wheresthetorch?

Thanks to  a recent gap in the clouds while the moon was up and an unexpected clear night last night, I've now had the opportunity for first light with with AR80S on the AZ5.  

The scope's performance on the moon was really impressive.  There was a hint of CA on the limb in the form of a yellowish tinge, but no hint on the lunar face and the terminator was beautifully clear and crisp through my BST Starguiders.  

Last night I cruised around some familiar DSOs while I got used to the scope and mount - M42, M43, M45, M31, M35, Double Cluster and some double stars in Orion (Struve 747, Struve 745, sigma Orionis and iota Orionis).  I was really pleased with the views - stars were pinpoints across most of the view with just a hint of distortion at the extreme edges.  At just 40x I was able to see all three components of iota Orionis, and they were easily split at 75x.  Similarly, stars D and E in sigma Orionis were easily separated from the main ABC stars.  Overall, the telescope is perfect as a 'grab and go' small achro with limited CA.

Unfortunately, I'm less impressed with the AZ5 mount.  It's really not very steady at all, and any attempt to fine tune the focus led to the view jumping around and taking a good 2-3 seconds to dampen down.  It was a still night, and I hate to think what the view would have been like had it been windy.  I got the mount used on eBay, and it lacks the pillar extension - I've therefore ordered one from FLO in the hope that having to extend the tripod legs less might improve its steadiness.

Anyway, there you go.  In summary - scope good, mount less so.

45 minutes ago, mark81 said:

Looks great on the AZ5. I'm looking forward in hearing how this performs...

Thanks. Typically, Clear Outside app is showing 100% cloud cover to the end of the year! ?☁️☁️

My AR80S arrived this morning, so I thought I'd post a quick pic of it on my AZ5 mount.

First impressions are that it is very light yet substantial, and feels very well made for such a budget price. First light has consisted of pointing at a TV aerial to line up my finderscope; image is crisp and clear with just a hint of CA either side of focus.  I guess that, despite being an achro the focal length of f7.5 helps with this.

It is a little 'back heavy' with finder, diagonal and eyepiece but the mount holds it ok 

The Crayford focusser is a little 'sticky' in coarse mode, but fine focus is smoother.  It's not as smooth and the 10:1 Crayford on my Revelation dob, so may need some adjusting.

Can't wait for a proper first light if the clouds ever roll away!

This has to be worth a look - a Mak on a WiFi GOTO alt-az mount. 

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/sky-watcher-az-gti-wifi/sky-watcher-skymax-127-az-gti.html

WiFi links directly to an app on your phone; if you have a young child, GOTO makes a big difference as there's less hanging around in the dark while parent tries to find something elusive in the sky.  Instead, watch the magic of the telescope moving across the sky.  

Just ordered one for my AZ5 as a grab and go to accompany my dob.

Was going to wait until after Christmas, but, you know . . . ?

Thanks for this review, as there is a dearth of information about this scope, and the price seemed very reasonable. 

Definitely on my list for a January treat once Christmas is over! 

Not exactly at night, but cooling ready. 

Just some further thoughts before you hit the button on a Ali AZ4.

I had the chance to use the Ali AZ4 with the ST120 and WO binoviewer barlowed 2x to get it to focus. I'm guessing I was working at around 100x considering binoviewers add to the barlowing effect. You would expect things to be more shakey at high power than the low power single eyepiece views I had previously, but things were VERY shakey (I couldn't rest my eyes sockets on the eyecups without it wobbling quite a bit, and don't ask about focusing )

I would still get an Ali AZ4 if you want something easy to carry with a semi decent weight limit, but if you ask me it's only suitable for short focal length low magnification viewing. So things like binoculars with an L-bracket or scope with 800mm focal length or less for example.

As for the ST120 AZ4 bino exeriment: As a specialist widefield low power scope I coudn't really expect a great deal on a Moonlit night. Especially when Barlowed to an inch of it's life to get it to focus with my BV unit. It didn't do bad all things considered, yes there was a good half inch of violet halo around the Moon, but once the tube currents settled I was able to pull out reasonable detail in Tycho such as the ejecta streaks, and fairly 3D detail around the wall of the sea of crises, and the northen region of the sea of fertility, and to the east of the sea of tranquility, this all looked good as it was near the teminator at the time. M42 was really washed out but the trapezium stars were right in my face! Also betelgeuse looked lovely and juicy. I could have done with an Apo for the Moon as it lacked contrast but the stars looked nice other than a touch bloated. The main thing was the shaking as I couldn't put my eyes into the eyepieces to get totally absorbed into the view.

Actually, I would really go for the steel legged AZ4 thinking about it, then you're future proofed.

Ah, interesting. My old 4SE had a very similar mount to the steel legged AZ4, and it wasn't overly heavy, so maybe that would be the way to go.

Food for thought . . . Many thanks for the information.

Well, I've used the setup for single eyepiece viewing a few times now and the mount performed brilliantly - easy and smooth to move on both the axis, the friction of the axis are easily adjusted, and very little vibration at 600mm focal length. The mount is also super light with the ali legs, which is great if like me you weight 9 1/2 stone wet through and have knotted string for muscles.

I'm gleeming that the ali legged version will be fine with scope such as ST120, ED100, C6, Mak127 etc, whereas the steel legged version can handle a bit more. I did once have the steel legged version and it didn't flinch at anything I got round to throwing at it, but it did feel twice the weight of the Ali version.

Thanks - that's really helpful. I was only looking at an ST-102, so it sounds as though it would manage that no problem.

My latest frac setup is a Startravel 120mm f/5 and AZ4, taken in part ex for my 5" f/9 Bresser plus Skytee. It's on trial at the moment to see how it performs with binoviewers. Well, now that Fozzie has helped me find a way to get it to reach focus with BV's It balances well which is a good start!

I'd be interested to hear how the aluminium AZ4 stands up to the weight, as I'm considering the same set up as a grab 'n' go and was favouring the ally tripod over the steel to reduce weight.

Ordered a Revelation 8" dob, Telrad and laser collimator online on Tuesday evening from Telescope House.

They emailed me on Weds to say it would be delivered the next day, and included a PDF of assembly instructions.

Scope and accessories all arrived at 9.20 on Thursday morning (today).

Really excellent level of service. This is my second major purchase from Telescope House, and I heartily recommend them.

He will be so sadly missed.