Les Ewan

Eyepieces are largely a matter of taste ,personally I dont like high power eyepieces I prefer mid power eyepieces and use them with a good quality X2 barlow. If I didnt already have a eyepiece collection I'd go for a Skywatcher achromatic X 2 Balow  and 2 middle price range  Skywatcher 20mm and 10mm plossls. This will give powers between 35X-150X,excluding the supplied 25mm MA that gives 30X. 

Thats my just my opinion others might think I'm talking balony but I'm not overly keen on going over 1X per mm even though  its half that usually quoted for the maximum in good seeing conditions.

I would say yes. Even fully assembled it can be carried about the garden without much difficulty which for its sturdyness and its solid build quality of the tripod and mount its surprisingly portable.

The goto and tracking is very accurate although I struggled with the WIFI and found this aspect of it very frustrating. It has a Synscan hand controller port and as soon as I started using a hand controller (luckily I had a spare) all my troubles melted away.

The the main drawback is its short focal length (f5) so high power eyepieces are needed to be used for the planets. A bit annoying is the focuser is a bit stiff and need to use both wheels at once for precise focusing.

I use a DSLR for astrophotography and found theres not enough in focus for a DSLR however with a X2 Barlow focus is possible and even with the doubling the fl to f10 it gives  a remarkably wide field of view for DSLR imaging (as seen with the image I've included of the full Moon).

Point to note the OTA has no primary collimation adjusters and when I got mine the alignment was out,however the secondary adjusters seem to do the job by themselves OK.

So for the price I would say its worth it ,its great fun to use so that says a lot.😎

If you want to keep things simple and not in the mood for technology at low powers and with the large widefield view you dont even need to use the drive. The large altitude clutch wheel is a pleasure to use ,however the azimuth motion manually is a bit on the stiff side.

I've not used mine for solar but with a full aperture filter I cant see why it shouldnt give good results.

Hope this is helpfull.

I had a 6" mirror like that, a bird obviously managed to get into my shed use the OTA as a toilet and left.😩I washed it off as best I could and though this happened back in the 80's the mark is still faintly visible. The mirror has not been in a telescope since the early 90's but still have it.

I saw a Youtube video of a guy in the USA cleaning a 20" mirror after it waspooped on ,he was a bit nervous of the end result but it turned out OK.

Interesting project but the main problem I should think is getting a suitable focuser to fit. Be careful that you dont alter the finder so much that any modification is not reversable.

We've all been there (albeit mostly in our early days) we mess with equipment for some project or other that falls through rendering the piece useless.

Case in point I recently reserected my Tal 2 after over 20 years to discover a small hole drilled through  the finder support bracket and several small holes in the main tube as well and for the life of me I cant remember doing it or why!🤪

In my case its nothing serious and easily repairable if I ever want to.

I assume this tangled mass of Sunspots and umbrae gave us last nights display although I always believed groups had to be near the centre of the disc to cause a great auroral display on Earth.(But what do I know)!

Taken with a Nikon 3200 attached to a Skywatcher 76mm f9 Astrolux and 21mm Celestron Duo Ultima Plossl and full aperture Baadar filter.1/2000th sec exposure. I  used 400ISO (by accident)!🤡

A coincidence I found slightly amusing is that a auroral corona formed close to Corona Borealis! Arcturus is the bright star and Corona Borealis can just be made out to the left.

This event apeared to be right over my region. Things kicked off as soon as it got dark enough to observe starting with a slowly shimmering band of greyish light in the east this soon extended to the south-west and developed colour. It soon broadend out to cover most of the sky and overhead. The first image was taken in the east the second shortly before midnight when a curtain of rayed light develop over the west.(The Pentland Hills in the distance).

The camera used was a Nikon 3200 400ISO exp 8".

19 minutes ago, John_D said:

I wondered how well the solar projection screen would work but never had the courage to try it 😁 I also have a second end cap with a hole in it presumably for a solar filter? ( Although it's probably not a common diameter size ☹️ )

Thanks again for all this. I'll print the relevant pages and try some tweaking.

My scope came with the off axis aperture cap but the UK supplier had removed the highly dangerous Suncap from the filter set,not that I would have used it anyway and would of thrown it away.

The manual has much in common with mine although the eyepiece selection is differant with the 15mm replaced by a 7mm.

The filter set fits externally by clicking them over the the ridges on the top of the eyepiece body. 

As for the use of the Solar screen I would only use it using the drive manual controls as balancing is a big issue and using the electric drive without the OTA properly balanced could damage the drive mechinism.

One odd feature of this Newtonian is its supplied with a Solar projection screen that attaches to the counerweight shaft. This screen is one of the few items that is made of plastic. 

A Newtonian that is designed to allow solar projection must be a rear beast and I had it up and running again yesterday.

I had forgotten just how potentially dangerous Solar projection can be-but great fun.😎

I even managed to image the projected image(after some tweaking with Faststone).

The spherical mirror give stellar images a slightly blobby appearance but resolution for doubles such a Epsilon 1 and 2 Lyrae are perfectly fine. From memory the primary give a somewhat soft view of the planets.

