Peter Drew

Worthwhile project. Good luck!

Looks like a work in progress to me. Not long until March 31st !

Anyone seriously tempted to buy one would do well to leave it until after next Christmas.

I cant't add much to the pros and cons already posted but as an outreach specialist and provider I can say that visitors, children specially, overwhelmingly prefer to look through a telescope rather than an object on the screen. The only time we employ a camera and a large screen is when we let the children drive the telescope with the controller whilst they pan up and down the close up image of the Moon. The "new" telescope, interesting though it is, seems to have a lot of components that could go wrong, I wonder how the "smartphoners" would get on with problem solving.

Just one of the symptoms of small refractor syndrome.

Whilst I wholeheartedly agree, the title is no good, the general thrust of the article must give food for thought to those who are not refractor diehards. I can't remember when I last used my 8.5" refractor whereas my 8" SCT was just yesterday.

Excellent buy I would say. The OTA when last available new was £250.

It's a variant of the catadioptric (lenses and mirrors to form the prime image) class of optical design. It has a primary mirror and a sub aperture corrector between the primary and secondary mirrors. A bit like a Maksutov but without a full aperture corrector. The system is "open" like a Newtonian and has a secondary support spider.

I currently have 6 SCT's ranging from 8" to 16", optically they are all better than "good enough".

Straight through will be necessary considering the low altitude of Mars.

Not surprising as they are both one-off self builds. The mount is a simplified version of the TTS Panther.

They can't. They climb up the pylons and then tightrope along the wires for fun. One lurking to the left of the first photo.

"Dust bunny".

Ready for Mars!. 5" F15 triplet APO.

The DEC drive on these mounts has only a limited travel. Before use it's best to set it at halfway travel. You then loosen the DEC axis locking knob to point to the DEC position of the object you wish to observe and then tighten it again when in the field of view. Centering can then be achieved by turning the DEC operating cable. The RA control is a continuous action and will turn for as long as you wish or until the cable clashes with the mount, whichever is the soonest.

@Rusted. I was still distracted by our PM discussion.

This is a "white light" configuration, nothing to do with Ha.

@rusted. PM sent.

My latest PST mod. It's another 6" F10 using a Istar objective, similar setup to my own version. 110mm internal D-ERF, WO dual speed focuser and two projection type solar finders.

I would lay the scope down on its side so that the detatched baffle is halfway down the tube. If you can arrange it such that the front end is overhanging a table you should be able to get a good grip on the front cell to unscrew it, mine comes off fairly easily.

You don't need to remove the corrector from its cell, the whole cell unscrews and will screw back on retaing the orientation of the optics. As mentioned, the baffle is glued on concentric to the aluminised spot.

This isn't the secondary mirror, it's the secondary baffle which is normally glued to the inner face of the corrector lens. The secondary is an aluminised spot on the inner surface of the corrector. The whole front cell should unscrew and then you can retrieve the baffle and carefully glue it back on. Don't let the detatched baffle rattle around on the primary mirror as it will scratch the coatings.

Complete with early dongle.

The same principle is used in many geared focus mounts but kudos in successfully making such a precision component yourself!

Good job!. Nice to see Ampthill mentioned, I moved up North from Park Hill, Ampthill, good memories.