Miguel1983

with the exterior work behind me i'm thinking on the next step. I've made a sketch of the telescope room with pier and i'm wondering what the right hight would be suggestions are very welcome Note that i have i pier that can extend 50cm also the hight off the walls is 2,1 meter in the telescope room (raised floor). For the sketch i took measurements of the pier + raising column + EQ6R-pro + SW ED80 (180cm) As it is on the sketch, the telescope would be 30 cm above the walls in the 0-position with the pier fully extended. The pier is in the center of the room and the roof opening is 2,5/2,5 meter.

I'm very pleased with the Skymax 127, it's lightweight, short and well made, the ideal grab and go scope in my book. Of course it needs some time to cool down to ambient, but that should be an issue. You always reed about how a Mak is best used for planetary observing, but in my experience it does a great job on the brighter DSO's, certainly most Messier objects are no problem. As astrophotography goes, i've only used it for Lunar work, i wouldn't know if putting a 0,5 reducer on it would be pushing it too far.

Interesting stuff here, i've had my eye on the SW and ES Mak Newton scopes for a while now, but there aren't that many around you can read about. At least on paper these scopes look like they offer the best of two worlds. Choices choices, there so many great scopes out there

Fruitful day today, finished all the cladding, quite happy with the results Led strip fits beautifully also last week my wife applied some liquid rubber as a moist barrier With the cladding done i can focus on the interior of the observatory.

Hi, not exactly what you asked, but i use the Dark Sky Meter app on my Iphone, the results are quite accurate, comparing with SQM meter. As i recall it was only a few €.

Love it ! Nice work Steve

Swoop1, what about this This is how i do it, the difference with the 1,25" nosepiece is minimal. Is it also a Mak you're using ?

Yes, 2”. I have no issues with focus, the nosepiece is mounted straight in the visual back of the Maksutov.

I have the filter mounted on the 2” nosepiece witch is mounted on the T-ring adaptor attached to the camera.

Hi, since i started wordk on my observatory there hasn't been much time for AP, but since lunar photography is done in minutes i had a go yesterday. Gear: SW AZGTI with the Skymax127 and Sony A6300 and Baader Neodymium Moon & skyglow filter. 100 frames taken and 50% used to stack in autostackerd.

Finished the cladding to the right side and started on the carport ceiling

LOL that’s in the background some 100m further

Yesterday i started with the cladding on the garden side of the cargardenshedobsy (new word) also the electrician placed all the wiring that need to be in the walls or ceiling Didn't get very far yesterday, the electrician took up some of my time and had quite some work working in the door and window, but that's done now so i can get a move on next time.

i guess one really has to live in the dessert to get perfect conditions

This design is a proven one and, i think, works very well for dedicated observatory structures that are limited in size. In my case however the all in one concept (carport - garden storage - bicycle storage and observatory) of my project really makes the structure to big for this kind of roll off system. So i was left with the option of a flat roll of section, also a plus, standing in the garden you almost can't see the roll off, so very discrete. At first my idea was to have the telescope, when in the parked horizontal position, as close to the roll off roof as possible, so when in use it would raise above the roof. This would work fine i guess, but it still would rule out the objects witch are lower in the sky, also a fixed position that close to the roof would mean that i might be limited in future telescope or mount upgrades. So i ended up looking at a lifting pier, with the 50cm travel, i hope few limitations are left over. *edit* Gina, loving your location, what number on the Bortle scale is that, i'm at 5 sadly.