Fozzie

@Moonshane, nothing but respect for the amount work you've put in across the garden Shane, looking forward to seeing how the Obs progresses!

Lovely set up John, and a fairly unique Borg scope and binoviewers, would have loved to look through this at ingleton, many moons ago.

After missing out what appeared to be a wonderful clear, transparent night on Wednesday I made sure I wasn't going to miss out on last nights clear forecast. I set up the Frac on the skyteeII, first time use with the Iroko Tripod and new Whittled EP tray. The intent was just to test the set up with the Skytee, as normally I've favoured ,and been spoilt with, a lovely tracking vixen GP mount, so I fancied a change to the simplicity of Alt-Az. Targeting the moon for a short session I took in a number of terminator delights, I found the following areas particularly captivating Rima Ariadaeus the finger of Albategnius as the the illuminated side projected into the dark of the crater basin Montes Caucasus and the hint of structure to the Aristoteles crater Wall However the one thing that really grabbed my attention, was the watching the moons apparent motion. Assumingly as I was observing in non astro dark the non-illuminated disk, showed a lovely hint of earth shine, which allowed you to see opposite limb slowly encroaching the faintest of stars, until "pop" the moon passed in front, and the star disappeared out of view behind the non illuminated limb, I counted 4 stars pop out last night before I headed in, it reminded me packman, hence the title, chasing little white orbs around the sky. It should be clear here for tomorrow night, when the moon should pass close to the Beehive cluster, if last night was anything to go by, that should be a good show! Clear Skys Fozzie

From someone who clearly knows elegance with your wonderful and unique Clave, I thank you, very kind comment!

It is, there's just a lovely amount of earth shine giving a hint of the unilluminated face.. just watch as a star occultation on the far limb.. lovely stuff..

Going alt-az tonight.. pleased with the look of this set up!

I'm imagining someone frantically messing around with wavelets in the background, just trying to get it perfect! That's my usual workload before I publish!

According to the news, the release is expected around 14:00 BST today..

i'm sure we can all agree, its what you do with your gherkin(s) that counts, not the size...

Nice!!

That's near enough to be a winner.... no brass, but yeah a new EP tray for the Iroko Tripod I made last year! I know, I Know... exciting times!

Yep build your own medieval dob base.. first issue 50p.. next issue £20, before you know it your down 10 grand!

Very stable dob base....

It does look like it could handle a significant number of dunkings, doesn't it..

A nice bit of teak.. any guesses what it's for?

Toasty.... might need some odour eaters!

New boots for cold night observing!!

I think the go-to appeals for a number of reasons, mainly after planning a session it would be nice to "dial it in" as opposed to star hopping.. sometimes I find if I'm not 100% sure i can spend too long "searching" as opposed to observing.. my PA is quite good from home so it seemed a logical step from a tracking mount. I dont mind star hopping but on an off night it can be quite frustrating i find, if your not finding things.. I've not used the skytee2 for some time now, the vixen GP is my preference with my singular scope, just ease of use, which is odd as I sold a non driven eq5 for the skytee2 as I didn't get on with the eq5.. the skytee2 is more for future use now after I sold the 200p..(when i get a bigger scope) ill use the sky tea 1 in 20 maybe if its easier to throw alt-az down, usually if I do any observing from work where I don't have my North marks on the ground. I have recently being contemplating selling it on, not sure the returns are worth it.. Ta Fozzie

T minus 3........

Hi Mark, I while back our sponsors @FLO were offering the NexStar Evolution mounts only, which as a bundle come with a 925 OTA. link below.. (not sure if it was a celestron thing or it just happened as usually they are bundled with scope) https://www.firstlightoptics.com/nexstar-evolution-telescopes/celestron-nexstar-evolution-925-telescope.html It seems exactly what you are looking for, just a slightly larger version of the SE mount... Might be worth a few emails to see if anyone would split a bundle for you.. It's like an 8SE only bigger! Ta Fozzie

A few of us have, including myself, @Moonshane and @rikroe666, links below.. I think @philj is a font of knowledge here too... a few links below wood is good. Ta Fozzie

I think the main advantages of wooden tripods over the stock steel tripods, such as the 1.75" EQ5 steel is the noticeably reduced dampening times, especially if your set up on concrete flags or a hard standing where even the slightest foot step can transmit vibrations to the EP. I'm not in a position fortunate enough to comment on the build quality, of berlebach tripods as I've only ever aspired to having one, however for a basic uni18, and spreader costing circa £390 new, it's not something, with a young family, I can justify.. Instead I built my own, with spreader for around the 3rd of the price, and the difference from my own to the steel tripods is remarkable, so I can only guess what it would be like from steel to a quality product from berlebach.. a lot to like I suggest. Ultimately I think wood looks better, handles better in cold than steel, has better vibration dampening, and with the range that berlebach offer, you can go for different finishes and more choice depending on your requirements. I do agree with the use of a spreader bar, especially on flags or concrete, as it makes any tripod more stable than just a chain, especially if those flags/concrete are a bit green and slippy during damp winter months. Although I know some have found them restrictive.. (I bought two second hand) I think a wooden tripod with a ed120 would be a cracking match up, with either an Alt/az or EQ mount atop. Ta Fozzie

Mmmmmm thanks for the replies gents.. I might have to think of another route if I want go to.. The GP has been quite happy for many years tracking along without a care in the world, I feel I might be foolish to meddle with the motors for fear of it upsetting and stopping working.. Id rather leave it than swap it all out, as simple an action as that may be.. I had thought about astro EQ, but then I don't want the hassle of a laptop and further power supplies.. Best brush up on my star hopping then... Thanks again gents.. Ta Fozzie

I guess i'm ultimately hoping not to have to swap out the motors.. kind of seems a bit unnecessarily unnecessary (if that make sense) as they work very well indeed.... Your right on the tip negative, i had fun trying to get a battery to work with the DD3.. had to get a special cable and then cross the polarity for it to work, which was fun..

Afternoon all, I'm curious.. I have a very nice Vixen GP mount, with duel motors and a DD3 handset with ST4 port for auto guiding... Is there anyway (other handset etc.) I can turn this into some kind of go to mount? I'd considered a synscan handset, but I am fairly sure the MT1 motors have a different connector to the one on the sky watcher synscan handset unit.. All thoughts are welcome, Ta Fozzie