happy-kat

Owning a newtonian, mak and refractor the newtonian is the least suited to land use, I would say very unsuited.

Hi What to you does 'very powerful' mean? Your expectations. Be careful of budget eyepieces Î an thinking with the ST120 budget might increase the observation of chromatic aberration. My little ST80 performs better with my own high powered eyepiece over the supplied 10mm, the 25mm is fine and I use mine.

You can download skywatcher manuals from their website, why not read the manual of the particular goto you are looking at. The virtuoso can carry upto 4 kilo I have seen one used with a 127mm mak.

The mount may or may not be quicker to get going I think (don't know)(assuming comparing to just a tracking mount) still needs to be level etc. But once setup for your location plonk down, level point tube at Polaris turn on and go, the difference is whether the size for you is quicker to take out side and use. They are really tidy small mounts. The mount can be used manually to which I think is great. You will need a table or other raised surface. The mak would need time to cool down for best use. I have no experience with a goto mount to know if it can be turned on to just track versus has to have goto aligned first.

Learning new stuff, section pane from underneath is giving me a perfect birds eye view of exactly what I need to trim away. My model from above looks perfect but from inside I have some tidying to do.

Thank you for posting. Already tested my cardboard prototype with an errecting diagonal from my ST80. I have plenty focus travel either way if for any reason my star diagonal is a different light path length which I couldn't test at the time as it was wrapped up for Christmas though it appears a similar length in size. I do have a very compact star diagonal but it is not here. There is also a glazed (could not decide if glass or plastic) element in the C70 between the inbuilt prism and the eyepiece which is part of the moulded rear piece.

Have now finished and ironed out the model so that there are no errors. New bits added for strength to the eyepiece turret. Printing next with 2 days left on my Pro license trial, I wonder if I will lose any of the functions I have been using.

Taken a while all these clouds but finally connected the bluetooth to my virtuoso mount and all communicating fine. Just got to sort out sky safari plus as it is looking for wireless rather than bluetooth even though I have set it up right. Thought Î should get familiar in the daylight!

Those files are now replaced with a v7 with a few uneeded lines tidied up.

Not sure if anyone is reading this thread. But I would be grateful if someone who knows about 3d printing could take a look at my model please? I don't want to get it printed if the model is bad and I don't know enough to know if my model would be an expensive print mistake as I don't have any friends who know anything about this to help. I have put links to skp and the stl files. https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BzE0JrSB84yceWxpcW9NSkM5Yzg https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BzE0JrSB84yceWxpcW9NSkM5Yzg Any help gratefully appreciated.

Model is now finished and dimensions checked many times. I have m3 sized brass threaded fixings for printed models to insert into the two holes in the eyepiece turret using a soldering iron tip. The recess also gives the potential of using a thin washer if the overall hole is too generous for the bolt to provide good purchase against the telescope back. The base has two indented areas to go over the focus wheel fixing screws so that the base will fit flush across the back of the telescope.

Finding it fun and games finding the holes to repair in my model, using solid inspector but it's not showing me where the holes are... Yet

The Moon was actually visible! Took the opportunity to retest infinity focus, using the 25mm there were a further 23 turns of the finger to the max distance focus stop past the Moon and from my neighbors house 11 back to the closest focus stop. I have added an additional 6mm to the eyepiece tube this reduced infinity to being 18 from the max focus stop but brought me to about 20 feet for close stuff (original specifications 16ft). If I want any closer I will use an extension tube. Tried to test with other eyepieces but holding by hand with the lousy 10mm was pretty impossible, but even if not parfocal I think I have easily enough focus turns.

Have now done all the measuring so later I plan to model it up, I will start from scratch again as it lets me practice using SketchUp.

Eyepiece holder now modeled, simplified the design there is no counter sunk entry I don't need it. Have added two holes to the holder 45 degrees apart. The holder is a smidge over 32mm as loser is better than too tight, 32.3mm gives approximately .5mm of play and/or print expansion. Tomorrow hope to measure and place the two main fixing holes for the base though the concern right now is there won't be enough clearance from the eyepiece holder as I had to make the wall quite thick to take the threaded m3 fittings.

My nice m3 screw arrived yesterday, longer shank and nice head to turn with. Probably aiming to make the eyepeice holder walls quite thick but the brass thread fitting is 5.2mm long anyway and I need a small coutersunk entry. Not sure yet what features I will lose when the SketchUp pro trail runs out in 21 days time. Currently doing a measure three times approach to design the part. YouTube videos to the rescue for some bits like a cyclinder passing through another cylinder whilst on the same pane.

This thread is about controlling the virtuoso mount using the bluetooth module which I think it might now be replaced with a wifi one though I can't find a link.

My brass m3 threads for plastic inserting came today, need to use one for the eyepiece holder. It's amazingly powerful this SketchUp and free for the hobbyist, lots of free extension add ons as well.

Getting to grips learning SketchUp, current target is testing how to poke a hole through the side wall of the eyepiece holder correctly.

The size of three print is going to be 91mm in circumference. 85mm to cover end plus an over hang of 3mm all around. The suggested print bed size is smaller.!

SketchUp is alright on the tablet I just have to occasionally rotate the tablet to get to the button I want, mainly the one to select the template to use at the beginning. I didn't like 123D it worked but didn't rate it as good as SketchUp. I've changed my design since I started this project but all is good now is the best time to make design changes.