paul mc c

Got this last night,had a clear sky but a lot of haze and murk, especially down low,this was right on the limit of my obsy wall so just glad to see it, could only get a limited time on it,around 70 mins,20 x bias,20 x flats,80ed and d450.

After a frustrating few nights trying to get the mount polar aligned I finally got it sorted,this was after I had removed it from the pier to try and image Saturn,but the seeing was terrible,so I got the 12" out and set it up at the side of the house to just have a look at Saturn,not really expecting much,but to my surprise the views were unreal.Cassini was very sharp as was the shadow on the rings,moons were little pin points and banding on the surface of the planet.I have been observing Saturn for many years and tonight was as if it was my first view of it. I got so tied up in imaging that I forgot how good it was to just sit and observe,one of those nights that will stick in my memory.

My name is Paul....and im a telescopeaholic...

I have always thought about only keeping one scope,and what would be a good all rounder,probably what answers my question is... out of all the scopes i have owned inc,8" and 12" sct,10" and 8"newts and other smaller scopes,my 12" O.O f5.3 with ultra grade primary has stayed the longest.

Seems we cant see content in Europe...

I was out trying to polar align the other night, after i removed the mount from the obsy to a tripod to see Jupiter,and had a real nightmare getting it aligned,i put it down to having patchy clouds and not completely clear so give up after an age,i have done it successfully in the past,also you can no longer use sharpcap free version to polar align,although maybe it you have the old version still downloaded you can.

I suppose its like having an old banger of a car,it will get you from A to B,but so will a nice Mercedes,they will do the same job,but if you can afford the high end one thats nice.

It could be whats called " kidney beaning"where you get this effect on wide field eyepieces if your eye is to close to the eyepiece.,or you may need an extension tube to bring the eyepiece to focus..

Im almost sure it is 182mm.

"If your mirror cell is the same as mine you can lower it a bit,therefore achieving focus." Edited 20 hours ago by paul mc c This is what i said in my post,the primary mirror cell has 2 sets of holes upper and lower where the three bolts are,if you caerfully take these out you can drop the cell and use the upper holes in the cell therefore possibly letting you use your eyepiece with out an adaptor.

You could but you may have to shorten the tube to gain focus.This is one i made a while ago.

If your mirror cell is the same as mine you can lower it a bit,therefore achieving focus.

Yes you can,but there is to much vignetting as there is to much distance between the reducer and the eyepiece or camera with the Crayford,that was my experiance.

In my experience,the crayford and reducer dont work,i had to use a 2" visual back with the reducer and take the Crayford off.

I would also say it is dust on the camera sensor,your scope can be fairly dusty without having any affect.

Is there much mirror flop with your 9.25 when focusing? i had a crayford when i had a Meade sct and it was essential especially when imaging planets as there was a lot of mirror flop with this scope,but i sold it when i got a 9.25 as there was almost no mirror flop with this scope,so i now just a clothes peg on the focuser to fine focus and it works a treat.

I started with the Hamlyn guide to Astronomy,and still have my 60mm Pathescope refractor.

Thats brilliant.....my processing skills are not good,and after having a nightmare with PI,i am only using gimp,that looks great.

My take in the dumbell,prob around 3 hours with c80ed and modded 450d.I will hopefully add to it if the weather is kind.

Nightmare......it looks bad,hopefully it will clean for you,hope so,i have never owned one of those scopes so dont know if it can be opened.

I will double your money..£40 last offer.........lol,cracking deal you got,i have the same scope and its a great scope.

Was there 2 years ago......unreal skies actually took me a while to get my bearings there was that many stars.....bring a jumper,it can be really cold.

Its almost 13" long,dont know what would be better,piggybacked or this.This way is really solid.

Nice one.

Hello,looking a bit of feedback on this set up,and any problems i may have using it. I originally had a 50mm finder as my guide scope but am now using the zwo 60mm. Or am i better piggy backing the guide scope. Paul