Fozzie

You could get the 15mm and 12mm SLV and use a 2x telextender that would cover a range of 15mm, 12mm, 7.5mm and 6mm... Oh and if you add the 20mm and 25mm (with 2x telextender) then you would also have 25mm, 20mm, 15mm, 12.5mm, 12mm, 10mm, 7.5mm and a 6mm.. that's what happened to me you see.., and then I added the 9mm and the 5mm for laughs.. I believe this is quite a common affliction. That's because the green and black world spoils us something rotten.. (and you pay for it) in all honest I have 1 SLV that has a slight looseness to the twist up EP, the others are all fine.. Good luck with you r decision.. Ta Fozzie

+1 for the Vixen SLV line, yes it's only 50deg but I find myself regularly ignoring my 10mm delos for the 10mm SLV.. I also updated to SLV from TV plossl's.. found the 20mm and 25mm SLV just went a bit deeper, with no regrets on the loss of green and black. Small compact, incredibly sharp 20mm eye relief across the range.. very underrated and it shows on the second hand value.. last lot I saw 2nd hand went for just less than £50 quid, over half the new price.. What's not to love.. Mine wont be going anywhere soon that's for sure.. Ta Fozzie

I've misplaced by skywatcher 2" extender (actually think I sold it with the 200p) so I needed another to allow the canon to focus on the frac.. ordered a revelation astro, self centre 50mm and 2"-1.25" self.centre adaptor.. ordered Wednesday pm, turned up yesterday.. Nice Smooth action and CNC finish! Looking forward to some lunar imaging now! Ta Fozzie

50 mins untill launch coverage starts again.....

That sounds impressive, and it looks a great set up.. I tried to pick up my 4.5Kg 100m frac, skytee2, extension and wooden tripod the other night to get at mars from round a tree and that was hernia territory right there, so I guess @John must have been working out to pick up that little lot. Just want to say the scope looks great, and it's has certainly spiked a lot of interest... credit to John and FLO for arranging this review. I wonder if another recent releases have owed so much (potential) success to early reviews like this.. Especially with the mystery around the lens.. I think it's great that as a forum and sponsor so much knowledge can be imparted relatively quickly through these collaborations.. Well done both for taking this on. Looking forward to the conclusions.. Ta Fozzie PS forecast looks good for North Somerset until Saturday.. so no rest bite their then! x

Me too.. My phone once changed International to irrational as I typed in a hurry and didn't spot it.. Biggest issue was I was talking on social media with the wife and her friends about international women's day... that sort of autocorrect malfunction will get you in the dog house no doubt about it! Still costing me now that one I think..

Dizzied? lol, my wifes nick name came from an auto correct issue.. changed here family name from Wardle to Waffle... it stuck.. Thanks Peter Thanks Steve, A slightly more appropriate chain has turned up now, will fit it tonight.. just as a back up if anything gives, it'll stop the legs spaying too far.. if im honest I don't trust my DIY after some appallingly bad floating shelves I put up, that also fell down again! that big chain is now holding a friends 6ft driveway gates closed for extra security.

Stained with a mixture of OSMO oil and teak oil.. 5ml OSMO red cedar uv protect oil 20ml clear matt uv protect oil 25ml teak oil. Left for 30mins then wipe with cloth to remove excess, now drying.. Looks nice.. ta Fozzie

Last bits routed and drilled the hinges.. Just waiting on a different chain than above.. then it's down for the stain.. Otherwise... voilá! thanks fozzie

Mmmmmmmm the spreader chain is maybe a bit over specified.. ?? it'll take 160kg before it gives though.. which is nice

Oooo I do like the the look of that chair... Is the bird table berlebach as well? ?

Morning All.. Tripod build update and an important warning first off if you decide to work with an "oily" wood like Iroko. WARNING.. I'd been warned that Iroko wood dust was or had the potential to be irritable so I got a dust mask from work and impact glasses for routing and drilling.. Yesterday I spent the morning routing the various element's, dust mask and glasses on as my PPE. Last night I was weezing and looking my voice. Any dust is bad.. this iroko dust is so oily it's like Lilly pollen, it sticks to everything and is so fine the dust mask was bright yellow and clearly when working with it you need to be open air or have better dust extraction.. there was A LOT of dust to contend with.. it's taken me all morning to clear out the garage and hoover it.. So H&S advice.. make sure you wrap up safe and have the correct equipment even for jobs at home.. On to the tripod. So far I've cut out the foot section, routed the chamfer's and radius of the hinge, cut out the 37mm holes and inserted the spike feet. It's by no means perfect and I've found the wood has a habit of splinting annoyingly with will need a bit of sorting.. Only thing to do now is the hinge drill, the tapering of the feet and a bit of decorative routing to the face of the legs.. So far, I'd go a strong 7 out of 10.. learning some new tools and skills here as we go.. Ta Fozzie

