Peter Drew

The 80ED's are not exactly equal in length but it's the photo that makes them look staggered. The binoscope in the background is my 6" F5 achro made from Skywatcher OTA's. ?

Trial parallelogram mount for my 80ED binoscope prior to making a heavy duty one for my 6" F5 achro binoscope. ?

And more reliable! ?

Progressing nicely, if it was easy to do, everyone would do it! No reason why your binoscope should perform differently to mine as they both have the same optics, I've been very pleased with mine and have just knocked up a parallelogram mount for it. ?

Exactly. It's ironic though, that self built binoscopes seem to incorporate easy owner adjustable collimation whereas many high end commercial units do not. Purchasers of the latter often spend extra to have them "super" collimated for high powers. My experience has been that what appears collimated often varies with different users. ?

I tried a Nagler zoom set at 3mm on mine which showed that it would take 200x. Or it would if I had a pair of Nagler zooms! ?

I use steel tripods in the main as they come with the telescopes and I find them adequate. If I need a "serious" tripod in either wood or aluminium I build my own as there are better designs available. ?

A pimped version of the "Todmorden" pier for those who don't like its "nude" look. ?

Stack of plastic cups? ?

Hello Higgy. Thanks for the info and welcome to SGL. Have you been up to visit us yetat the Astronomy Centre?

I know very little about electronics other than unless you know what caused a burn out, a replacement could soon go the same way.

He will never be forgotten by those who knew him, good memories for so many reasons. We were honoured to have him as a member of our Centre and always looked forward to his visits. Whilst at his premises David showed me the cores from some of the giant mirrors that he was involved with, they would have made enormous mirrors for an amateur. Despite shaking hands with him many times, sadly none of his optical skills rubbed off. Very nice to see an early photograph of him. ?

Interesting one. The manufacturer provides user adjustment facilities which suggests that they endorse their use but what happens if the telescope is damaged by, say, a secondary falling off on to a primary or chipping the edge of a refractor doublet or triplet whilst attempting recentering? Would the warranty cover this?.

I'm afraid Nigel is correct. You have to dismantle the unit enough to release the three balls. You can then slide the shaft back in, replace the three balls which will now line up in the shaft groove, this drives the slow motion at the same time as retaining the balls and operating shaft.

Tasco? ?

Worth a try if it was your own telescope and you had damaged it yourself. It's probably not the way they set them up at the factory. ? If FLO can get a replacement to John over the next couple of days it will give us all a chance to get our breath back.

It might be worth mentioning that two recipients of the 150ED in America received them with damaged packing, one similar to the one John had delivered and one in a much worse state resulting in damage to the actual telescope. The strong consensus of opinion over there is that the packaging is inadequate.

Although I'm not in the market for one (two maybe!) I really hope that it will be the success it promises to be on paper. As an ex vendor I'm sorry to see the discounting in operation even before the telescope has had suitable reviewing. It was commonly acknowledged to be an absolute bargain potentially at the original price, I don't think those unable to afford one are likely to invest given a few % off. Surely the time for discounting would be more sense if the telescope turned out to be disappointing.

@John. I expected the dew shield to be metal, my interest lies in what metal, steel or aluminium. The common 6" F8 SW achromats had steel dew shields which always seemed OTT for a telescope that was already very front heavy. ?

Beautifully made. (As expected!) ?

4 year olds thread. ?

Not exactly the Postie but a courier brought 44 off 2.5m x 300mm plastic tongue and groove panels for cladding the exposed blockwork of a couple of our smaller observatories. Interesting transaction. Ordered them from a W Midlands firm via eBay. Order confirmed and delivery to arrive via Hermes who emailed to confirm and said they were waiting for the items. Next day, "Good news" from Tuffnells saying that they will be delivering my order later that day and that the goods were in the van. Waited in for them and at 1.30pm, instead of "The Big Green Parcel Machine" the goods arrived via another courier company???. Overall, a seamless hassle free transaction at a good price. Finally, on later inspection, it appears that the goods were produced by a different company than the one listed on eBay. Isn't internet shopping a wonderful thing! ?

I think this will give a corrected image only when used in conjunction with the Orion Premium binoviewer. With just an eyepiece the orientation will still be upside down and back to front.

@Fozzie. Some images to illustrate what myself and @Rusted mentioned earlier. These are a couple of tripods I made from aluminium stock but could just as easily been made of wood. The tripod tops are 9" diameter and the splays at the top of the legs are 8". It's virtually impossible to twist the tripod top by hand and damping is excellent. I'm sure your tripod will be as good as any of the currently available wooden tripods judging by the appearance of your previous work. ?

The original Celestron C8 tripod was one of the best ever made, I doubt whether its stability/weight ratio has been improved upon. ?