It is supplied with 3 eyepieces,achromatic X4 Barlow and a reticule.

The 15mm is a Kellner and the 25mm is Symmetrical. The 42mm is unknown.

The eyepieces barrels seem to be some Russian dimension and are slightly oversized and are too big fit into a normal 1.25" focuser.

Here it is being set up after 20 years.(I know criminal)!

My much neglected Tal 2 seems to sparked some  interest,so more about this tractor technology telescope

I bought it in 1994 mail order for around £630.

I came in 2 wooden boxes,when I moved the main box yesterday I had use a sack barrow!

Hope this helps John.

1 hour ago, John_D said:

Ah a scan of those pages would be useful, thanks. I have some information that came with it but not to that level of detail.

Yes, the motor on mine makes a loud ticking noise which just adds to the overall missile launcher vibe 😁

HI John

I couldent get the pages flat enough for my scanner but I'll shortly start a new thread on this board with jpeg images hopefully they will be clear enough to be usefull.

On 19/04/2024 at 20:22, JeremyS said:

Sorry Dizzy, it’s been a while but the night is yet young.

FC 100DZ

 

I love your dome. I'm as green as your grass!

45 minutes ago, John_D said:

@Les Ewan Nice, looks exactly like mine 😁 The paint inside the OTA in mine has held up fine, the outside not so much.

The drive on mine has been making funny noises since I bought it second hand last year and was only working intermittently last time out. Hopefully it's just a readjustment and a re-lube rather that a complete strip down.

Did you get the manual with the scope? Pages 14-16 it goes into how to adjust the clutch and backlash on the drive. If you wish I'll scan the pages and put them on here but be aware the Russian translation is not good! If you remove the main cover it allows access to the three adjustment screws on the main drive wheel.  In the 10 years I used the scope I've never had to do anything with the motor so cant tell you more.

Incidentely the motor is not the most restful in the world and is on the noisy side even when running properly!

Finally got my old 1990's TAL 2M 150mm f8 Newt out of storage after 20 years packed away in its wooden boxes. I had to clean the eyepieces after the sponge linings in the eyepiece compartment degraded into the lenses. Luckily this was easily done with warm soapy water. The aluminium OTA has also degraded in places causing the paint to peel both inside and outside of the tube.

The mirrors are in better condition than I thought they would be and the drive worked right away. I put it though its paces earlier this evening and the 6" spherical mirror did well considering its was filthy needing collimated and the inside of the tube is full of cobwebs!

Had lovely views of Castor,Algieba and even split  Izar easily, which is not bad considering the state of the scope at the moment.

Just a mere 27 hours after the total eclipse the new Moon has already made its appearance.

Taken at 21:10 BST with a undriven Nikon 3200 and a telephoto lens set a 650mm fl. 1/20th sec exp at 3200ISO

Only just got this image of Pons Brooks and Hamal which was a memorable sight with 7X50 binoculars. Clouds were encrouching and the comet was lowering towards the roof of the house but manged this image using a 150mm f5 Newtonian on a driven Skywatcher Star discovery altaz mount.

The camera was a Nikon 3200DSLR attached to a Duo Ultima Celestron Plossl. 5 sec exposure at 3200ISO

Yes here in Midlothian Antares is visible but it skirts the horizon by a mere 7 degrees. Fomalhaut is the real challenge but I often see this autumn visiter low down at a maximum of 4 degrees at best.

I'm at its northern limit as Fomalhaut never rises north of Lewick.

I've been trying for decades with reflectors of 6" to 16" and its always eluded me. Here in Central Scotland the maximum altitude of Sirius is only 17 degrees.

Theres a lady Youtuber in California at  lat 37N who sees it frequently with a 80mm short focus refractor ,so as your latitude gets less the chances of seeing the pup increases.

As soon as WIFI is mentioned I get cold sweats!

I have a Skywatcher Star Discovery mount which has built in WIFI which I've tried to use on my phone and tablet and had nothing but trouble with it.

After getting everything set up and I think I'm ready to go it goes haywire not going where its supposed to not tracking properly and repeatedly and constantly having to re star align.

I had a spare (good old) Synscan hand controller and as soon as I started using that instead all my frustrations melted away.😎

Well I finally gave up on the Astrolux finder. It is usable optically once the aperture stop is removed( I really dont know why Skywatcher fitted the stop in the first place as the finder works much better without it).

However it is so infuriating to adjust and never stays in alignment between uses even with the mods I done previously.

Luckily I had a spare 6X30 finder and bracket kicking about. The stud holes in the tube match the bracket exactly so there was no drilling to be done,(wow something going right for a change)!

I got this scope primerly for solar work and its much easier for this task than a refractor. I took this image of a Sunspot group near the limb yesterday using a Nikon DSLR attached to a Celestron Duel Ultima 21mm plossl.

A very simple setup at work this morning. A Astrolux 76mm f9.2 and Nikon DSLR after doing some sunspot imaging duty this morning.