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SpookyKatt

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Everything posted by SpookyKatt

  1. Very sorry to hear rhis, I met him while selling him a scope and he was a lovely man. My condolences to his family. Kathleen
  2. I think Losmandy were initially going to offer a spring loaded worm upgrade kit but because their solution relies on some machining to the mount they must have went off the idea. They said in a youtube stream (I asked a question re it) that they will sell the bits to do the spring loaded modification but it would be up to the purchaser to figure it out how to fit it.
  3. Great video Curtis, many thanks for linking it and the battery review. I am really liking the idea of a lighter battery I have to confess. Must say I never knew you could get a little dummy load like you had to test the batteries with and I think that is a genius device (as I am not sure as to actual health of my batteries) so I will have to look into getting one of those. kathleen
  4. Hi Trevor, Well I owned both 100R's for a few years, I just checked and the newer one I owned for at least 4 years and the older one closer to 11 years i think, although it spent the last few years forgotten in its box as I was spending more and more time trying to get my imaging working in between the clouds. I did indeed use the Tal Plossls with the scope and quite liked them if I am honest, I had a Tal 30mm erfle as well I think it was but i didn't get on with that I must confess. i also used the Tal barlow's, both the x2 and a x3, they both worked well but the x3 was a little much as I recall. It might have worked better on a different mount to further reduce vibrations etc so I mainly used the x2. To be honest if you use longer screws you can use other diagonals with the scope, but i didn't feel the need to as I thought the Tal diagonal was good. A few of the Tal scopes had a flange fitting for the diaganol, perhaps it is a bit of a safety feature so if the screws slightly loosen the diagnol won't just fall out, more rotate round. i'm sure the metal must contract quite abit on those cold siberian nights. I used to have some pictures of this but don't know where they are at the moment but yes there were gaps round the baffles making stray light possible, especially on bright targets. This was one of the differences though I really noticed between the two scopes. As I said the older scope had a better build quality and you could really see it looking at the baffles, they let in very little light round the baffles and they were much better made and fitted. The newer model, not so much. I actually took the lens cell and focuser off and put some flocking on the inside to cut down on the stray light effects before the first baffle and after the last baffle I think it was. The scopes were just finished different though, I'm kind of feeling a little sad now I let that older model go, but I am sure its getting much more use now. Kathleen
  5. I've had two Tal 100R's in the past, both with their wooden tripods, they were nice scopes and while its been a while since I owned them I have to say they always impressed me optically. One 100R was the older variety with an obvious purple coated lens and metal dewshield (and complete in its large coffin like box) whereas the second had slightly more greenish optics as I recall and a plastic dewshield. They both performed similarily though and both gave very pleasing views albeit with some obvious achrochromatic fringing on bright targets like jupiter and the moon. Whilst they both had the usual industrial build quality the older one actually seemed to have a better more refined build quality, whereas the newer model felt a bit more like it came off a production line. There are a few frustrating things about the older 100R's in my opinion, while I thought the diaganol was good and loved the fact that you can colimate it, the travel was always I felt a limitation (true in the 200K as well) and the flange fitting was a bit annoying but it was a scope of its time I guess. Ironically travel can also be an issue with the mount when using the slow motion controls. On the whole though there's really something quite nice about using a long refractor like a Tal 100R on its tripod, sometimes I'd still like to have one sitting about so that I can quickly look at the moon. They certainly have their own personality and they don't feel like a clone telescope thats for sure, I am sure you will enjoy yours when it arrives. Kathleen
  6. Hi cristian, I'm not aware of anyone fitting an autofocuser to a Tal but I am sure there are a number of ways to do it depending on the focuser presuming your talking about a non stock focuser. It might be worth stating if its an F8.5 or the older F10 model your going to fit the autofocuser to ? You can fit a 2" focuser to the 200K, I don't think the 200K will fully illuminate the 2" exit though but it certainly makes the scope alot nicer to use. I fitted a JMI focuser to mine using a similar backplate and really enjoyed the views with a better focuser and 2" eyepieces but had to move the secondary forward towards the primary and recollimate the scope in order to move the focus point back to be able to use the new focuser. If you have a short focuser it will mean there is less adjusting to do but obviously if you use bigger 2" secondary's you will need to ensure you have moved the focus enough for them all to work. I had to have move my secondary several times and retest it to get it all to work which took me a while. In the end I reverted mine but that said it can certainly be done and it does make the scope alot nice to use. kathleen
