CedricTheBrave

The Plan is to use the existing shed roof thats next to it to mount the rails on for the new roof to slide over onto.

I built that shed quite a few years ago and it's still very solid.

That's the plan anyway! 

13 hours ago, Mr H in Yorkshire said:

enthusiasm for tinkering but in the daytime I fix Bicycles 

Sounds perfect!

Have you cast the column into the base slab? Any concerns about vibrations?

Hi yes it's an 800mmx800mmx800 hole with rebar formed into a square shape in the base and 4 columns of rebar upinside the 300mm tube all filled with nearly a tonne of concrete.

The top plate has 4 x 500mm stainless threaded rods set down into the concrete.

It's as solid as solid can be I don't forsee any issues

Ok it's been planned in my head for a while bit now it's started!

I 3d printed some dovetail clamps to fit onto the steeltrack and a box to house the motor and controller

6 hours ago, The Lapwing said:

Wow, I am amazed you had collimation issues. I had the 10 inch version and took it all over the place, once up to Northumberland and back for a week and it held collimation for the duration. Perhaps it’s the additional girth and length. I thought the mirror cell was a work of art. 

the weight of the mirror i think contributed to the issues.

14inch glass would be twice the weight of a 10inch

23 minutes ago, fwm891 said:

Is that an Orion UK carbon tube upgrade or from somewhere else?

I have a VX10 and am thinking longer term about a carbon tube upgrade....

It was direct from the guy in Germany who makes them for OOUK and Teleskop-express 

http://www.klaushelmi.de/en/

9 minutes ago, Space Hopper said:

The upgrade looks great. I really like those CF tubes.

I've owned a OO CT10 before (used) but they are expensive to buy new.

Although i'm not an imager i always found my old OO VX12 F4 held its collimation

pretty well with only very minor tweeks needed. 

Mine would go out quite often even after a meridian flip

Well after many frustrations with collimation, tube flex thermal expansion, collimation and collimation! I bit the bullet and got rid of the flimsy alloy tube on my VX14 and stuck all the bits into a carbon fibre one! 

It's 9mm thick and weighs about the same as the alloy one but so much stiffer everything feels very solid now and hopefully will keep its collimation for at least 5 minutes!

Did I mention Collimation?

Looking for a couple of covers to go on the end of my tube.

408mm diameter though so struggling a bit !

Any ideas welcome

these were sent to me by Ioptron when I got mine if they are any help?

3 hours ago, DaveS said:

Many thanks for the link to that blog, yes figure 8 does look horribly familiar!

Unfortunately OOUK only make telescope, they don't actually use them themselves, so egregious faults like this go unnoticed. Their "Customer Service" is notoriously poor, so perhaps customers just aren't bothering to report the issues.

reporting issues makes no difference 

7 minutes ago, Captain Scarlet said:

Oh no! How annoying. What are you going to do? Live with it? It should be reparable and most likely won’t materially affect stiffness or performance. I have two of his tubes, an 8” and a 12”. And did you get him to drill holes for you or will you do that? I got him to do mine for the 12” but on inspection decided I could do better myself and have done all my own on that and the 8” since. I pilot with a finger-held 1.5mm to start and move up the bit sizes to end up with really nice accurately-placed clean holes. And a hole-cutter run backwards for the focuser-hole.

Magnus

It is very annoying but things happen I guess. There is a big hole in the box that lined up so easy to see it's the courier!

I have emailed Klaus with pictures so will see what he can get back from them.

no holes yet I thought I would do them myself.

Dave

I am gutted!

Been waiting months for this!

Replacing the alloy tube on my VX14 for a Carbon one all the way from Germany and it arrives damaged 😪

she is a monster though!!

1 hour ago, scotty38 said:

Also if you're not quite sure where you're at the Framing Assistant also has an option to platesolve and determine your current rotation.

Framing assistant is great. so many functions that are just very useful

Patriot Astro has some very good templates on his website as well

download them and adjust as necessary

new tuberings arrived today for my eagerly awaited upgrade for my VX14!!!

they are 408mm 

watch this space 

i guess it depends if you wish to slide the tube around to get a better position at all as if you use rubber it will not move easily

i think most tube rings have a felt or velvet liner to allow movement when the clamps are loosened slightly

get on the NINA discord and just ask questions etc they are very helpful

I know Bob Brown has dont some calculation stuff for his focuser project.

this video explains it 

One of the reasons I specced the Baader steel track for my VX14 because I thought it was not easy to afix a focus motor to the standard one.

The big knob can come out as thats the locking screw for the focuser so thats one thread hole you can use

the others will be for adjusting the tension on the rollers so they must stay put I think!

there are quite a few brackets available for different focusers so may be worth emailing flo to see if they can offer a suggestion?

What else do you have for imaging and controlling it all?

The zwo focuser should fit on fine or you could build your own if that floats your boat?

can be caused by a CMYK printer printing an RGB image the conversion process can make them look washed out

try export the image as a pdf and then print 

Finally got the mount i need

Hi how are you getting on with the build? I am thinking of using ground screws for mine did you have any issues?

cheers

Love my 17.5 Morf.

using it on the VX14 is quite something