runoffshed

Looks excellent, Nigella. Can you tell me please if you had to sleeve / adjust the pulleys or rods or were they a good fit to start with? ( I want to do exactly this on a newly acquired OVL and wondered if a lot of these focuser rods were a standard diameter) Many thanks John

Great chair Kimboman. Can I just ask how the adjustable seat attaches. Is it just slotted through or does it hook over somehow or have a pin inserted? Also, does it have any sort of bracket on the underside of the seat or does the ply provide enough strength? ( I'm thinking of my weight!) Any help/ advice much appreciated. Atb John

Sounds like you're a lot better set up for good focusing than I am Dave. I know what you mean about the frustration. My recent images of Mars were the best I've taken but they aren't a patch on some of the stuff posted on here recently. Oh well, as you say, wouldn't be fun if it was easy! Atb. John

Hi Dave, I am far from being a particularly experienced imager but I wonder how good the focus was to start with? I was out the other night imaging Mars and had a hell of a job getting decent focus as the seeing was poor and I don't have a remote/electronic focuser so the image was leaping all over the place. I must have spent about 10 minutes before each run going back and forth trying to nail it. I probably never did and am going to try a 'Y' mask the next clear night. Do you use any mask/software to help with focus? Anyway, just a thought and good luck. John

Following on from what Ruud and MarsG76 said, perhaps you could have a look at Jupiter again but compare the image in each half of the binocular? I.e close one eye at a time and then try to focus that barrel. If you can get sharp images, but not at the same focus, then the dioptre is not adjusted correctly. If you can only get a sharp image in one barrel then the other has an issue (loose element?). You should be able to get a sharp image in each barrel but if the two images won't combine you have a collimation error. Easy test for this is to look at a distant object like a telegraph pole in the daytime. Close one eye at a time and see if the image shifts eye to eye. With well collimated binoculars you should be able to move the binos several inches away from your eyes and still hold the object in each field as you alternate between eyes, even if not both perfectly centered. Astronomical objects like stars and planets with extreme contrast in the field are much more demanding on the optics of both the binos and your eyes/brain - especially with regards to collimation - than terrestrial daytime viewing. Good luck in sorting it out.

Here is my SP102 being used by a friend while we wait for darkness; I've had it about 10 years and have loved owning it. Only an achromat but I can't say colour fringing has ever bothered me much. I stripped it down 6 years ago as the axes had become a bit stiff and there was a lengthy discussion on SGL about the type of grease to use with lots of interesting stuff I didn't understand about 'high pressure' for the worms. I wouldn't say it was 'heated' but there were many different opinions...all very interesting. Well I used white lithium for everything and now I need to do it again...which seems quite soon to me(?) It's still quite usable, I just notice it getting harder to balance properly. Anyway, lovely scope that I can't see myself ever selling.