-24 Svbony is the same size / weight as the Baader Mark IV.

Was not aware of that.  It's a cracking eyepiece regardless, just didn't get on with the narrow FOV. 

Just now, PatG said:

A great first & second light reports Ratlet, got yourself a bargain there.
 

I recently acquired a second hand 10” dob (OOVX10L) and have enjoyed a couple of tantalising sessions. I am enjoying the simplicity of it and it’s nice to navigate to the target manually for a change. I’ve also got a digital inclinometer but not fitted it / tried it out yet. I’m interested how you are going to approach the Azimuth setting circle, Im deliberating over that at the moment. Clear skies! 

I'm going to get the local printers to do a print of a setting circle.  I'll make it on here ( https://www.blocklayer.com/protractor-printeng ).

After that it'll just be doing this https://youtu.be/ufExHsPD4lg

I've got the 8-24 svbony.  It's pretty good but heavy.  I didn't get on with it ultimately though as its FOV is a bit too small for my liking.

31 minutes ago, Mr Spock said:

The only complaint I have with my Dob is the eyepiece position. When the scope is pointing straight up you need to be a gymnast to climb over the base and get to it. I don't know why they don't put them on the side 

I'll watch out for that.  My base is currently extra wide as I need to put a base board down to stop it sinking into the grass.  A side from an old kitchen unit was hand picked for its availability.

I've not tended to observe near zenith as I find it hard to navigate with the alt az.

2 hours ago, Alan White said:

Nice report and pleased you have found the Dob a sucess.

On the ebing seated, well that is a wonderful observing treat whatever you look through.
The real issue is finding a suitable perche.

Observing Chair?
Stool?
Armchair?

A wide choice and one that might keep you obsessing for some time to come.

 

Going to get the geoptik Nadira.  Just waiting for rvo to let me know when they're in stock.  The mother in law does upholstery so I'm hoping I can get her to do a seat cover.

8 minutes ago, imakebeer said:

I would say using it mostly for imaging - I don't want to completely give up on visual hence I want to keep the visual finder scope ideally (plus I can see it being a useful backup).

I thought about doing as you say, attaching the dovetail to the 150pds rings, then attach the guidescope rings to the dovetail. The issue here is that the bolts for the guidescope rings are smaller diameter than the holes in the 150pds rings and the dovetail so there is potential for some play.

  I'd give it a try on the finder foot.

You'll need to source the correct bolts to attach it to the rings.  Can't remember what they are, but they might not be metric.  

Welcome to the forum.  Cracking first image of orion.

39 minutes ago, carastro said:

I have been using the finderscope foot for donkeys years for the guide scope.  I have never had any flex with it.  Mine is in fact a converted finderscope.  I guess you need to make sure the foot fits tightly.   The only disadvantage l have found that being to one side the balance in Dec is a little lop sided, but doesn’t seem to affect guiding.   
 

Carole
 

 

My imaging paranoia stands corrected.  I'll give the finder foot a try.  Makes it a bit easier as I use my scope mostly for visual and the second dovetail gets used mostly as a handle (as is tradition).

Are you only using it for imaging?  You can attach the dovetail to the top of the 150pds tube rings then remove the guide scope rings from the guide scope and attach them onto the dovetail.  That how I did mine.  Just need the correct size/length of bolts.

You could use the finder scope attach and just mount the guide scope there, but you might get a bit of flex which could affect guiding.

3 minutes ago, mikeDnight said:

All will be revealed in time. I'm still nursing my bank card better!

Bank card melting like Salvador Dali's clock? 🤣

Any new and exciting goodies on display?

13 minutes ago, Kon said:

Nice report and first light (?). You may want to consider a good quality OIII for the fainter nebulas (I am not sure what your skies are). 

Bortle 4/5.  I'll have a look into it the Oiii filter. At the moment I'm enjoying working with the UHC and trying to figure out how it always seems to have a thumb print on it.

Second light, but first time using it for DSO which was it's intended targets.  Had it out on Wednesday to catch Jupiter and Venus.  Jupiter was pretty decent considering I was literally viewing it through branches.

Those tough trucks are like quadraphenia for dobs.

