Dave In Vermont

Greetings, Martin, & welcome to SGL - great to have you here!

Always feel free to ask any questions, we love them.

Enjoy!

Dave

3 minutes ago, oobydooby said:

You got one of the horsehead nebula drunk?

Not yet! - Hic!

It could be remedied though...

Dave

How 'bout the best image of the Horsehead Nebula - B33 - taken with a phone while drunk?

evaD

3 hours ago, D4N said:

I would always be concerned about buying a scope if the person selling it has it set up for looking at the ground!

 

However it is entirely possible it could be a nice little scope once you get it set up properly, there are a lot of bits wrong or missing in the image but hopefully they are included and the seller just didn't know how to put it all together.

I was wondering how long it would take before someone pointed this out!

Yes - it will help a bit to turn it around so the mirror is in the bottom position of the tube, with the focuser on top.

Ya gotta love it...

Dave

Greetings, C-O-E, and welcome to SGL - it's nice of you to join us all!

We love questions, and helping to find their answers - so don't be shy in these many forums!

Enjoy -

Dave

Simple and grab & go - one of my ST80 F/5 scopes solar-outfitted:

I love these Helio-Pod's from FAR Laboratories in Massachusetts. They make finding & centering our Sun a breeze:

BE VERY CAREFUL LOOKING AT THE SUN! CHECK & RE-CHECK YOUR EQUIPMENT. ALWAYS!

Dave

Unitron is my first guess as well.

I'll try to attach a Unitron 1972 Catalog in the post here. But I have a more likely Unitron Catalog from 1956 - which is over 20mgs - which I can't send through SGL. If you'd like that, I'll send you a PM to email me at. I'll be glad to send it to you through email

unitron72.pdf

Hope this works & watch for a PM,

Dave

Just a minor-point for our new members here: 'vacuum' is not the member's name. It's the 'Rank' of new folks. Just look above the Rank for the name. Example: I am 'Dave In Vermont.' 'Little Green Man' is my Rank. As is ccdfreak the name of the member.

The more posts you make, the higher your Rank becomes to things like 'Nebula' and/or 'Proto Star.' Don't feel like you need apologize - we all managed to stumble into this error in the start!

Have fun -

Dave

If you have enough power for one more toy:

http://davesastrotools.weebly.com/bahtinov-mask-guide.html

You, or someone, may find this useful.

Enjoy,

Dave

Meade AR-5 achromatic 127mm F/9.3 1182mm F.L.

I just had a struggle in attaching - by means of a 2-pound rubber-mallet - a new visual back and 10:1 Crayford dual-focuser. Based on my report, the manufacturer (Antares) is having to re-design this item. I got it on, but a non-mechanic would easily have smashed their telescope in the process! It was a bear!

Dave

The Vaseline would raise my eyebrows right off - and I'd remove it - all of it using solvents - and applying a PTFE (Teflon®)-based lube like SuperLube®. Then I'd try iy and see if it wasworth keeping the thing, or sending it back.

But that's me.

Best wishes -

Dave

Stellarium has the ability to factor your light-pollution level into what you'll be able to see. As well as setting views through different eyepieces and scopes.

If you don't yet have Stellarium, you can find it with a simple search - and it's totally free.

Dave

The letters seem to translate to BPTS and the numeral 5. But I have no idea of what this means. But here's a Cyrilic-English alphabet translation:

Hope you can use it.

