DaveL59

OMG so there really IS a man IN the moon 😮

hmm that bottom one is a lot further out than the one on mine, which is how it came when I picked it up used. Not had the DEC apart to say if there's any adjustment etc but from the position of the black lever at the top compared to my pic I'd say you're pretty much at the end of travel so would need to wind it the other way to get any slo-mo in use. Probably worth making sure the shaft is sat inside that "bolt" and screw it back in till it's just tight on the shaft then back it off 1/4 turn and verify the control works smoothly.

Nicely done there, sometimes it's worth cracking something open and having a try, kinda how I've learned much of what I have done so far tho that was on much lower cost items like old binos. Know what you mean about taking the risk though, a plastic bowl in the sink might've been a good idea but I see you thought of impacts with the microfibre cloth just in case Fingers crossed you get good viewing and maybe it's a keeper after all!

so did I

can you confirm if the cable you moved to RA works fully and the RA one onto the DEC still has limited turn? The cable is just that, so unless it's not crimped properly and is just rotating in the collet there's no difference to which spindle you fit it to. Mine have lock screws to clamp them onto the spindle. You should note too that the DEC axis has a limit to the amount it will rotate where RA you can just keep on turning. You might be at the mechanical limit of the DEC and need to unwind it back to the centre, then release the locking clutch, reposition the OTA and lock, then go again from there. This pic of my SW EQ2 may help illustrate what I'm saying.

welcome aboard As per above really, staying warm is key or sessions get uncomfortable and really test your enthusiasm. Also worth looking at what apps are useful for your phone/tablet, to assist aligning the mount and determining whats up in the sky to go search for. Stellarium, SkyView, polar aligner pro as examples. Funny though, I always figured the most important essential was an understanding and flexible bank manager...

thought I'd check in on the smoking cupboard. oops curing cupboard AKA airing cupboard. Looks like the bits are setting nicely to a smooth hard white. Even the baked bits that I turned biscuit coloured are looking good after they'd been given a spritz of fresh white to retrieve my mistake The newly painted OTA at the top as too tall for the lower shelf, plenty room for the ALT-AZ bits once they're ready to move to curing tomorrow. One more coat on those parts and I think will take a break from all of this till Monday, need a break from sniffing paint I think

I guess the lens would depend on the sensor size as they're built around creating an image circle of a specific size, say for a 1/2.7-inch sensor. If you get a lens for a larger sensor then you'll have cropped the edges, much as mine does here That one's a IMX290/291 sensor based CCTV module and if I recall a 2.1mm F2 lens giving around 160-170 degree wide view. The other camera is a newer IMX with a CS lens at 2.5mm F2 IIRC which gives around 150 degree wide hence its tilted to give a lower view to the SE as that's at least going to catch the sparkly things as they track across the sky 😉 chip. I've an el cheapo sky camera thread with the details on what I did somewhere in the DIY section. Both crop as you can see, a potential downside of HD oriented sensor format and finding a lens to give a small enough image circle to fit to it. I'm sure there's better lenses but given the limitations of the CCTV modules (no long exposure so limited night sky view) I've not pursued further. Probably will again if I get to the point of a better camera for this purpose... one day. Hopefully Gina may be able to advise better as she's got a real nice sky rig, but essentially you want a short FL lens pref low F rating to get best speed, but then cost spirals too. Something like a 1.8mm F1.8 would give a real wide view but be larger and pricey for example.

so midday I retrieved the OTA from the shed, paint hard but a few pin-points raised on the surface here and there. Not orange peel but overall a nice smooth glossy finish, I can live with that. Can always give it a light run down and throw a layer over it later if it does bother me. Either way it looks 100x better than the paint scarred OTA I started with, so its now in the airing cupboard with the other bits to fully cure off Onwards then, sand down the head casings and then degrease wipe and mask. But first now its sunny, see if I can figure that black thread insert. Given the excellent engineering that went into making these I was figuring perhaps a 3mm grub screw down that threaded hole and the insert screws in and is locked in place. Nope Must be a way but I sure can't see it, the hole is rough at the bottom and stops short of the black insert, solder? Oh well, on with plan-A then. So anyways, got it all sanded and masked, didn't take it back to bare metal so will see how that turns out lol. Yep that's duct tape as well as masking tape, bad man! but heck it sticks well where I need it to unlike the masking tape. Any residual glue won't affect as it'll not be on the bearing faces but will get cleaned off first anyways 😛 So into the shed to spray first coat then.... and as I was about to hit the spray button... OOPS! I'd forgot to mask that black insert, quickly fixed tho under that kitchen paper is a small lazy susan by the way. Dead handy to be able to rotate the part to get round all sides and not have to touch wet paint. After this then its just the OTA carrier and rings and then the focuser which will need the lens and mirror cleaned as well as paint freshening up. Getting there, assuming I can remember how to put it all back together in a week or so

