alanjgreen

I had been working on a "big dob" cyclops case from the moment I ordered my 20" last October. The 20% off Televue black friday sale got me started with the 21Ethos and 13Ethos. I then added a Paracorr2 just before the dob arrived. The 100 degree views are amazing but the ability to hold an object in the FOV for longer (having moved from the CPC1100 with tracking) has made the transition to manual nudging a lot easier for me! Therefore, I decided to add another Ethos and placed a wanted advert which led to me adding a "used" 10mm Ethos which has of course been great on globular clusters. However, I also find that with the shorter focal length of my dob, it is getting into the focuser regularly for other smaller DSO too... It has been surprisingly easy to get a sharp focus with the 10mm, so I edged my bets and placed another wanted advert for an 8mm. A lovely "used" 8mm has now arrived and been added into the case... If I need to go any deeper then I will blow the dust of my trusty x2 powermate! Fyi, the big piece of foam is where I place my 2" filters ready for action at the beginning of each session and gives me somewhere to "hover" when fitting/removing them from the paracorr2 (just in case I drop one). So please don't suggest that I can fit many more eyepieces in there! The 13mm & 10mm are wearing Baader Hyperion 14mm fine tuning rings to make it easier to find the focuser in the dark. The 8mm is wearing a Televue 30mm barrel extension plus a 2" Parfocalizing Ring. I played with the paracorr2 in my Borg89 this morning and have set the ring in the same focus position as the 13mm (when in position "H"). I love my Borg, the ability to unscrew the standard tube and swap for a "short tube" allowed me to reach focus with the Paracorr2 inserted! Now I just need to wait for a chance to test it all out in the dob... Alan

Niallk, the Lunt blocking filter can slide out a couple of inches on top of the out focus available from the focuser so there is plenty of adjustments available to get focus. i use a x1.7 GPC with the ls60 and markV binos. you just need to be prepared to replace the stock focuser as they are not very good. I certainly would not trust expensive binos plus two nice EPs to the standard Chinese focuser on the ls60 so I swapped it for a Baader focuser. a disadvantage of the ls50 is the lack of focuser alternatives available except for the expensive feathertouch. Or did someone mention that moonlight are making one for the ls50?? Alan

Chris, I am sure either would serve you well. Solar is an expensive business! So the key is get a setup that will last you out. If you have to sell it and buy another then it can become a very expensive ride... You are getting what you pay for in either case, Lunt are NOT ripping people off on the LS60! 60mm gathers 44% more light than the 50mm. That makes for a much brighter image and allows greater magnification. 60mm comes with larger blocking filters than the 50mm if I remember correctly. Dont get hung up on the one focuser over another. This seems that part of the scope where Lunt look to save some money. The LS60 focuser, its not very good (cheap chinese affair) and I certainly wouldn't hang expensive photographic equipment off it. I replaced mine with a "Baader NT" focuser. If you intend to double stack later then the extra 44% of the LS60 will make all the difference. I think the LS60 will be a more future proof way to go. Double stacking is a whole new ball game and the views reveal much much more detail - there is no comparison. The LS50 can be double stacked with a DS50mm front lens. The LS60 can be double stacked with either DS50mm or DS60mm front lens. There have been people dissatisfied with the LS60 double stacked with front 50mm due to severe drop in brightness. As I say, the 60mm gives much brighter image. I have a LS60 with DS60 double stack and its gives excellent detailed solar views. I have no plans to upgrade from here If you want to save some money then look for a good second hand deal on an LS60 pressure tuned model. Alernatively, look into a Quark solar eyepiece - but beware their quality is inconsistent and you may have to return several before you get one that actually performs to the quoted level. For this reason I would avoid the Quarks unless you are buying a second hand "known good one"! Alan

yeah, the main advantage of the baader is that you can use the T2 connection system. Keep your eyes on astrobuysell for 2nd hand. Email Teleskop service to see if they can get you a pair. I get most of my Baader stuff direct from TS in Germany. They are very reliable and very very helpful !! Put a post in the "wanted" section of this site & astrobuysell. http://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p5436_Baader-Maxbright-Binoviewer---2----T2-Connection.html

