Telescope40

Great shot Trevor. Was busy watching the shadows shorten on the crater on the 19th. Had a good session. John

Thank both @Stu @spacehopper Confirmed my thoughts. 👍👍

Hello all. Considering a purchase of a 2nd GPC for my binoviewers. Already have a 1.7 version. Thinking of a 2.5. Will this help with back focus. The 1.7 I have nearly runs out of travel but works well, luckily. Would the 2.5 work too with no inward focus issues. To be used with my refractors. TIA. John.

Hello Paul. Your third picture is great and your description of the shadow on Ptolemaeus as like church spires is very apt. Are the shots with a DSLR and power mate maybe. Does a power mate increase the size as seen thru the camera dramatically?? Thx. John

Hello all. Nice long session on the Moon last night. Had both scopes out on my AZ100. Not quite aligned as yet but close enough. Was refering to my favourite lunar book of late - Discover the Moon by J Leacroux and C Legrand. For me , the Photos and text are just as you see at the eyepiece. Used single EP's and then my BV's. Seeing very good. Started at the Alpine Valley. Valley bottom seemed to be in shadow still so far. Mont Piton was well lit however on is own on the Mare Imbrium. Looking very white for sure. Went over to one of my favourtite craters - Cassini. Wealth of detail here. Started to work my way down the disc. a few rilles to chase - Hyginius, Triesnecker and Ariadaeus. Moved onto Ptolomeus. The crater wall was throwing a long shadow across the crater floor. I kept going back to see how the shadow was moving. Late in the session I could now see the small crater Ammonius had escaped the shadows inch by inch. I didnt make any notes on the EP's and mags used. Just looking for the best view overall. Best moon session I've had a quite a while. Found myself sat quite low in my observing chair. I had raised the BB tripod before I started but haddnt quite realised how high the target was. The length of my 6 inch frac certainly caught me out. Whoops Have also come to the conclusion that the motor kit may be required for my AZ100. Am more than happy with it ATM for general viewing and target finding but once the mag is cranked up and the target is "on the move somewhat" a bit of auto tracking will be nice. No rush tho. Money has to be found for this upgrade. Thanks for reading if you are about to see my name below. John

Hello. My visual rig for some serious lunar tonite on AZ100 - for the first time in tandem John

Woah Ade. Scary times but good you caught the issue, so to speak. Is that AZ 100 getting close ?? Bit of itchy trigger finger. John

Ok. Will give it a shot when home. Thank you. John

Hello Stu. Any WL worth a look ?? Thx. John

Hello. Gone big so to speak on the RDF front. Very impressed. Fancied one for quite a while. Purchased via ABS website. John

Hello Paul. Same one for sure. Was great to watch 👍👍👍 John

Hello. Just been getting some very nice lunar views and slowly got transfixed as star - hope I’ve got this correct using SS - w2tau was occulted by the moon. Surprised how quickly it disappeared !! John.

Hello. Been looking at a second 2in diagonal fir my SW150 frac. Plumped for this - Orion 2in version with twist lock. Saw one a while ago on here in the For sale section. I missed out on a purchase. Just arrived from ENS Optical. Think will be a good buy. Twist lock works rather well. John

Hello @Dean HaleBeen looking at that book for a while. May have to pull the trigger. Seems comprehensive ??!! John

Hello. Exactly mirrors my experience so far apart from the encoder settings. Been out a few times now and the mount is a dream to use. No foul ups, misalignments or issues. Has transformed my astronomy sessions. As said. I’m aware a motor kit is due in the near future. Not sure if I need it ATM. The SLO mo “feel” is good. Even think when on a target it crosses the FOV slower than it did on my old Skytee mount. LOL. So easy to flick back into the centre of the EP again when needed. Have mine on a Uni 28 and it’s not over heavy to carry. Solid as a rock once set up. SS on my I pad has just worked. No connection issues unlike a couple of previous WiFi mounts I’ve had. Most of the funds for the AZ came from selling kit. This is the only mount I have now. Very happy as you can tell. John

