Alien 13

I am sure that the same was said of photographic plates but look at how a relatively tiny scope can now easily out perform the great 200 inch monsters even with a DSLR..... Alan

I imagine any new camera tech will quickly appear in mobile phones first as this is the biggest market and the price will come down very fast.. Alan

Its amazing that "Fireball XL5" had the right idea all those years ago I dont know the exact figures but a very large proportion of a rockets fuel is used up just getting it to Mak 1..... Alan

The Mak and SCTs for that matter use spherical mirrors so it makes little difference to where they are pointing, any collimation has to be done at the front end... Alan

Looks good not seen that model before so had a peek online and it was nice to see it uses standard AAA bats, I have something similar with the giga t pro but it eats the expensive CR2 batteries so does not get used much. I do agree with keeping leads down to a minimum on portable mounts. Alan

I thought that too as its where the 130pds and ED80 threads reside. The Samyang is one of those products that is so good in that it is ideal for beginners with a DSLR on a tracking mount and experienced users that want to go very deep.... Alan

I am loving the Samyang images, the only thing I can think of that might be better than this lens is an array of 2, 3, 4, 5 or more of them Alan

I am sure there are lots of users and with the popularity of camera trackers now like the SA it is an ideal match... Alan

I have considered one of these but it offsets the camera which might be fine for widefield panos but limited for my closeup work so would need major modifications too. Alan

Interesting project, I have thought about getting a virtuoso as the basis for a DIY camera mount but would need to have it operate over wi fi and reduce its size to a minimum.... Alan

Nothing to loose then, you can set it up as a dual boot if you wanted, I did that with my old Dell XPS laptop. Alan

Get win 10 on it, dont be tempted by the dark side young padowan... Alan

I would have the Questar too over any other scope even those TAK thingies, I do have its poor relation though... Alan

I expect its early days for this scope but it was announced as the sharpest 250 mm lens but that doesn't mean it can get anyway near the Sammy 135mm or even the Canon 300mm. Alan

The comment was a bit tongue in cheek but have noticed that highly regarded lenses like the Samyang 135 f/2 with a measly 11 elements still manages to control collimation to a very high degree, I wonder whats their secret? Alan

The number of elements shouldn't be a problem these days, camera lenses can have 19 or more and they do alright... Alan

The back focus distance is normally standardized with T rings and matching cameras at 55 mm, for instance Canon have a flange to sensor distance of 44 mm so the T adapter ring is designed to be 11 mm thick. The micro 2/3 has the sensor much closer to the flange so the matching adapter is quite deep but fine for the job. The baader one looks a bit over complicated but there are plenty of the standard type around. Alan

I am sure the capsule was designed for "non astronauts" so that anyone can be sent up eventually... Alan

I still chuckle when people have a look at the moon through my 90mm Mak, their look of shock is priceless... Alan

I like the wedge shown in that video too. Alan

True but it is supposed to be the worlds sharpest 250 mm lens Alan

Thanks Ray, manual focus camera lenses do fine on portable rigs and provided the focus ring on this one is smooth and without slop etc it will be a winner. Alan P.S. As it will no doubt be cloudy during your testing it would be nice to know how it does perform as a "camera" lens in the daytime. Alan

I cant see that matters, the scope will probably spend most of its time on portable rigs like the SA and most likely with a DSLR or simple CMOS camera set up for hands on AP. Alan

Looking at one of the videos it seems to suggest that the whole back end comes off including the rotator (not the focusser) which should give more back focus for a diagonal but looks like it needs to be special ... Alan

If you just wanted to check the unevenness of illumination as a percentage you could just take readings from various points on the panel using a Light Dependent Resistor and a multimeter set to K ohms, if you wanted you could calibrate the above with a known light source. Alan