Sounds like space isn't a problem and a nice sized roof terrace too which will hopefully get you some good views. Maintenance-wise, yes, a refractor should arrive collimated and need no fiddling other than the occasional clean of the objective lens. Reflectors do need the mirrors aligning from time to time and can be a struggle the first couple times, but once mastered isn't so hard and it'll just be minor tweaks mostly, though travelling with one could mean it'll need a tweak after setting up. The MAK that John listed might be a nice compromise though, compact to store, use and travel with and sharp views and they're often cited as being planet killers compared to other scopes if I've read others comments right. One day I may well have to get one, though I've rather too many as it is lol Once you decide on a short-list ping it here and I'm sure you'll get more advice to help with the decision, we love to spend someone else's money

could you give details on what scope it is for?

Ok so hopefully nice dark skies but a bit restricted on the home use in terms of the patio. Is it a door onto the terrace or a step out a window? If going for a dob and wanting portability then a flextube type might be worth a look, should give nice views and collapse to a smaller size for travelling. https://www.firstlightoptics.com/beginner-telescopes/skywatcher-heritage-130p-flextube.html tho you'd maybe need to sit on the ground beside it? Can't say as I've never seen one in the flesh tho Kat can advise as she has one in her signature. I'd not go lower than this diameter mirror though, but beyond this things get bigger and heavier. Refractors/MAK's on a tripod and you're standing/stooping but a good one will cost quite a bit more than the above and then travelling you have the tripod, mount, counterweight and the scope to carry as well as the eyepieces. The one you linked looks good and on a reasonable tripod too, you realise though that the scope itself is 900mm long? Might be a consideration for travelling, but for visual use should give nice views.

I think a good starting question is, what are your circumstances in terms of being able to store and use the telescope. Do you need something reasonably compact and portable (stairs etc) for example. A dob is oft recommended as the bulk of the price is on the optical side where a tripod setup at least half of the cost will be on that and the rest on the optics which could be less good and often the mount is only just capable too come to that. Second hand is a good option as you'll get a better scope than if buying new, just be careful and ask lots of questions, there's a lot of helpful folk on this forum to advise.

ha me and my big mouth! Just set up, grabbed a couple shots of the moon and bam, total cloud-out such is life, hope your skies are better than mine!

so having said elsewhere it was nice and clear and the moon was looking lovely again, thought I'd see if I could do a little better. Set the monopod up in tripod mode, camera on the ball-grip and took aim. Remembered to reset the ISO to 400 this time as the previous shots were at ASA100, oops. This time round I tried to get a bit better focus, switching that to manual. Not easy when the live-view screen is small and only zooms a little. Might have to play with a video capture USB dongle and hook the AV out up to a lappy to see if that's workable one day, tho the ones I currently have are powered which is a bit limiting for this. So managed a couple shots then that nice clear sky filled with cloud and ended the session very quickly, always the way! 1/160th sec 1/200th sec 1/250th sec All in all, pretty pleased with that tho

cleared up a bit here too, moon looking lovely so may have another play with the bridge camera in a bit. A bit heady tho after sniffing paint this past few days

sounds like the right call Mark, if the optics were good then some fettling on the rest might be worth it, but unfortunately if the glass is shot you're pretty much done unless you're real lucky and manage to source a replacement. Not so easy on vintage gear for sure. Hope you luck in on another and it turns out to be a winner

fingers crossed for you on that Roger, here it's clouded over again and was raining a short time ago. Getting focus is the tricky part and for that I have to open the domes and tweak the lens too. Bit of a pain but pretty much once set you can re-seal and forget Seems easier that trying to rig a means to adjust by motor depending on what you're after.

meantime, the OTA's had around 6 or 7 coats during today so it can now sit suspended to start to cure before being moved into the airing cupboard tomorrow to finish curing. That old spare length of plastic pipe that its suspending on has been very useful so far, made rotating the tubes very easy by just turning the pipe as I worked, tho I can't say my fingers didn't get some overspray as I'm sure has my hair Thinks I got a reasonable flat finish too, he says tempting fate. Will know tomorrow when its ready to be handled I guess...

