CraigT82

You will need to find three screws to go in those holes. The secondary tilt is adjusted using them and if they are not there that's a bit of an issue! I guess the central screw has just been tightened down hard so that the secondary holder is butted right up against the central boss? What is the view like through the focuser is the secondary mirror obviously misaligned?

Having a low altitude target in itself doesn't preclude you from getting nice images. Have a look at the image below by Jean Luc Dauvergne. Jupiter captured at 19 degrees last year from central Paris using a 10" scope. Jean Luc images from the balcony of his high rise apartment and this allows him to get up above a lot of the ground level thermal effects, which really kills detail. If you are mobile and can get somewhere up high on a hilltop or somewhere where you're shooting over low thermally radiative ground materials (green fields are good) then you can really minimise the effect of the low altitude targets and get nicely improved images with the kit you already have. I appreciate the might not be possible for you (it certainly isn't for me, I can only shoot form my back or front garden and that's it). But something to think about maybe.

Very nice Mike, how are you finding the new Vixen?

I notice your first image in the thread was stated captured at f/6.3 so you're using a reducer on the C6? I'd ditch it, it's unnecessary for double stars and may be part of the cause of the halos you're seeing. Collimation is key to getting nice complete first diffraction ring around each star. I'd collimate the scope whilst looking at the star you're going to image (as long as the secondary star isn't close enough to it to distort the star image) and use the in focus image of the star, rather than the out of focus doughnut technique, as long as the seeing supports it that is.

Stunning image and well worthy of accolade. Congratulations 👏

Yes it's tempting, I've got a Baader 240mm ASTF for the Fullerscope (220mm) and I've attempted to fit it to the 300p to get the full 240mm aperture but the tube is just a bit too big.

I think it's the steel plate on the back end of the tube that covers the collimation screws and generally closes off the tube, usually found on smaller newts. No idea if the C8N would have had one originally, sorry.

Fantastic Tristan, so much fine detail. Just been perusing Astrobin and your image of this group is by far the most detailed on there, well worth a top pick! Do you use a continuum filter?

It would work but the 2" PM is a heavy beast, why not keep the weight hanging off the focuser to a minimum amd use the 1.25" version instead? An alternative is to use a barlow which has a removable lens cell which weighs next to nothing and can be placed right on the nose of the ADC (you can use 1.25" nosepiece extensions to increase the power if needed).

Ah ok, I'm not overly familiar with Newt for Web! Looking forward to seeing the completed scope.

Another vote for a 2x barlow from me. Using an 9mm eyepiece and a 2x barlow would give you 145x which is a nice place to be for viewing Jupiter.

Interesting camera. With a pixel size of 1.85um you would be using short (ish) focal lengths and get large amount of the moon in one go. Sensor size is 7.6mm x 5.7mm so roughly equivalent to the 178. With your f/6.3 Neil, and a 1.5x barlow, you'd have a diffraction limited field diameter of 8.3mm. Big enough to cover the whole sensor and get sharp details right to the edges. Should make a very nice lunar camera, if you could get it to work with your chosen capture software.

What a scope this will be! Great drawings too. 72mm seems small for the secondary, is that right?

For planetary and hi res lunar I'd go with the the CC due to the extra focal length. With a 2.4um camera (178) you don't even need a barlow

I'm using Talentcell batteries to power various bits of kit, have three of them and no issues at all so far. I owned a Tracer 7ah battery and it stopped holding charge after about 15 months.... 3 months out of warranty🤦‍♂️

Personally I wouldn't, it would be a lot of work for only 1 extra inch of aperture. Unless you would like to do the work yourself, it would be pretty satisfying to build your own scope! Just looking at the price list you posted, is it the 160mm 1300mm reflector mirror that is on offer? That might be quite good quality as it is a longer focal length (easier to make). So it may well give you noticeably better views than the 152mm/750mm

You will need to factor in the cost of a mount, eyepieces, finderscope and diagonal (for refractor). You can't just spend most of your budget (4850EGP) on the 160mm refractor OTA only, you will need a large mount to put it on! If I were you I'd get the VR 152 750 reflector on altaz wooden mount with 2 eyepieces for 4850. This size telescope should easily show you jupiters belts, polar hoods and great red spot.

OK, is there any way you could get out somewhere to see some telescopes and mounts in the flesh? An astronomy club or something like that? It will help your decision making a lot once you have seen and used these things for real.

A 160mm/1300mm refractor is a very big heavy beast, have you got a mount?

Very nice!

BCOs are very good for the money, but with the 6mm the eye relief is tight, and the FoV is small which may make for uncomfortable viewing and lots of nudging with the dob. How do you find your 7.5mm plossl? Are you able to view through it for extended periods of time? If you can then you should be fine with the BCO 6mm. If you find it a bit uncomfortable you may want to look at the BST eyepieces (but there isn't a 6mm BST unfortunately only 5mm and 8mm)

The skywatcher heritage scopes (130 and 150) are very well regarded, even amongst veteren observers who own many thousands of pounds worth of other exotic scopes. The only real downside to both of these is the unorthodox focuser, but it is very simple and can be fetteld to work well. For the money they are tough to beat.

Thanks Neil. At the minute this scope is nothing more than a garage ornament! It hasn't had first light yet because with Jupiter and Saturn appearing in the early hours I just can't get out at that time unless it's clear on a Tuesday night when my boy is at his gran's. Even if it is clear I'm much more inclined to catch up on sleep rather than go out imaging (he doesn't sleep well and likes to start his days at 4am so I take the opportunity to catch up on sleep wherever I find it). Im hoping to be much more productive later in the year when they are in the sky in the evenings. Regarding the fan, I think it should be fine to leave running during capture as I didn't have any issues with it when it was fitted to the Fullerscope. It does have a speed control so I turn it right down, being a large fan even running at low speed it pulls a lot of air.

Shame about the Feathertouch, would have thought it would be a bit sturdier given their reputation, but that's interesting to hear about the hard paper tubes. Just been looking at the Gerd Neumann site and they are fairly cheap so may be an option to upgrade this tube (or for my as yet unborn self build 12" in the future). With a density of 1.15g/cm3 and a wall thickness of 5mm it would be over 3kg lighter and hopefully somewhat stiffer than the OE steel tube. Very interesting!

I think that CCDs are also preffered for photometry due to their greater range of linear response. @JeremyS is your man in the know for this one.