jetstream

Thanks Stu! We get them here a lot when active. I have more but when I put them on here the images get big, degrading the image- any idea how to get them a bit smaller?

One from the past with the T3/Sigma

Some close friends say I must be part Finlander because I'm always in the sauna or hot tub lol I certainly grew up around a lot of them and I think the culture rubbed off on a lot of us. I set the 10" for a goodbye observation (selling it) and went inside for a bit to wait until the moon set. I stepped outside to this- heres my observations tonight. I forgot about the scope and went into the hot tub to take these and stare up in amazement. I'm so fortunate to live here . Taken with a 3 second exposure with my I Phone 11 handheld,no processing.

Thank you, these structures have a pile of features behind the scenes too ie the filter slide- that also acts as a focuser baffle, all flat black secondary holder that surrounds the sec, unusual "solid" bottom with vents that reduces primary dewing and also allows very little stray light in or to bounce around, a combination of teflon + 1 roller bearing in AZ and superb balance. This scope can track the planets at very high mag with no "springback" or sticktion , and more. Very very happy with this scope!

Thanks Peter, I'm hoping this ups the performance of the scope but I guess 300x on the moon isnt too bad anyway.

I'm curious if anyone knows what the effects of refractor focuser misalignment are with respect to the views?

Thank you Stu! I just got up to another what looks like 8" of snow lol Once I get that sorted I might try the artificial star today but I'm not holding my breath as I dont want to wade through the snow to get the ornament positioned to the sun . I wonder if anybody has other ideas for the artificial star other than what I was thinking?

Thanks for the help Paul! Great idea and easy in application.

Thanks John, just did the cheshire and it was even all the way round now. Nice when the tools agree with each other. I used a small Christmas ornament ball last time glinting off the sun, seemed to work but I'll test again. Id hate to get the distance to the artificial star wrong - you never know it might add spherical aberration or even the much talked about and hated spherochromatism 😲

Ok the Moonlight was easy to adjust and I'm now about 20 thousands off -needs to go to the right .02" roughly,. .02" would bring it to the exact center with regard to how I'm testing. Better than the 6mm+ off to begin with anyway. How fussy is the focuser alignment? I'll re check the cheshire now. Its sure too bad they are not making these focusers anymore. It a CFL 2.5" large format.

I cant find my Suiter star test book - anyone tell me the distance to put an artificial star for a 120mm f7.5?

Ok, I get the top left image in the cheshire, as in no multiple reflections like the right, however there is a gap difference. When I star tested as in the bottom image I got between good and worse, I'll have to re check that after focuser alignment. Now to figure that out... The Moonlight is back on but the laser is still not centered... Thanks John. I might have 2 problems ....

What would miscollimation look like? the reflection in the cheshire showed the difference too but there was only 1 ring surrounding the cheshire reflection itself- so I guess the lenses are aligned? There were not multiple reflections. Can the focuser misalignment cause degraded views?

Thanks John, well its nice when both the cheshire and laser say the same thing... as disappointing as it is. There is zero focuser sag, and the laser dot (collimated Glatter) stays in the same spot racked in or out. I did put a scopestuff short 2" diag holder on the scope but the issue was there from the beginning. Obviously there laser can "move around" a bit before and when tightening, but the thing looks like the image every time. Years ago I confirmed all this on a star and artificial star- then put the scope away and quit lol.

I have a big moonlight for it with the adapter and it did the same thing. I just checked with the focuser racked all the way in. I had tweaked the focuser to work better previously ie smoother, hold weight better.It actually works pretty good right now. The collimation was out before tweaking the focuser.

Basically - any ideas? I put the cheshire in and its off a bit, smaller gap on the bottom than top.... yeah, advice appreciated. Gerry

While the figure of SW (and others) mirrors are rumoured to be good, the smoothness or "polish" might be a bit rushed. But not that bad either...

At this time the oil bath is looking like a great method!

Baby steps for me first but I might build one to see if I could do it and also to see if it would be accurate. Real, high spec flats are $12000 USD though 😔

It would sure be nice to incorporate the D ERF into both DPAC and also into the platform for Ha with the TSA120, then the cost is justifiable. Just looking at Ceravalos paper on intereferometry and the construction of one... maybe thats next lol Do you have an interferometer?

Will do- I'm hoping to re do the Ha situation here- I have a Quirk atm, works ok in a small band but far far from optimum. Thanks Mark 👍

Thanks Peter! I did see faint patches around the area - quite a bit actually but I have no idea what it is- part of the JF? not sure. Its all over the place. It reminds me somewhat of the IC1318 area- you can go on forever finding nebulosity here, bizzare actually. Not quite as much around JF, but lots. Will check out Lowers- thanks for the heads up!

Does Baader make the Solar Spectrum etalons? I might be copying your set up with the TSA120 Maybe an email to Baader might reveal the addition specs, Ive found them great in the past,

Congrats for a fine session! Excellent seeing Ceres ,that is a real catch, nice one. Yes its very hard to get the colours out of stars with any kind of light high cloud, or worse. After a perfect clear sky day, it has now clouded over, so off to the the seacan to put the 15" back and then into the hot tub lol. That scope sure looks great Magnus as well as your mount and tripod - and the location!! Everything looks perfect where you are and I'm sure more clear skies are coming soon. Gerry

I was looking at the Baader D ERF , which I could use like @Highburymark on the TSA120 for solar too.