Dave

Yes - I wouldn't take a gamble on this. Not if it spells out:

WARNING! THESE FOCAL REDUCERS ARE DESIGNED STRICTLY FOR THE LNTECH CAMERAS, MODEL LN300 AND FOR OUR COOLED T-MOUNT CAMERAS. THEY WILL NOT WORK WITH ANY OTHER CAMERA WITHOUT MODIFICATION. THESE REDUCERS EMPLOY THE MOST AGGRESSIVE, HIGHEST REDUCTION FACTOR THAT IS POSSIBLE GIVEN THE TELESCOPE CHARACTERISTICS, CCD SIZE AND REDUCER TO SENSOR CORRECT SPACING. IT MAY BE POSSIBLE TO MODIFY THE FOCAL REDUCERS TO WORK WITH OTHER 1/3" CCD CAMERAS. CONTACT US FOR MORE DETAILS. WE WILL NEED TO MEASURE YOUR CAMERA MOUNT-FLANGE TO SENSOR DISTANCE TO ANALYZE IF A SPACER COULD BE MODIFIED TO ACCOMODATE THE REDUCER REQUIREMENTS.

MallinCam has an excellent 3.3 FR available, which I have. It's not 1.8, but it does work. I've bookmarked the site above to see if they do release a 1.8 for other systems.

Thank you for the link!

Dave

For myself, the lure of video-ap is the intent to do it in any way one wishes to. Can you do a screenshot and, later on, stack them and process the daylight <koff!> out of them? Yes! Can you just let the camera feed, in realtime, to an external monitor? Yes! Can you use an expensive video-cam specializing in deep-space astro-objects that cost you over £1,000? Yes! Can you use a cheap web-cam that's only collecting dust & cobwebs? Yes!

This is how video-ap tempted me to jump in. Now I've seen it splinter into two camps: Big £££ & top-end software-programs. The flying-by-frugal gear that anyone can afford - and succeed - in capturing beautiful images that are more than capable of causing jaws to drop! There are, simply put, no rules and room for any & all folks!

That's my 2¢ - and I'm stickin' to it!

Dave

I would say that video was successful in refuting the notion that video-cams are not useful for real-time viewing.

Very nicely done! And thank you for the tour -

Dave

Thank you for the breakdown on this scope, MTK. Now I see what's going on here - he's de-focused into a 'black-hole' image of the planet!

Please pass me the Homer-Simpson Award!

Dave

No - this is not normal by any stretch. Having spikes on a star from the spider (as it's called due to it's 3 or 4 arms) is normal, but it shouldn't be blocking-out the object you're looking at.

Frankly - I'm stumped. I'd look into the collimation of the optics. 'Collimate' is the word meaning to align in optics. The primary-mirror and the secondary-mirror should aligned center-to-center. I'll link you to one of the best guides to this by Astro_Baby, who is a member here:

http://www.astro-baby.com/collimation/astro%20babys%20collimation%20guide.htm

Have a good read,

Dave

First off - Greetings and welcome to SGL - it's nice that you've found us! Secondly - no need to apologize! We love helping folks find answers to their astro-related questions. It's how we all learn. As someone else coined: The only stupid questions are the one's you don't ask!

A black dot on Jupiter, eh? May I ask what magnification you were using? There's a good reason to believe that your black-dot may have been a shadow from one of Jupiter's moons transiting the planet. Photograph below.

Dave

I also put a larger diameter focus-wheel on my ST80 after replacing the focuser with the 10:1 Crayford. This adds an other layer of fine-tuning the focused image to crystal clarity.

You might say I like my little ST80.

Dave

I use the GSO 10:1 dual-speed Crayford. These are about the same animal. And the focusing is excellent indeed. Night & day difference from the single-speed variety. You'll be a happy camper.

Upgrade away -

Dave

This is the first I've heard-read about 40 Eridani. Thank you for bringing this fascinating system "to light!"

Very nice indeed -

Dave

You're quite welcome!

I just put a GSO, branded ScopeStuff, on my new 150mm F/12 Maksutov. This plus a larger wheel for the 10:1 makes it a pure silk micro-focuser.

Dave

Congratulations on a job very well done!

And you've found out what I've been telling all who'll listen about these GSO-focusers. They're better than one's costing twice as much - or better still. A true bargain.

Nicely done,

Dave

I think you did it very well! Great images of our star. Whatever you did, I'd say it worked - please keep going!

The sky's the limit -

Dave