CraigT82

Sounds like they’ll need a tea boy 😆

This sounds incredible…. Can I come and live with you please?! 🙏

That’s a superb first attempt, really well done 👏🏻. Looking forward to seeing what you produce after a bit of practice!

I’ve fitted my AZ4 mount head (same M10 fitting as EQ5) to my EQ6 tripod using one of these… https://boltworld.co.uk/collections/thread-rod-reducer-zinc-plated/products/m12-to-m10-thread-rod-reducer-free-cutting-steel-zinc-plated-metric-thread/ You also need a handful of washers to go over the M12 rod beneath the tripod top to pack out the extra space as it doesn’t screw as far into the mount (see pic). I only had spring washers big enough to go on there so I stacked them like that on the rod, bit messy looking but works nicely. Could also use a couple of large nuts instead which would look tidier.

Just found a free iPhone app called Astroshader, seems to offer long exposures, manual focus, live stacking and saving of 16bit tiffs, and image editing. Some screenshots of the UI and the FAQ below.

Yes in Taunton now (Wife’s hometown), though don’t think I’ll ever be a true Somerset boy as I can’t stand cider 😂. IIRC you’re in Crewkerne aren’t you… meet up would be great 👍🏼

If you chopped the tube down the lens is still an F/10 and the eyepieces will still come to focus 800mm beyond the lens. You can’t change the focal length… you’d need to regrind the lenses!

Went downhill for me after dark. When the sky was still blue I could make out more detail in the belts and polar hoods than I’ve seen in a long time.

Jupiter is looking fabulous right now. GRS dead centre. Seeing good here in Somerset

On my old EQ6 I used sheet PTFE 1mm thick (Amazon, about £8 I think for a 200mm square sheet). I cut a circle out of it and placed it between mount head and tripod top. Made polar aligning much easier - mount head, scope and counterweights totaled about 70kg so a lot of friction was present!

Keep at it! See if you can get that ‘dot in the donut’. It might help just to stick to using two of the three primary screws rather than using all three? In any case it’s a lot better than what it was last time and also better than what it was in your first post.

How come? Did you run out of travel on the primary screws?

There are two main aspects to beginner collimation to get your head around, secondary and primary. Secondary is (as the name suggests) adjusting the position of the secondary mirror so that the entire primary mirror can be seen in the secondary mirror as you look through the cap. Secondary collimation isn't that important for a beginner to master, the consequences of getting it wrong is mainly uneven field illumination, it wont have much effect on the sharpness of the image. Primary collimation is adjusting the tilt of the primary mirror so that its optical axis is exactly aligned with your eye. This is the important one to get right as the sharpness of the views can suffer if it's way off because of something called coma. Looking through a collimation cap or cheshire, you're trying to place the dot in the centre of the donut and this is done mainly by adjusting the three screws on the bottom of the scope behind the primary mirror, In the last images you posted the dot and donut are quite far apart. which is bad... I've annotated it below. Try to sort this out first and you can worry about your secondary later.

My wife also gets suspicious if I’m smiling in her presence 😂

Nice work! Nothing more satisfying than when a bit of DIY turns out well.

Looks like a very nicely put together bit of kit. Don't suppose there's any plans for a 1.25" version?

Lovely stuff, there's a lot going on in that region and I'm not sure I've ever imaged it before. I think I'd be tempted to bring down the highlights a little - maybe revisit the curves/levels - I always try to make sure no crater rims are blown out but that's just my preference, others don't mind it. Lovely detail though sharpening looks to be spot on to me

Good news! Fingers crossed for you 🤞

Starfield 102ED F/7 (FPL-53 doublet), on an AZ4 with EQ6 tripod. Baader T2 Zeiss prism a with Stellalyra 30mm UFF in it. All set and waiting for tonight's forecast cleariness. Edit: Reader, it was not clear.

I have only just come across this thread, what awful news to hear. John was a pillar of the SGL community. I still remember being astounded by his modification of a SkyTee mount, adding GoTo/tracking abilities, a few years ago., and his more recent determination to guide newcomers to owning Bresser dobs rather than the ubiquitous Sky-Watcher! At least his expertise and advice will live on in the forums helping others for years to come. RIP John

Here you go, airline portable 4” apo: 😂😂😂 But seriously though, worth considering the second hand market for one of the 102mm f7 fracs too… plenty of these scopes out there in various guises. Got mine used with oklop bag for £350 but I was really lucky to drop onto the ad as it was put up. You never know what will turn up in the classifieds.

Observed last night with 100mm refractor, I think high wispy cloud and full moon conspired to make it a rather unexciting observation… just a grey smudge. But nice to have seen it.

Definitely not! Doing a bit more daylight playing with mine, taking phone pics and hunting for any visible CA. This shot is at 310x magnification (3mm ep and 1.3x barlow - in Baader Zeiss T2 prism). Can’t see any chromatic aberration at all on the in focus part (some on the out of focus parts), and sharp as a tack… fab little scope!

Yes you will need a fair bit of extension as fracs are mostly designed to be used with a diagonal, so when shooting straight through you’ll need a good length extension tube. Have a look at this pic from Mike Nash @WestCoastCannuck and see how much extension he needs on his APM140. To get a rough idea how far back the sensor needs to be you could measure 419mm back from the last lens of the objective (though you’ll have to guess where the last objective is in the tube - unless you want to insert a felt tipped dowel rod with 419mm marked on it into the scope and down to the lens, do so at your own risk!)

Another vote for the 4” Apo here. I’m a recent convert having taken ownership of a used Starfield 102 I've been delighted with the views of Mars I had last week. Plenty of surface detail visible on the tiny 11” disc (I was using 180-240x magnification). Granted a big newt will show more detail when the seeing is good enough to allow it but I think most of the time the frac will show you a much more pleasing image which is a real joy to observe. I was out today playing around with new eyepieces and diagonal that I haven’t had a chance to use at night yet. Snapped this iPhone shot through the StellaLyra 3mm LER eyepiece at 238x mag. Lovely sharp details and there wasn’t even a hint of CA visible on any of the branches I looked at.