Also the guy with the deer stalker must be a kindred spirit of mine.  Ear flaps are a vital piece to any hat.  They keep the ears warm and rotated can be used as a quick eye patch.

39 minutes ago, Captain Scarlet said:

Very nice read. What size is your dob? It may well be in your sig but I don’t know how to see a sig on my phone.

M37 is a favourite of mine. I always look out for the prominent bright red star in a darker patch right at the cluster centre, a lovely sight.

Cheers, Magnus

I just got the 10" Stellalyra.  I've also got a 5" 130pds.  At some point I need to get them both out and do a comparison.  The only object that had a definite "that's different" moment was the Eskimo nebula.

Delighted with it though.  Very pleasant to observe with.

Edit:. Missed the red star in the middle of m37!  I didn't see that.  That's what I get for not sketching I guess and being in too much of a hurry 

Would the 30mm be a significant upgrade over the superview that comes with the Stellalyra dob?  I was thinking about getting a flat field to see what it's like.  Would it pair well with my 130pds?  Just checked and it would apparently give a 3.23° FOV which sounds mighty tempting.

A wee bit of follow up.

I used the dob and inclinometer last night.  Leveled the base using a cheapy circular bubble from AliExpress and then zeroed the inclinometer.  Worked excellently.  Dial in the altitude and then pan in azimuth in the rough area.  Object always ended up in the FOV of the 30mm 70° eyepiece.  Worked best for larger objects since they were easier to spot.

I could probably have used the adjuster plate, but I didn't need it with the dob.

Best bet is to give it a try if you have everything.  The infinity focus on older camera lenses can be badly set so it can be a little too close or a little too far away.  I've had lenses which reach focus on my setup and lenses that don't.  I go m42 lens-canon ef adapter-zwo canon filter drawer-cooled camera and with that the spacing should be perfect, but it rarely is.  Some lenses won't get to infinity, some just make it to infinity and others travel a good bit past.

If you can't reach infinity focus then you could try sanding the female end of the adapter (0.04mm is a tiny amount) or alternatively you could adjust the infinity stop of the lens.  On some lenses the adjustment requires serious surgery (taking lens elements out to reach the adjustment screws) but on others it's relatively easy.  For example the takumar 200mm F4 has 3 screws on the focuser barrel which can be loosened allowing it to be adjusted.

I put the dob out to cool earlier in the evening and decided to get familiar with the Dob.  Previously I’d only used the 130PDS on an Alt/Az mount and for me the Dob was a bit different.  I setup with a cheap sun chair to try and get to a reasonable height.  It didn’t work well, but it did work.  Sitting is a far more civilised way of observing, even if you are mostly sitting on the arm of the chair!

M42 is rapidly heading into the out season so I kicked off with that.  It’s far from the hardest thing to find so I kicked off with the 16mm OVL Nirvana for 78x.  I looked at it the other night with the same eyepiece and was blown away by how clear the Trapezium looked with it and again tonight.  With a fairly short amount of time observing (and the neighbours kitchen light on) the amount of detail was brilliant.  Previously I would describe the nebulosity as like a swift and this was still obvious however now the inside of the ‘wings’ were filled in with faint nebulosity. 

I attempted M31 but it was very low down and was quite disappointing only the core region was readily visible.

I figured Mars was worth a punt but I don’t think my eyes or the scopes collimation was up for it.  It was orange.

Since I was in the neighbourhood, I decided to test out the inclinometer.  M1 was just below mars so I got to the correct altitude and panned east.  To my surprise the nebulas wandered into view reasonably central.  Largely lozenge shaped the nebulosity was obvious.  I wasn’t really expecting that to work so well.  Using the inclinometer became a running theme…

I really enjoyed the clusters in Auriga in the 5” so decided to try them next.  I used the digital inclinometer for this and dialled in the correct altitude and then just panned west to east in the rough area.  Initially I landed on M38 with the included Stellalyra 30mm Superview (42x).  The cluster was very dense with the larger east side being separated by what looked like a dark lane from the less starry west side.  There was also obvious fuzzyness to the South East which I think might have been NGC 1907.

Once I figured out where I was I hit M36 next.  Smaller but still dense I didn’t really stay long as M37 was up next and it’s probably one of my favourite clusters.  With the 30mm it’s lovely, like a cluster of cluster with bright stars mingles with graininess of almost resolved stars.  Stepping up to the 16mm showed more stars and more graininess.  I suspect this cluster would just suck up magnification and keep offering more.

