Bruce Leeroy

It's easy to dew up the eyepiece and diaganol with your own breath. Especially if you are chatting with someone or find yourself snorting through your nostrels as you lift your head up and away from the eyepiece. A friend of mine is always dewing up my eyepiece 😀

If you have a barlow lens then you may be able to remove the lens element from it and use the body as an extender.

The image you posted of the eyepices shows a barlow lens....remove the lens and fix an eyepiece into it then place in the scopes focuser.

On 03/07/2019 at 02:38, quaoar said:

Frame from a video of Jupiter in my backyard last night. IPhone 8 and 28” f4 Webster Dob with 4.7 Ethos eyepiece.

Hi there, I had a try at reducing the exposure I hope you don't mind.

22 minutes ago, dannybgoode said:

How do you like yours?

I haven't used them too much tbh but for daytime use there very good with hardly any CA I would say they have a yellow tinge to the overall view maybe due to a hefty layer of anti reflective coatings, staring into the objectives it's hard to see my face in the reflection which is a good sign so i've read on here, they came with the original case and I found them in a charity shop for little money, I will endeavour to give them the Andromeda test soon .

Mine are branded with a Helios sticker and have very purple coatings inspected/manufactured 1980.

Did you test broadband speeds using the speedtest.net website? I use powerline adapters over a very long extension reel and I find I get about a 50% drop in broadband speeds at my shed compared to my house, if you try the speedtest website note which optimal server it selects and run the test a number of times to see that your getting a consistent test result....if someone is streeming a movie/youtube video during these tests it will have a small impact on the results.

Run the test from the house then try the tests in your shed using the same optimal server for consistent results. HTH

I'd say there Helios.

I use a first surface mirror mount on an old fork mount for the ultimate relaxed observing position, cat is optional but makes for a warm scarf during the winter months, I'm using Olympus dps 10x50 in the image but have a wide field gallilean type monocular attached atm so i have a right way up view with a mirrored l/r image, I'm viewing close to zenith in the image.

Happy Birthday Gina.

Hi Gina, we used to use a product called aquafix made by soudal....hands down the best sealing mastic I ever used and around £4 a tube on ebay, it's thick stuff and helps to place the tube in a bucket full of warm/hot water so it flows better.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/All-Weather-Sealant-Soudal-Aquafix-Even-Seals-Under-Water/111233914303?hash=item19e60ed5bf:g:~FAAAOSwF1dUPreH

An interesting post here, maybe best to avoid the amici style prism?

1 minute ago, NGC 1502 said:

The silicon I’ve successfully used is one specifically labled for building aquariums.

Sounds like Aquafix silicone....It's very firm when set doesn't set rock hard but it's very firm!

59 minutes ago, AndyH said:

I've been out of the loop regarding that stuff. Can you or anyone else recommend places to use??

https://www.galvoptics.co.uk/optical-components/telescope-products-andamp-services/telescope-mirror-coating---primary/

http://www.orionoptics.co.uk/OPTICS/mirrorrecoating.html

I found these 2 links some time ago but have never used their services.

26 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

The link I gave earlier says they can recoat your primary for £54 plus postage.

That sounds tempting, I can't seem to spot your link?

I have the 8.75" copper colour version, I would say the mirrors are in a similar condition to yours...maybe not so degraded, I get decent views but with some light scatter, I chopped the original plastic finder down and added a mirror diagonal from a low end telescope. My primary mirror is held in with clips.

I took these 2 unprocessed images some time ago using the Dark Star dob.

The 3rd Image is processed from a 20-30 second video.

Good luck renovating the old girl.

All images captured with an iphone 4s.

I get the same effect with a hand made mask, try to check for the same banana effect visually in the daytime using a bright led light and low power eyepiece.

4 hours ago, Stu said:

Bruce, was the moon shot taken using the iPhone Panoramic mode?

Yes it was, iPhone 4s Pano mode and let the moon drift through the view.

I might have previously posted this iPhone moon panorama just letting the moon drift through the view and a stacked image of Jupiter also captured on the iPhone, furrysocks2 kindly stacked the image for me!