RayD

When I built my UK observatory I had a custom pier made by a local fabricator to my exact specifications to mount my Mesu200. I was more than happy with it, and thought the £450 cost was about right when looking at the costs of the commercially available items of similar build. I need a new pier in Spain for my CEM120, so used the same drawings with a change to the top plate and went to the local fabricator in my village who showed me all the metal to be used to make sure we were absolutely certain it was as I wanted. Received the quote yesterday...........€130! Will be ready in a week. Very happy ?

I'm sure they will. Even if not, it looks the part ?

No thanks needed at all, Kev. You've taken my idea and raised the bar a few levels by the looks of it. Really very nice job, Sir! I do chuckle when I see the beautiful outside and finish, and then no flooring inside, with a view all the way to the ground. Reminds me of the hotel in Elsbels in Carry on Abroad ? I'm really enjoying following this build.

I honestly wouldn't worry too much about the attachment being a weak point, it isn't. The small grub screws are only to centre on the shaft, the actual fixing is done by clamping the outside casing of the focuser. It's pretty secure. As far as I know, if it's anything like my Pegasus focuser, the Focus Cube is supplied with a generic coupler with 3 grub screws allowing you to use it on anything between 3mm and 6mm. I'd be surprised if the Baader was bigger than 6mm, that's all my Featherthouch is and that's a pretty big 3.5" focuser. Drop the guys at Pegasus a line, they are very good and get back to you really quickly.

NOOOOOOOOO!! Is that even legal? Oh well, at least it is a nice thing to research, get used to how the software works and know that you will be using it soon

I have the SestoSenso and the Pegasus and both work absolutely fine. Yes if the reduction is by ball bearing, as most are, then over an extended period there will inevitably be some slippage, but not enough to be an issue. The benefit of being on the reduced shaft is the increased resolution.

Unfortunately I don't recall weighing it on its own, sorry. I'm away at the moment so can weigh it Saturday. It's a good OTA for the price. Naturally it isn't as well corrected as a decent triplet, but as a single box travel item it is ideal due to the light weight and small size. I use mine with the OVL flattener at the minute as I just felt I got better results from that than the SW 80 one, but the SW does work adequately with a bit of fettling. As I noted in my opening video, I suspect they have intended on this primarily being used for visual, for which it works well, albeit you need to be careful what eyepieces you use due to the limited inward focuser travel. In all I guess I would give it a 7/10 for imaging, 8/10 for visual and 10/10 for value.

Hi Louise, I'd say that TS dimension isn't far out. According to 365Astronomy the internal treaded dimension of the dew shield is 85mm (outside 97mm) so this would be about right. I've not used or seen one, but looking at some images it does look like it has a pretty 'chunky' tube compared to the SW 72ED.

As noted above, W10 Pro is only required on the host machine, not the client. The RDP app, used to access the host, is free across all platforms.

Agreed. I tried all sorts of spacing and testing with both, and for me the OVL one works better over all.

Just for clarity, W10 Pro is only required on the host machine (the one you are connecting to). It isn't required on any other machine. On any other machine you can just download the free RDP client app to connect to it from PC, Mac, iPad or iOS and Android.

Ah that's a shame, Stu. Looked really promising but I suspect they have a 'standard' size for these things as that looks pretty similar in size to my one then. Looks really well made I must say

Looking really good, Kev. That door looks familiar ? I used these hinges on mine and they have worked a treat. Not cheap, but in the scheme of things.......... Agree with all of the above re. security. I have a very good 7 lever lock on mine, a sensor connected to the main house alarm and internal and external CCTV. In the warm room, under the rubber flooring I have a large pressure mat which arms when the roof is open (providing I'm not in there of course) and does the alarm and lights etc. if it goes off. From the outside it looks pretty 'sheddy' so not glaringly containing expensive stuff. You really are doing a super job, bravo Sir!

Oooh I like that phone adaptor, Stu. My one is a 'hole' to go over the eyepiece and won't fit on my bigger ones. That has an open sided clamp so looks like it should work on larger ones. Can you let me know how this works with the 30mm ES please?

Looks great!

You really just need to know, or find out, what the exact distance is from the mating surface of the lens, to the sensor. For example, on Canon cameras this is usually 44mm, which means T adaptors for them are usually 11mm thick, giving you 55mm, which is the distance required for the SW field flattener. You don't need to spend fortunes on custom adaptors, you just need to drop a line to Sony tech support and ask them what this distance is and then making up adaptors etc. is easy as you know the distance you're aiming for. I've had a look and can't find this information, which is why I suggest dropping Sony Tech a line.

Sorry just seen this so may be way too late for the answer. Yes you do lose the micro focus knob. I think you may be able to fit it on the other side, but it is designed to go on this way. You can focus manually, provided you power down. With the power on you have a holding torque which prevents movement. However, this is fairly stiff and I think ok for moving manually to a position before focusing using it, but a little too stiff and 'coggy' (due to turning the motor) for visual use in my opinion.

It's pretty good, quick and very accurate. There are a couple of down sides: The LED to way too bright, and it can't be turned off. It is difficult to tape up as the top of the unit is translucent. I asked for a firmware update to fix this but was told it was not possible with the hardware. The temperature sensor is very expensive and pretty long. As the unit is positioned directly on the focuser, it could have just been an upstand type or, for this price, built in. To fix to your focuser you gave a collar on the Sestosenso which clamps around the housing where you take your focus wheel off. This has one main clamp screw and three small grub screws to centralise it. Depending on your focuser you may need an additional adaptor which they sell separately (I needed it for my FT). The unit comes with various couplers for the different sized focuser shafts. It does work well and is extremely accurate. I think the fact that it fixes to the micro focus shaft helps with this. One benefit it does have is that the controller is built in, so no need for a separate box.

Best I've found recently is Gorilla glue.

And the glue on the felt is rubbish so after a while you'll find the glue fails and the OTA starts sliding out of the rings.....felt and all!

Good job. Glad it went without a hitch. If those rings are tight then they do look a tiny bit small if you look where the OTA meets the felt liner at the bottom and top, it doesn't look snug and appears to be a small gap? Try the 102mm as they may be better. As noted by John he used 101mm so you may need these, but can't do any harm to try the others first.

A few people have done this mod, Andy, and I did it on my old ES80. A simple piece of black electrical insulating tape does the trick perfectly. I think @Jkulin did this mod on his, so he may be able to share how he went about it.

Just a normal 10mm socket on a small ratchet would do I would think?

No problem, Eric, happy to help. Personally I love the OAG. I do use a separate guide scope in the UK, but prefer the simplicity and neatness of the OAG which is used remotely on my set up in Spain. With the Lodestar I have never had an issue with stars at all, and get none of the worries of differential flexure or an extra lens cell to keep free of dew. As you know, the Lodestar (I use X2) is very sensitive, and ideal for guiding. I would have thought with your TEC140 (very nice btw) at 980mm fl it would be a great combination, but of course not absolutely essential. Welcome to the forums, there's a wealth of help here and some great people.

Yes I use this combination and use it now in the direct connection method. I've done a few YouTube videos on them, one is here and you should then find the others. The wheel is 22mm nominal. I actually measured mine at 21.8. The back focus of 19.5mm is with the front plate on, and from memory I believe this is 7mm, which gives you 34.5 overall if using the direct connection. I believe these dimensions make provision for the cover glass. My advice would be to allow for some sort of shimming (delrin) to allow a little bit of fettling as you can get some tolerances, even in custom adaptors.