After a quick break I decided to head over to the East and attempted to see the Rosette.  I could see the cluster easily enough, but I’m never sure if I can see the nebulosity.  I did see the Christmas tree cluster.  I see the shape clearly.  The brightest star marks the pot of the tree?

The Esikimo Nebula was a bit more of a challenge to track down and I had to resort to star hopping over from Wasat.  With the 12mm BST (104x) and UHC filter it was very bright.  I couldn’t see any real detail but what a difference from the 5”.  I previously described it as a good target to train your averted vision.  With the Dob it was just there all the time.

Wrapped up with the Beehive cluster which was cracking with the 30mm.  It just about takes it all in.  First time I’ve noticed that some of the stars have different colour in this cluster.  There is a definite orange bias to some of them (although to me it often feels like describing colour of stars is more like describing the colour of white LED lights being orange or blue).  I dropped down to M67.  This is another really nice cluster and I highly recommend having a look at it.  Surprisingly dense.  I felt it looked better at low power than high.

I did try a few more targets in Leo and Ursa Major, however there were high clouds rolling in and I couldn’t find anything.

In all I’m delighted with the Dob.  I think it will really come into it’s own with a proper observing chair (just as soon as RVO get stock).  For finding large objects like clusters having the inclinometer is like having cheat modes on and every time I tried it I wound up getting the target in the FOV of the 30mm.  An Azimuth setting circle is the next upgrade.  The AZ5 will be getting one as well.  To avoid blowing my retinas I covered the screen of the inclinometer and an old mobile with red acetate from ebay.  This dimmed it down nicely and helped preserve my dark vision (a bit of a wasted effort as the neighbour’s kitchen light was on the whole time).

I bought a sack truck with a long toe plate for moving the dob and it’s basically made it grab and go as it just needs to get from the shed to the garden.

No complaints about the Dob.  It works as intended.  Apart from the collimation which was my own fault as I didn’t check it at the start of the evening.  It’s a nice compliment to the 5” Newt and I’m glad I went down this route (I was thinking about getting a refractor). 

I did plan to do some sketching but a combination of excitement and intimidation from the clusters (too many stars!) meant I settled for being greedy instead.

Just in for a cup of tea and a warm up.  The Dob is an absolute beast.  The digital inclinometer is absolutely brilliant.  Did some clusters in auriga.  Going to get some to the east before the devil's flashlight gets up. 

Just put the big lad out to cool...

(Always wanted to say that 😂)

Congratulations on the triumvirate!

1 hour ago, Marvin Jenkins said:

Laughed out loud at a report today on the BBC that outlined a call from scientists all over the world to tackle the problem of space junk.

The report was short and ended with news reader saying that unless something is done it will stop future satellite deployments!!!!

I thought the satellites were space junk. After all we have a guy chucking his car into space as a gimmick.

Marv

The Kessler syndrome pops up every so often in the news.  Hopefully we'll address the problem before we get enshrouded in a blanket of kilometer per second velocity shrapnel.  Probably not though.

Just now, Mr H in Yorkshire said:

On a motorised binochair (described here on SGL) I have used encoders, part of the DobsonDream equipment designed especially for dobs, I didn't need to the attachment hardware. They work well with Skysafari on an Android tablet (app shows an arrow for the direction to move towards target) or on a PC tablet with Stellarium and David Ek's encoder driver which paints a big red box with numbers on screen. You reduce the numbers to zero to find the target.

Obviously a much more expensive option, but if you ever consider it I can vouch for the kit and the helpfulness of Alexander the company head - AstroGadgets.

This is the beauty of the hobby imho so many ways to do the job.  I'll keep that in mind.

The plan for the azimuth is the circle will go on the rotatable section of the base.  I'm thinking a small magnetic strip on the proper base and then some thing I can stick on that that will reach up and point to the azimuth scale.  Will allow me to zero it accurately (hopefully).

I found a design someone did for the az5 and I'm going to upgrade it with setting circles all going well for the 130pds.  I get 2° FOV with my 32mm so it has a fairly large scope for getting close enough.