Hello. Looking good. Did the cloud thwart your evening ?? 👎👎🙈🙈 John

Hello @johninderby That setup for the tablet looks rather good. Nice addition to the mount I tell myself. Hhmm - me like. Wallet just winced. John

Nice one @Steve Clay !! and welcome. 👍👍

Good question @Steve Clay Had crossed my mind about some daylight planet chasing if at all possible. Guess alignment using the Sun would be needed ?? John

Hello. Had a session last night with the mount and DSC unit. Very happy to say the least. Have added a post on the review section of the forum for anyones perusal. Fraid I not know how to link it to this post ?? Not sure right now if I'll bother with the "motor kit " once it's available. The slo mo's are a joy to use once on target. Guess I will succumb given time. John

Afternoon all. Just wanted to share an unplanned session last night as yet again the weather forecast was rather incorrect. Recently had the mount returned to me after encoders being fitted and a Nexus unit purchased. Out about 7.30 pm. Mount on UNI 28 tripod. Scopes in use - Stellarvue 102 and ST80. Really curious as to how well the Nexus would perform compared with a rather frustrating few years with SW synscan handsets and WiFi units. Aligned the mount via the Nexus routine, 2 star. Used Aldebaran and Betelgeuse. Not too far apart in the sky but ATM my viewing location is rather limited to the south and southwest. User manual asks to use a wide spread between alignment stars. Bigger the better. Used a 12mm illuminated EP to centre. All very routine and alignment successful at the first try. First target M42. Using 11mm ES 82 EP - 64x mag Followed the units directions and BAM !! On target. Slightly off centre but happily in the FOV. Looking good me thinks. Ok. Quick jump to Mintaka. Same result. Lets try M34. Bingo. Decided to link the Nexus to Skysafari via my I Pad. Connected at first attempt. I had set up this the day before TBH with this first session in mind. Aligned SS to the unit. Then spent the next hour " bobbing about" where I fancied. Picked a target in SS, hit goto. New co ordinates appear on the Nexus screen as if by magic. Picked the usual suspects for this time of year. M 36 M 37 M 38 - M 103 - Pleiades - Double cluster - Castor - M 41 - Beehive. A few more that escape me right now. Was a complete breeze. Switching between both scopes during target switch. Targets in the FOV of both scopes - ST80 using a SVbony Zoom EP at 20 mm to give me a wider field. Not quite in the centre but I'm being picky. Was happy enough. Think I had given a little bit of wiggle room to the equipment. Overall, I'm blown away as to how straightforward and faff free it all went. No issues as with SW Synscan equipment as to which stars it wants to use. The Nexus complied with my ideas which was nice. The other biggest advantage was that I wasn't having to mess about with power - as in extension cable from the shed. No tripping over the cable etc etc. Now I don't know how long the Nexus will run after a full charge. I will find out in due course I'm sure. Not been so enthusiatic and happy after a new " kit " session since last getting a new OTA. Trust now this will be the way for me going forward. Famous last words. Anyhow - If you have got this far. thanks for taking the trouble to stick with me. John

Hello @johninderby your probably close with your 40 day cloud forecast. Ce la vie !! @AdeKing Your plan sounds bulletproof. I parted with my SW EQ5 GT Mount earlier this week to give a major boost to my financing of these photos - I mean, mount. Happy the motor kit seems to be a few months off after a quick chat with Derek at Rowan Eng late last week. The mount is in a class of its own. Miles ahead of anything I’ve previously used. If it works out as easy to use as I hope, my AZ GTI mount may be looking for a new owner. Hope to run commissioning trials in about 40 days. John

Hello all. Received back today from the fellas at Rowan. Retro fitted encoders and supplied the Nexus DSC unit. All put together now with my scopes added for your perusal. Happy don’t do this justice. John Apologies re the photos. Messing about, sorry, setting up in the kitchen.

Hello. DHL geezer late this afternoon. The return of my AZ100 with encoders fitted and a Nexus DSC unit. Sent it off last Friday. Cracking turnaround by the guys at Rowan. John

+1 for the Nadira,John. Nicely made and very practical. Am comfy these days at the eyepiece. John