The Iroko is not overly prone to excessive movement once dry, heck it has less than 5% shrinkage from original to kiln dry state, but I take your point about general shrinkage over time providing movement between the lugs. Now I could get some M8 metal spacers at 35mm long, with a rough M10 o/s diameter. If I over sized the hinge drill I could tap this into the centre part of the tripod leg, with washers taking up the remaining slack. That would provide the stability and leave the wood to shrink around the spacer over time. The only issue here is it would be a 10/11mm hole rather than 8mm leaving not much coverage (less than 10mm of wood) surrounding the hinge. My issue with removing the centre part of the wood/tripod connector is that the legs would then only be secured by 10mm thick wood either side, which would leave me concerned about breakage of the wooden legs at this point. I'm leaning towards keeping the tripod legs as I've drawn to avoid cutting to much out and weakening the leg too much at this point. Something to think bout, but i'm leaning towards either this M8 sleeve or just sticking with the original and watching for shrinkage of the hinge over time which could be taken up with nylon washers.. Don't I wish it was... when I started this I wrongly assumed as the EQ5 is a clone, the tripod hubs were identical to one and other.. thanks for the thoughts gents, keep them coming!! Ta Fozzie

Thanks Peter, those photo's demonstrate very accurately the inverted triangle @Rusted has been discussing. I guess this is the only bit out of my control, shall we say, as I've chosen to use a pre-manufactured hub from an EQ5. Maybe next time I could look at turning a tripod hub out of wood to so I can increase the overall width of the tripod top. I guess part of doing this, especially with the vixen hub, was because I couldn't afford a off the shelf wood tripod, and I wanted to demonstrate what could be done/achieved with "relatively" common components, such as tripod hubs like the EQ3, EQ5 and old GP etc. I've got to say I've enjoyed having something else to do on an evening when the kids and football is done (read while the wife is watch love island), whether the fixed height tripod is as good a result as the last one though will remain to be seen, but from test samples of wood I've done, it should look the part at least! Ta Fozzie

Oh I see.. no that's not what I was planning on.. this is more representative.. the entire top of the tripod leg will be solid, clamping the two tabs, using large Teflon washers to close gaps, spreading the load.. acting a bit like the metal spacer you originally noted. ta Fozzie

Not so much old fashioned, but vastly experienced i suspect! Thank you for the response, to be honest a few bits are totally beyond me, but i'll try and comment back as you took the time to write up your thoughts. That’s correct, the EQ5 tripod hub will be the “donar” hub as you call it. The legs are intended to fit around the lugs as shown, so they will be both “outboard” and “inboard” of the lugs. Teflon Washers will provide packing to prevent any looseness and stresses from snapping the lugs off when tightening the cross bolts. These bolts will be high tensile M8 85mm long. The top of the tripod legs will be 75mm. I’m not in any way shape or form an engineer, and reviewing your blog, your engineering and DIY skills are obvious for all to see. Whilst I understand this comment, that the mount will still experience rotational torque, would that not be a feature of all mounts, or is this a specific warning to my proposal? I’m hoping that having the tripod legs, square to the donor hub and sturdy enough will overcome these forces, the spreader will aid by controlling the legs, adding to the overall resistance, and prevent the legs from any twisting motion, better than say a chain.. As I’m at 75mm wide already, the only way to increase the stability would be to reduce the height (length of legs) so increasing the height/width ratio. Again, I’m no engineer but do we think 1350mm high legs are too much/unstable? Those are great mounts but way over engineered for my skill set and requirements.. The iroko wood has a 25year lifespan, very durable and is extremely resistant to both water and oil based preservatives, I’m hoping it will take a while for any water damage or rot to effect hinge. Providing I can drill accurately enough, I’ve access to a pillar drill that will do the job, then hopefully this will be ok, with out the need to sleeve the hinge with a metal tube. That’s a good way of fixing that I’d not considered before, if the above hinge fails I’ll absolutely look in to that. Again, thank you for the response, hopefully mine hasn't "dumbed" it down too much, but my endeavours are to simply replace the tripod legs that came with a generic EQ5 in to something that ultimately looks better and might offer a bit more stability and vibration dampening. As always.. feed back warmly welcome! Ta Fozzie

Latest plans.. Ta Fozzie

So I'm messing around with the off cuts, after setting the height to 1350mm of the legs.. that's a extra 100mm over the sapele tripod. I'm testing different wood finishes however because I have two pieces of sap wood and one heart wood the final appearance of the legs is going to vary drastically.. the heart wood will be the north leg I think. So the finishes are Teak oil OSMO red ceder uv protection OSMO light oak uv protection Ive also got some clear OSMO uv protection which I'll try later on. Here's the impact.. Untreated cuts Treated cuts, teak oil bottom, oak at the top The heart wood is the darker. It's almost a shame it's not 3 of a kind... Still though, nice wood.. Ta Fozzie Ps it's defo the same wood... look at it and on, you can see where it's been cut..