  7. I think the kaleidoscope-shaped pattern you are seeing is the 1600 microlensing issue. Kathleen
  8. There is also Andy Ellis at : http://astronomiser.co.uk/
  9. Thanks for posting, I wasn't aware of that capability but its useful to know. Kathleen
  10. Hows your plan to fit the dec motor coming along Alan ? Have you got a way forward on doing that ?
  11. Why remake it, why not just sand down what you have and re bond them and give it a final refining sanding ? I mean its nearly there as is, why not just adjust them and stick them together, I mean this is just a spacer after all.
  12. Alan's obviously more qualified to offer advice but that doesn't look good, have you tried to undo the philips star screw to remove the clutch lever just to make sure that the screw can be tightened in the threaded hole on its own, as the video alost makes it look like the threaded hole is too big for the bolt.
  13. Yeah I think there's always a bit of a gap between the setting circle and front dial, its certainly a bit disappointing how it flops forward when the lock knob is slackened but I was never convinced how usuable the EQ5 setting circles are anyway. So you must be getting near completion with the project now Alan, are there many things that you have left to do with the mount bar fitting your motor drive ? Kathleen
  14. Yeah when I re-read your post and looked at the motor I seen what you mean re the variable speed control, interesting that it would work with the EQ5 but fair enough. Well when I said clutches I was not meaning the locking clutches, with the EQ5 motor kit the transfer gear (not sure thats its name) that attaches to the slow motion control has a clutch mechanism allowing you to 'disconnect' the motor and use the slow motion control (shown with the red arrow). Its engaged and disengaged mearly by tightening loosening the silver knob. I just found that sometimes it would slacken perhaps due to temperature or something.
  15. I do use mounts that are motorised, I used to have an EQ5 to which I added the synta motors and have to say it worked very well except for breaking the cable at the battery box and the times the clutches would loosen and I would wonder why jupiter was zooming out of the eyepiece. I think its a great upgrade to the EQ5 I have to say and always worth doing. I was just wondering how well it will all work with the motors, i can't see it not working but I guess i was wondering will it work a little too well now and race so to speak given your work has resolved the majority of the design and manufacturing issues. Interesting though that you are going to use the motor for the EQ1 and EQ2, will that work with the EQ5 ? I mean presumably thats been made to work with those mounts and they presumably have a different and probably simpler worm mechanism with a different ratio. So won't that motor 'tick' at a rate that may mean the mount doesn't cope with sidereal rate and maybe goes too slow now ? Edit: Sorry I just seen that you said in your post that this has been done before, apologies I didn't see that the first rime I read it, you can ignore my questions. Kathleen
  16. Can I ask Alan, are you planning to motorise the mount when your finished ? Kathleen
  17. I would have thought that with all your clever re-engineering of the mount and hopefully improvement a thick grease would be unnecessary and you could of gotten away with something like superlube ? I mean I don't really know much about this kind of stuff but would you not be concerned that a thicker grease might me more of a hinderance now ? Kathleen
  18. Love this thread, this is what I call a hypetune.
  19. I did wonder the same thing re the pillars, its hard to see much from the picture resolution but I would still have though there would be something there. Kathleen
  20. There is a facebook astronomy scotland group I think and there may be some other folks on there from around the edinburgh area as well as here if your into using facebook. Obviously its been a quiet year everywhere due to covid but here we've not been allowed to leave the council area since before Christmas and it will soon be too bright to really do any astronomy but the sites in the pentlands and lammermuirs are good although they can suffer abit from the wind.
  21. Hi Astro Waves, i live in Edinburgh and also have no real garden to use so always end up getting out of the city to do astrophotography etc. There are a few options locally but all really require transport to get to and vary from 40 mins to an hour to get to and are generally in the pentlands or lammermuirs. There used to be another forum also used by members around the central scotland for discussing and arranging meetups etc but thats not really used anymore and most folks just do their own thing now. There are some locations menioned in this thread : Kathleen
  22. Hi Benzomobile, Ah ok, thanks for that, I get the benefit of the floating worm and how that resolves eccentricity, but had just wondered about the effect of the rest of the gearing. A nice solution though I have to say. Kathleen
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