Craney

OK, so my latest edition to the telescope menagerie......

Orion Optics 140 Mak.      Bought from @Stu.   Many thanks.

It produces sharp lunar images and is no slouch on the odd bright DSO as well.    Both focus and collimation have remained extremely stable through several nights of use.

You could shorten one of these...  an outdoor patio heater cover.   It has more or less the correct shape for just a mount head and pillar.....  and will make it all look like a ...errr.  ..patio heater.

I have often wondered if the Quark eyepieces or adapted telescopes (like the Solarscout) have a known lifetime in terms of use  ??

Not being familiar with their internals I not really sure if they will keep on going forever, providing the electrics etc are all functioning......

From a couple of years ago....  my old Opticstar80 F5, before I dropped it !!, with a 600D and a 60mm finder-guider set-up.  

The lap-top holder is from KakiBashi ( limited edition ) and is available from most skips.  I think I took this picture because I had got Phd2 to work for the first time and I felt like a 'real' astrophotographer.

... and there seems to be a pair of eyes admiring the set-up from down the garden as well !!!!!.... yikes.

Thanks  @RayD   I will look forward with interest to your findings.

Looks very cool and nicely designed.  

I would be interested to know how easy the focusing ring is to adjust and get absolutely spot-on with the mask.   Can it compete with the best Feathertouch, Moonlite etc....

A Stella mate.... me bestist mate yyer cuud evr have (hic!)

2 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

DOH! I think I've confused Harrogate and Billingsgate...

 

How on Earth  !!!......     

3 hours ago, lenscap said:

I always knew 'arrogate folk were posh?

... not when the sofa in question is in my front garden.... along with some empty tins of Stella ...... ( appropriately !!)

... This is the chair  I will use..... ...........   when I get all the remote control sorted.....

This is the one I use now.  Comfortable, light, warm on the rear, you can stand on it and it has foam on the underside if you need to kneal.... a.k.a polar aligning.

Looks like it has a decent focuser to begin with rather than the having to buy one after market.

Why do the Celestron SCTs  and Meade SCTs  of this world ( and RC designs)  use the 'moving primary mirror method'  and all the associated flop issues ?

Is it because it gives a wider focus range for terrestrial targets etc ??

Great start Adam.      Lovely cloud detail in the mid-frame.    I do miss the 'wide-field' of my Canon, but then again the Moon would have put the Hoodoo of any attempts over the last few nights.   What scope / lens did you use ?

For me, getting those   'ripple' shock wave  structures inside the crescent was the big Wow!!  moment on first light with my mono.   I would usually have to wait for 2-3 hours of DSLR imaging (under excellent conditions) before  they showed up. The ATIK brought them out in minutes.

At the moment I am going around the popular classics, a few frames of each filter, and enjoying the compositional side of putting the frames together.   It is quite exciting to see the final image emerge from the mono.

Are you using any type of plate-solving to get future frames aligned ??    (it is something I will have to comtem "plate"    ).   I feel I will have to raise my level of computerisation to take full advantage of the 'mono' mind set.

Looking forward to the next step..... (sans blu-tack).

oooooooh!!..... and we have more clear nights coming up.  As exciting as a penalty shoot-out.

My goodness me.... that's like a J.M.W Turner...