And there we have it, the ALT-AZ body stripped and ready for degrease, prep and paint I'll strip the black OTA carrier later as I'm working through the white smooth paint parts at this stage. I've not figured out how to remove that black collar you can see, its the screw threading insert for the slo-mo control and doesn't seem to have any simple means to remove it, so I plan to leave it there and mask it off at this point. Time for a coffee I think and some biccies too!

Now we have the ALT plate removed revealing the 2 hidden screws that still hold the base panel on. and the slo-mo parts in a box for safe-keeping So off with the base plate then and... there's the AZ controls and counterweight counterweight removed - simply unscrew the knob in the middle of the top plate Just as the ALT control we remove the circlips and spring and unscrew the knobs. The set-screw indicated locks the bearing collar, unfortunately it's not wanting to move so the swivel may need to remain in-situ while the unit is sanded and painted, not ideal. May try some heat later, being very careful of course as there's grease present on the bearing faces. On this one, after teasing out the retaining spring clip the arm wouldn't quite slide off, it needed a little persuading, gentle open the locking collar and it comes off easily

ok so a longer post with pics of disassembly in case its useful to someone else (me!) later. I didn't with the previous posts as those parts are all pretty simple and obvious being just a couple screws and you're done. So here goes... First up how to open up the L-shaped ALT-AZ unit so we can strip out the controls. Well there's the 4 screws underneath as per above pics but that ain't gonna do it, you'll see why in a few. The first step we need to do is to remove the OTA carrier which has a screw per corner. You need to undo the locking screw so the carrier rotates and then undo each screw as you rotate the carrier to bring them into view. Perhaps worth mentioning here for those unfamiliar with this baby scope, the short black knob is the Slo-Mo control, the longer one is the locking screw. It is NOT a lever and as noted in another article I'd read ages ago, yank on it like it is and you'll likely shear something off and render the controls useless unless you can machine up a suitable replacement. So with the ALT Slo-Mo controls now exposed we need to strip those down to be able to remove the swivel plate the OTA carrier attached to. As indicated in red, the locking screw on mine is missing a circlip to prevent accidental unscrewing which I'll find a replacement for later, in fact the Slo-mo screw is too in this case. So a fairly simple case then of remove circlips, unscrew the controls and remove, then remove the spring. Then you've the fun of removing the spring-clip that prevents the arm falling off. Proper pliers may help a lot here, but I used some fine-nose right-angle ones to tease it open and a screwdriver to lever it, then teased it up and off So now we remove the retaining ring that clamps this plate onto the plain bearing on which it rotates. Don't forget to undo the locking set-screw first tho! The ring with be screwed on fairly tight as this sets the loading on the bearing, too loose and the ALT axle will be wobbly

yep, just as I walked back from giving another coat a few drops then more. A few claps of thunder just now too brought kitty who was zzz in the conservatory running in for comfort bless him. Hopefully it'll be a brief shower as the wind does seem to be driving the clouds eastward. So time to start looking at the next component, the ALT-AZ head. An L-shaped unit with built-in counterweight and OTA carrier all-in-one. The tube rings have these plastic buttons to bear on the tube, allows it to be rotated but I think too they didn't help the paint, the scarring once started was just expanded by these I'd say. I did put a couple felt pads on for while I was using it to see how that worked and it did help so the plan will be to remove the plastic pegs and felt line them once the respray is finished. Underside shows where the pier knuckle goes, making it possible to use this setup as an EQ/wedge or ALT-AZ depending on preference. In its past life the knuckle bolt was loose so of course this meant the head body was hitting the pillar, damaging the paint quite a bit. No real damage other than the paint though, that old russian battleship build quality takes some beating

getting dark and threatening here Hope I can get all the trips to the shed to finish the OTA before it tips down or I expect it'll be wet feet for me again.

doesn't look very good at all, sadly, such a shame given how well regarded these scopes are