+1 baader maxbrights. I need to use a x1.7 GPC with my Baader MarkV binos on my lunt60. So be prepared to price in some GPCs (glass path compensator) or barlows to achieve focus in refractors & dobs. The pair of 26mm will work well in the lunt60 with a x1.7 GPC (or barlow). My most used in the bino setup with the lunt are pairs of 24 & 19mm. The side effect of using barlow or GPC is that you need eyepieces of longer focal length. You can get a baader connector ( Baader heavy duty T2 quick changer ) that screws directly onto the lunt blocking filter (removes the need for the eyepiece holder) and therefore shortens the back focus needed. I'll add a link to a pic of mysetup that I posted in another thread... (see page 3)

I have just spent the morning cutting foam & reorganizing eyepieces, diagonals etc into two cases ready for the big dob's arrival tomorrow. Here are a couple of pics of the end results: As the saying goes, "Now I am all done with eyepieces!" Alan

measure the 4 segments of spider vane. Are they all the same length? You can adjust them by loosening the screws on the outside of the tube.

there are some very good ones out there at half the price. If you can have a porsche, do you need a ferrari?

the old saying applies "you can put super wide wheels on a fiesta but it will only go slower!" most of these eyepieces are heavy and a cheap scope would struggle to handle the weight being added at one end, leading to you spending extra to balance it all up again. A scope with quality lenses or mirrors bringing more of the available light to your eye (losing less in the process of moving it) is the greater gain. The eyepiece can only work with the light that you give it!

Great. Don't worry about the weather. Set it up inside in daytime, you can use the handset as described above. It doesn't need to be nighttime to check all the values in the handset.

Newbie, when you start the unit up and after waiting for it to find the camera (you see a countdown on the screen), after it says starsense ready. you choose align, then auto align... - it then shows the date and time on screen, you can press enter to accept or back to enter new values... - see page 11 of this pdf http://www.celestron.com/media/1317936/94005_starsense_autoalign_manual_february2016.pdf Time & location on is also available as a menu item for you to view/change, see page 24 Finally, is it a new unit or pre-used? - if pre-used, you may need to do a factory reset to get rid of the previous owners settings. also note that you can test all this in the house, as least as far as getting the scope to move to take photos, obviously you can't get beyond that! But it's enough to test all the above what software version is on your handset? you can check the version in the daytime , just fire up the handset. - see page 26 for the menu tree, it's in the "hand control" menu if you have an old version, it's worth updating the unit via the Celestron cfm utility. - search on this site for starsense cfm to find the instructions.

These are good. Point the corners of the shapes at the adjustments screws around the edge of the mirror. Gives a hint to which screw you need to turn https://www.firstlightoptics.com/catseye-collimation-tools/catseye-centre-spot.html 3/16 for a small scope with short tube 1/4 for longer tubes more info here http://www.catseyecollimation.com/template.html

Good stuff. Don't tell cloudsweeper - he thinks it doesn't work I am sure you will miss all that manual alignment fun & games! The time saved is great for getting the eyepieces, note books & other stuff all sorted while the scope just does its thing. There are some nifty new features hidden in there as well, such as increasing the standard 3 plates to more if you want further accuracy. You can add further alignments "as you go" if you move to a part of the sky where the original shots weren't taken. You can even setup for own set of alignment shots (to replace the standard ones) if the camera is shooting at a location that is blocked in your garden - then the scope uses your shot locations forever on... Its very flexible for sure, and a well worth purchase now they finally fixed the bugs that were there when they released it couple of years back! Also, you are correct "user profiles" are for if you use it on more than one scope.

Floater, As moonshane says, the pic has the TeleVue Panoptic 24s shown. With my binos (and x1.7 GPC) then the panoptic24 are my goto eyepieces. (they are equivalent to using 14mm without the barlow) 14mm gives x35 magnigication on the sun. This produces a nice size, clear image all year around. This is the magnification level I would recommend as a starting point purely because it is useable for 12 months of the year. The pan24's are exceptional eyepieces and I often find that they show stuff that you miss at a higher magnification - I would never part with them When I want more power, I drop to a pair of panoptic 19, (with the barlow they are equivalent to 12mm) which gives x41 magnification. This magnification is great for active regions and proms. But in the lunt60, the sun is now larger than the sweet spot so you lose the ability to see the whole thing sharply. I use the pan19s a lot from March-Sept (as the sun gets higher & out of the atmosphere) but always start with the pan24 to get a wider all-over view. Occasionally, (in the summer) I drop to a pair of Delos17.3 (equivalent to 10mm without the barlow), giving x50 magnification. On days of great seeing you can really get into the action areas. But these days are few & far between. I personally do not go over x50 on the sun. Sharp focus becomes a challenge beyond this point. Other people seem to get down to 8mm & 6mm but my experiences are that this is too much for a razor sharp view. Of course, my scope is a double stack so either I have lost a bit of brightness to get to the higher magnifications or my DS system just shows more stuff so I can see better where the focus point is Floater, Your choices of 12 & 15 seem spot on to me (if you are able to get away without a barlow to achieve focus) It maybe not worth getting any new EPs until you have achieved focus. You can test this out with one eyepiece and one eye! Once you know the barlow size then factor that into the eyepiece size calcs. Aiming for x35, x42 & x50. Alan

