CraigT82

Oh yes that’s right! Well I’m super pleased to see my old mirror living its new best life in your great looking dob😊

Very nice work that, rally like it. Did you make the stool too? Also…. Have you got enough cider!?

Hmm they don’t normally use fragile tape… something breakable. SGL mug?!

It also contains this wording, copied verbatim, which is just plain wrong: CCD and CMOS cameras are most sensitive to red light …and this section just screams ‘damage limitation’ We are making a large investment this year in a customized phase shifting laser interferometer that will allow us to figure our objectives in green light creating high strehl optics optimized solely for visual users. These telescopes will be made with a slightly different part number using the prefix: SVX-G. This will differentiate if the telescope optic is nulled in green light or red light. SVX-G optics will be made for discriminating visual observers.

Been there and bought the T shirt! If I were a better man I’d sell your Starfield back to you but I’m not and so I won’t, Sorry! I’m enjoying it far too much 😃 One thing I’d say though with the more scopes I own and use the more I appreciate just how good my very first scope was (Heritage 130p). A lot of money needs to be spent to do better all round than the plucky little plastic H130p.

MDF should be fine as long as well sealed from any moisture ingress (including just absorbing moisture from the air in a damp shed/garage), can even get veneered MDF so it will have a nice hardwood finish on the outside which is more expensive but should still be cheaper than top grade plywood.

Excellent work, well done!

Yes that’s a shame but must electronic focusers do need a separate 12v supply. The only ones I’ve used that don’t are the old Moonlite stepper and the skywatcher unit, both of which have a 9v battery in the handset which make them great for visual usage. This one doesn’t seem to come with a handset but does mention smartphone control, but light on details though.

That’s good, because my next thought about DPAC testing was that it won’t be long before we start seeing threads with people complaining that the flat they’ve bought is not of the advertised quality!

Well… if you’re the one who’s just discovered your prized $18k scope is a lemon I imagine it’s not that fun! But I do agree, this testing method and being able to do it at home indoors is a very good thing for the hobby and will hopefully make manufacturers think twice about employing any marketing tricks. I’ve seen plenty of test certificates posted up on here with no mention of the testing wavelength on them, not just SV.

I think unfortunately the only sure way to get them to stop selling is to open your own eBay store: Make and sell your own designs whilst undercutting them on price.

Whilst I agree that it’s good to have a method whereby you can hold the manufacturer to account… I can’t help but think that if you can’t tell you’ve got a good or bad one by looking through it or imaging with it, then what’s the point of testing?!

Not sure how you both got onto Newtonian collimation as the OP is asking about SCTs. My own view of the OP’s situation is that it looks ok in terms of rough collimation (maybe that’s all you need for galaxy imaging?) but for fine collimation I would advise to use an in-focus star image at high power (eyepiece) and observe the brightness distribution of the first diffraction ring around the airy disk. You may need to tweak the collimation screws to get the brightness of the ring even all around. I’m my experience it is almost impossible to do this using a camera as you can’t see the diffraction ring. Anyways I think that’s necessary for planetary imaging where you need the sweet spot to land on the small sensor, but for larger formats you’ll probably get away with a good-enough collimation. Perhaps you could capture some images and view the distribution of coma in the image, or run the image through CCD inspector or similar, that would give you a clue. Properly collimated the sharpest point of the image would be in the centre and not offset to one side/corner.

This Lynx Astro one is actually a Meanwell unit, I tried to find it cheaper elsewhere but no results so bought from FLO. worked perfectly fine for me with my EQ6. https://www.firstlightoptics.com/power-accessories/lynx-astro-12v-dc-5amp-low-noise-mains-power-supply.html

Nice! Look forward to first proper light report. I think Vixen must source their cases from the same factory that Exposure (bike like manufacturer) does as it looks exactly the same as the ones that their lights come in.

Well no one gets it totally right on the first go Vlaiv. MkII will be better!

As Nik says, ventilation is key in the garage to prevent condensation developing on cold surfaces. Has your garage got any vents? (Air bricks, roof vents etc…)

Good point. Optical axis may be off from the long axis of the tube if it’s been collimated with a focuser that’s not quite square to the tube. Or if the secondary isn’t quite central, I think.

Nice idea…. I guess that removes the need to level the tube to zero it. Be better with wingnuts though?

I foresee a two tier pricing system in my future ads: Mates rates if I know you, and full price of not. 🤷🏻‍♂️

This one?

Dunno… Tak green might look quite fetching alongside a nice avocado suite

Wow that is a really comprehensive guide! Some really good DSO imagery in there too, very nice work.

If you can get away with fully retracting then legs that will be best in terms of stability (seated observing?). You could also try using an accessory tray on the spreader to stiffen that, or the time honoured method of hanging weight from the tripod to improve stability. If the mount head is easy to move at high mags and you can track things easily, but the view shakes too much when you focus, you could try the skywatcher motor focuser. Be cheaper than a new mount.

Yup pretty much every bit of the rig will be ok as long as you’re careful. Decent cover with ventilation, desiccant etc etc. unless you get serious sub-zero temps (pet heater maybe) or super high summer temps (sun shade?) it should all be fine. Batteries should last longer if kept inside though, if that’s what you use. The advice regarding keeping everything connected and in one price is given because taking things apart repeatedly will introduce dust onto optical surfaces which means more flats and more cleaning. Also once you’ve got an imaging train dialled in for spacing/tilt then taking it apart again is going to ruin that. We’re talking fractions of mm here. Keeping everything together and kept set up outside and polar aligned means that you’ll be capturing data within minutes of deciding to go out. It will enable greater productivity.