AKB

I’ve been considering this for my Quattro, but since it’s 200mm, there’s clearly some options. Even this size scope makes one wonder about the rigidity of the Vixen bar. Given the price of the smaller PrimaLuce rings, surely an option is to get a local machine shop to make something robust?

Taking the risk of straying too far from the OP, the word “all”, here, gives pause for thought. I’m struck by the fact that this is probably a lot more than many people could afford / lift / have room for, and also that, even if you did have one, you’d need a pretty hefty mount, and probably a permanent pier / observatory to hold it. I’d hate to go away with the impression any of this was needed to do some good imaging. Aspirational, perhaps, but necessary? Certainly not. I should add that this is written after a particularly good dinner whilst on holiday in France, and I think that the unreasonably fine weather that we’ve experienced for the last ten days has led to an uncharacteristic streak of jealousy regarding both location and equipment for astro-imaging. I shall, nonetheless, return shortly to the U.K. resolved to acquire my first refractor (albeit a good deal smaller than six inches.). To return to the OP, it will be E.S. Reid tested.

Well, I’ll show my hand and say that I have a licence, G3ZYR, but I would also point out that I was extremely young when I qualified for it. (The G3 prefix ran out of letters a good while ago!) I’ve always been interested in low power... mainly because I couldn’t afford anything else. I don’t have any gear at the moment, and really the most interesting QSL card I got was from King Hussein of Jordan, but I think that the ISS trumps that! Good luck, and give us updates with pictures along the way... Tony

I really know very little about spectroscopy, but had been looking at this: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/starlight-xpress-accessories/starlight-xpress-spectrograph-with-built-in-lodestar-x2-guide-camera.html Does that not count?

Such a thrill, the first glimpse/image of a planet with moons. Fantastic start with that equipment.

Now that really is "grab and go"!

Delighted to hear this, Gina. Onwards and upwards! Tony

That seems like an awful lot of hard work? I would have thought that a fairly random placement would work fine... it does for real stars.

I’ve been wondering the same for adjusting my Hyperstar. I think that for a wide FOV it might be better to use ball bearings stuck onto a black background and illuminated by a single offset light source. Haven't tried it yet!