Postman dropped of a berlebach spreader and few items for my wood working.. couple of drills, router and mitre saw..

The Iroko wood is here and I've got a piece with beautiful grain running through, i suspect this is cut in a different plane to the othe pieces, it'll make a great north leg.. The pieces are 1600mm long, the chap at the timber store cut me some longer pieces so I can test finishes on them before I apply to the main legs once I've worked them.. Few more bits in the post for next week and were good to go! Ta Fozzie

First rethink of the tripods.. Looking at the EQ5 hub, after I've taken the metal legs off it's quite different to the vixen GP hub.. so I'll need to rethink how i attach the legs. Two options I can think of.. firstly notch the top of the legs so that they fit between the brackets, or cut grooves and adjust the position of the bolts by a few mm over wise the outer leg bits will snag, it will only leave 10mm cover on the wood.. should be enough though! Will draw something up tomorrow. Ta Fozzie

I've actually just added a berlebach spreader to this, so it'll end up costing around a wee bit more, but the spreaders are great bit's of kit and really add to the overall stability. So check list of items. Wood - Got berlebach Spreader and fixings- Got M8 85mm long Bolts, wing nuts and washers - Got Thread Insert M10 20mm deep - Need Rubber feet - Need Chain and Fixings - Need Next job is to take the old metal legs of the EQ5 and pack them in the loft. I've also been offered some off cuts of the Iroko so I can test the finish I want to apply. The Iroko is quite an oily wood (apparently although I've read differing opinions) a bit like teak, so oils don't overly take. I want this as natural as possible, and it looks like the best finish might just be a light Oak stain followed by a few coats of UV protector.. but that's for permanent out door furniture, which this wont be.. so we shall see. Will post pictures of the wood when it lands Ta Fozzie

Hi All, So it's been about a year since I started the last tripod build, and I enjoyed the accomplishment and the use of the tripod on the Vixen GP that much that I've decided to give it another go for the EQ5 tripod/SkyteeII mount I have laying dormant at home. The plan is for a fixed height tripod, of approximately 1400mm with a section size of 75mm x 30mm. This will be a much heavier duty tripod than the last, as it has no moving parts and is intended for use with the skyteeII, especially if I get another Newt or heavier scope. The design is based around the Tak EM200 SE tripods, fixed height, strong, wooden.. Although I will be added a few extra bits to push wood working skills a bit more. the loose plans are as follows I'll use the same rubber spiked feet as previous and I've selected a different wood, as the Sapele wood I previously used after 3 teak oil coats and a year of life under the stars has really darkened up to a deep, deep, mahogany effect.. Looks great, works great, but I fancy something lighter this time round. I've chosen another African type, Iroko Wood, which although doesn't take treatment/preservatives overly well, should look (hopefully something) like this when oiled, which is the only finish i'll be applying. Should be picking the timber up this week, which has cost me around £62, I've got left over fixings from last time, so I think this should be comfortably under £100. Will need to by a Chain, rubber feet and inserts.. Will keep updated on progress. Ta Fozzie link to the previous build FYI

I took delivery of a couple of 72mm ND filters for the canon.. the idea was to use them for time elapse photograph of water, clouds etc.. Now I'm not going to take credit for the 4 solid days of clear skies over yorkshire, but you buy stuff in the hope of clear skies, you get clouds... buy something wanting clouds, you get clear!! Go figure.. Your all welcome btw Ta Fozzie

I've been playing with Adobe Photoshop Mix on the Android after to trying to find a mobile stacker app.. being Adobe I thought it's reputable so decided to give it a whirl. I've never used photo shop before so not overly familiar with the functions. I was looking for predominantly a photo stacker and merger for a number of reasons 1, ISS passes to stack exposures a top to capture a full over head stack 2, merge foreground and back grounds C, general photo editor. I thought I'd share a few findings on this app, as quite regularly the question is asked about mobile stacking/editing software.. Image stacking The app will allow you to stack photos, however manual alignment (as far as I can tell) would be required.. as a side note you could probably run through Pipp and transfer to mobile device, bet that would work. With regards to stacking I feel that it does bring out a bit more detail, here below are two MW shots from last year and a stacked image of the two. The stacked image It's not perfectly aligned but it gives an idea that you can achieve some.stacking with the app.. In respect to merging of photos, this is also possible I attempted to merge an atmospheric moon image taken at 300mm on a eos750d with a wide angle Manhattan sky line shot taken a year ago.. Skyline Moon To produce a cropped version Here's a merged photo, same moon.. near a tree.. Lastly there is a good array of editing options from an auto through to sharpening, contrast, saturation, temperature, exposure, light and shade adjustment options. Hers a rainbow cloud/moon shot up with the saturation we go.. And just for giggles, here's a moon merged with a star field, gives an interesting effect Anyway, thought I'd share a quick example/write up of a mobile phone app.. it's a bit off fun but could be a useful tool to have in the field for a rainy day.. Ta fozzie