StaceStar

have you got any written plans for your observatory? If so care to share? I'm looking and trying to get started...but need a bit of help i think! I'm not far from you at all, at the home of MG rover. Have taken the pooch for many a walk over sarehole mill . Congrats on some lovely images with our rubbish skies!

Well I couldn’t wait till the weekend…fitted and freshly collimated last night !

Arrived yesterday! But a valentines gift to myself clearly . An upgrade set consisting of a cnc spider and bobs knobs for my Altair 150mm f4 newt ! I’ll be fitting these the weekend 🙂

A slight regret maybe...I got engaged in May 2022, and part of the deal was an engagement telescope ! Of course I wanted a big newt and so I settled on an Altair 200mm F5. The minor detail is that i had slipped 3 discs in my neck in April 2022 and was completely in denial about how long my recovery was going to take. So I tried on and off to use this scope, i got great images. Modified it and loved it. However I used to suffer terribly with neck pain in the days after using it. I bought an astro tuff truk to help, and things were great for a while, until all this wet weather turned my garden into a bog! Anyway i've just sold the 200 and bought an Altair 150mm F4 newt. Instantly easier on my neck and producing lovely images. I regret not selling the 200 sooner...but we live and learn

This is brilliant! Just the thing I’m looking for . I notice you’re in Birmingham? I’m in south Birmingham myself (also very sorry for resurrecting an old thread!)

just an extra update , as mentioned in my previous review I bought a cover for my new pier truk. It’s a Clarke pop up “garage” but came with some not so great anchors. Lee and Matty at Astro Tuff Truk were kind enough to make up some really heavy duty ground pegs for me to anchor it all down. They sent me a diagram of the ideal angle and got these made up and posted to me rapidly. Really cracking service from these guys and I’m happy now that my truck is under cover !

Ok! So where to start . I suppose back at my injury in April 2022 where I herniated 3 discs in my neck. As such astronomy and astrophotography has become very difficult for me, especially when it comes to lugging around really heavy equipment down to my pier! Now I’ve been to a few astro shows and I remembered Astro Tuff Truk. This is run by Lee Richards and his business partner Matt. They have designed and fabricated a range of trolleys/trucks to carry any equipment you can imagine. Totally over engineered, I mean my pier truk has a weight limit of 544kg !! So yes, I decided on a pier truk, Lee was kind enough to fit a pier plate for me, with excellent communication to ensure the right bolt fitting for my eq6-r, and not only that, he delivered it in person all the way to Birmingham from Yorkshire! He did on the spot adjustment work to the base of my eq6-r (come on we know synta manufacturing can vary a tad !) to make sure it was absolutely snug on my pulsar pier plate . Anyway I’m over the moon with my purchase, it’s really going to help me. The help from astro tuff truk doesn’t stop there though, I’ve bought a special cover for it all, and once I’ve sent some measurements they’re going to send me some heavy duty ground pegs too, to help secure it. all in all, a five star experience. Thank you astro tuff truk!

do it! look forward to seeing your progress

Its good to see others with this pier type.

These actually arrived a few weeks ago, but i've slipped a disc in my neck...so they havent seen much use yet! Altair 8" F/5 newt and a bargain OCAL Pro from FLO and a Pegasus pocket powerbox advance!

Just thought i'd update, the pier is still solid as a rock and probably one of the best things i have done for my astro journey! As you can see, i've also been struck with a bit of aperture fever too!

a good reminder though

they changed the link super recently, to update the site. There was a redirect on the old website, but it appears not to be working at the moment. Will give them a poke

Popped along to this will be joining!

I've been lucky enough to be sent one of these astropgraphs for review. It's a bit of a monster! I've done an unboxing on it so far...but hopefully when this weather clears I can get imaging and do a review eventually. Here's some shots so far