Saganite

Agree Al. The AZ100 has been a revelation for me and I will never need another mount . On my UNI 18 it carries my 4" scopes solidly. It takes less than a minute to unscrew from the tripod and fix on my pier where it carries my 5" f15 with ease, something that my NEQ6 could never do, and I take the Az100 in at the end of the session avoiding worry about theft or rain.

Thanks Dave. The one night I did get was pretty good but not as good as I have seen it at Kelling in the past. I hope it works out at Mull for you. The seeing here tonight is not very good but being out with the scope is just fine.

Err, umm, nope I can't remember either.

Biased I undoubtedly am, but I have to agree wholeheartedly, and I applaud you for your excellent taste !....

Good luck Robert , I am sure it will be fine !

It is my 5" f15 Achromat Andromeda Colm, made by D&G Optics . The focuser is a Moonlite 2 speed.

Andromeda is ready to go and so am I. 4 nights on Orkney and 2 on Skye as well as 2 other nights north of Berwick, and only one clear night sky between them. That aside it was a wonderful break for my wife and I......

Love this image Neil !!

Hi Kerry, It is good to hear from you again. Hope it stays clear for you !

Hi Steve, The two components of Epsilon Lyrae easily visible with binoculars, each split to reveal a binary star system. If the seeing is good then 100x should reveal it well....

Oh my goodness....

Indeed Al, Two lovely long focus Achromats, Andromeda and Arcturus......love it....

No definitely not...enough teasers for now. All will be revealed when Arcturus is fully assembled....

Hi Mark, It was cast but of course certain parts were machined to fit , afterwards, and it has polished up beautifully in my workshop, the problem is deciding when to stop.....

Thanks Mark. If your Hysom mirror is good on tight doubles then I am sure it must be excellent quality. The lens was the biggest worry, it did not look good but as you can see it is fine.

I wonder .....

When the time is right Alan you will be more than welcome. Andromeda is still Numero uno.....

Thanks Dave, I have a fair bit of work still to do , but it is going to look as good as new..probably better. Finding rings to fit it is proving to be a challenge at the moment and until I can do that the test will have to wait, but certainly I am impatient to look through it. In terms of lens size and focal ratio there is not a huge difference between it and Andromeda but physically it is a great deal, enough to mean, I am sure, that the AE is going to be much steadier on the AZ100.

Hi Rob, I appreciate your interest. The company is in Royston Herts so not a million miles away from you. I am fairly certain that they don't but I will ask for you.

Thank you for the interest, John and David. The tube is away being blasted back to virgin aluminium before being powder coated by the same company to whom I entrusted my TALwatcher tube.... The colour will be revealed in a follow up. As a born and bred Bedfordian it is a little sad that I was unaware of the great telescope making just down the road, but that is how it is, or was. I am now trying to find out as much as I can about the company. I have realized that I have a bit of a dilemma though , since I will have both 5" f15 and 4 1/2" f14 scopes......

I bought this from a well known auction site at the beginning of July. It was in quite a state but as I got it very cheaply I thought it worth taking a chance, and I am very glad that I did. I had no idea of its history and neither did the Vendor from whom I collected it at his home in Kent. I could see that the focuser was an aluminium casting and that told me that whoever made it had taken some care, but after sending images to Linton and Dave ( F15 Rules) both of whom confirming its identity, I became quite excited about it. It is still a work in progress and I hope to have it finished in a week or so , when I will give a full report. In the interim I will share some images of how it looked. The first thing I did and promptly, was to take the Objective to Es Reid, it being a pointless exercise if the lens was ruined, which I am pleased to say, it certainly was not .....😊 Perhaps I should enter this lens into the 'most lickable lens ...EVER ' category

What a fine evening Paul ! A good selection of targets with the added bonus of watching the delight from a newcomer, well done...

Our local forecast did predict the clearing sky though I didn't believe it, too many false dawns lately , but clear it did and with it some really good seeing. The majority of the time was spent observing Saturn and Jupiter, both looking crisp and beautiful with lots of banding, some with detail, and of course the transit of Io, from limb to limb. The clouds stayed away until just before 2 am at which point , I had taken splendid views of Lunar at mags as high as 235x to round off a fine session. The whole time I was able to use the 10.5mm Carton / Megavista pair, superbly sharp and clear 65 - 68 'ish degree eyepieces.

Very steady seeing here this evening, lovely transit with plenty of detail on Jovian disc at 159X with the Vixen,