Yes, the "diamond" is the new version, mine is the previous steel track. I imagine the size is identical. They have just improved the focuser mechanism.

Adding a DS50 to the LS60 effectively reduces the aperture to 50mm. When I was buying my setup from Ian King, he told of several customers who found the DS50 underwhelming on the LS60 but said no-one had ever complained when double stacking with the DS60. It helped push me to go the extra for a DS60. I only use binos with my double stack setup. I never use single stack. Lack of brightness in not an issue. Will your DS50 fit onto a LS50? Maybe you could find out then try to also sell it to a LS50 owner?

Andrew, Paul See the pic of my setup posted in a post just above. I have the Baader NT focuser attached. Yes, you just remove the base plate (there are 4 grub screws holding it on) from the NT focuser. The main focuser unit is then an exact fit for the LS60, just need to loosen 3 grub screws on the scope to get the chinese one off. NT focuser slips straight in, tighten the 3 grub screws and youre good to go! Alan

Here is my Lunt LS60 double stack H-alpha setup (got it out now the sun is awake!) I have made a few modifications to the basic double stack setup 1. swapped out the crappy chinese focuser for a Baader NT focuser (can be trusted to hold my MarkV) 2. added a TS 360° Rotation with M90 thread between the LS60 and the DS60 units, it allows me to rotate the DS60 to find the best position for the conditions. 3. unscrewed the 1.25" eyepiece holder from the blocking filter and attached a Baader heavy duty T2 quick changer directly to the blocking filter 4. MarkV (with x1.7 GPC screwed inside) attaches direct to the quick changer. The mount is a SkyTee2 with ADM saddle upgrade. Alan

M106, If you do upgrade the focuser, better to get a 2" version. They come with "adapter" so that you can continue to use 1.25" eyepieces but then you are enabled to use "wider view" 2" eyepieces if you wish. here is an example. Email FLO to make sure it fits the 200p using the "ask us a question" button (they are out of stock anyway so you wont be tempted!) https://www.firstlightoptics.com/skywatcher-focusers/skywatcher-dual-speed-low-profile-1252-inch-crayford-focuser.html Here is a thread on similar vein...

As another option you may have/have not considered. have a search for "push to". You could add encoders and a Nexus (astrosystems) will allow you to connect SkySafari over wifi to the scope. After 2 star alignment then SkySafari will show where you are pointing and make finding stuff easier. it won't help with tracking though still need to nudge.

don't worry about colliimation too much in the first week. Just focus on getting to see something. you can of course do a quick collimation check by looking down the focuser (with eyepiece removed) to see if you can see reflections of reflections and if the centre mark of the mirror is centered. Of course it is hard to hold your eye dead centre so don't expect 100% accurate result.

probably the eyepiece. they are optimised for night time use. The bright moon can also show up these issues with eyepieces.

Don't rush into the crosshair eyepiece, you may not need it. you may swap to telrad or red dot finder in the future. as the finder is only x8 magnification and has a wide wide view you will be fine. use the 25mm to get the scope pointed at something, then adjust the finder to the same place. for higher accuracy, put the 10mm in and repeat. job done.

Looks great. I would gIve it a try in the daylight, get the finder aligned ahead of Monday night! have you got a view out to a distant object (hill, tree, telegraph pole?) Alan

You can get longer 1.25 inch focal lengths. celestron xcel 25mm are pretty reasonable. See FLO website. televue do a 32mm and 40mm plossl in 1.25 inch format. See widescreen centre website. i believe there are longer ones too.