Barry-W-Fenner

Oh, I still need to tidy up a couple of pieces of the flocking! However I really want to get the scope working at the moment as my Nephew is keen to have a look. Regards

Morning all, So lets start with the good. I finished the flocking last night and reinstalled the mirror. had a collimation with the laser and everything seemed ok. Now the not so good. I still have the half circle / egg shape when defocused. All visual targets are very poor. Stars are barely visible and are blurry at best. I have attached a pic of Sirius defucused to show what shape it is showing. I have also attached a pic of the focuser position. I dont know if these pics are of any use. I assume the focuser is in some way blocking the light path but with limited experience in collomation I have no idea! Hopefully the pros on here can shed some light on this for me. Thanks in advance. Baz

I think I am with John on this one and leave it black, I really like the contrast in colour's between back and white. I now need to take Johns advice and get under the stars as much as possible 🙂

Hi Timebandit, Thats great advice. I have picked up Turn Left at Orion and it is full of useful information. I am hoping to find my way out to a dark site in the near future to really appreciate the night sky. The trouble is I wont want to observe from my garden after that 🙂 Baz

I managed to get out very briefly last night for about 30mins -New Dew Shield looks to be blocking out unwanted light nicely. I only had a glimpse at various stars and The stunning M45 but it was worth it. I am hoping to get some good viewing in tonight. Fingers crossed the sky stays clear today. A pic of my 8" Dob and huge 40" dob attached 🙂🙂🙂 baz

correct, It does in fact move the laser beam when tilted slightly. So I assume I will collimate when installed. Thank you

Great! I will check this out. Cheers

Thanks Again Alan, You truly are the collimation king 🙂 I am not sure what type of set up the primary cell uses to be honest. I would have to check. This is something to consider doing though Baz

Hi Alan, Thanks for the above, Very informative. Although I dont fully understand all of it 🙂 The cell did fit onto the tube perfectly before I modified the tube holes. However my collimator then showed the red dot well off center of the bullseye. This lead me to believe that the primary was out of line. After I made the holes larger in the tube I am now able to line up the red dot in the center of the bullseye, Doing this makes the cell sit roughly 1-2mm further back than it should and not butt up flush with the tube,However I assume this would now make the mirror correctly collimated? Reading the above am I right in saying the Primary mirror on this scope theoretically shouldn't need to be collimated as it should be lined up correctly from factory and conforms to a perfectly round sphere thus not requiring collimation? However in your experience it is better to center the mirror and collimate any way? I will collimate when i reassemble the scope tonight for peace of mind. It will be interesting to see if this resolves the issue of objects only defocusing to a half circle. However as other members have pointed out this might be down to something entirely different such as the light path being obstructed. Regards Baz

Cool, I will order the 25mm then for £3.75! Shame they are from Hong Kong and i will have to wait 2-3 weeks. I dont like waiting 🙂🙂

Excellent, I have had a look on Ebay and can get 3no Either 20mm or 25mm for about £4 - as you had to cut the 25mm do you think I would be better off with the 20mm Thanks Maurice!

I will have a look at the proposed focusers also! :-)

Hi Maurice Thanks for the advice with the collimating screws. I will certainly check these out! I assume the M5 X 25 for the mirror adjustment? What did you use for the locking knobs? Regards Baz

Hi all, My Astrocap Dew Shield arrived today which I mainly wanted to block out stray light from security lights on and off. I am very pleased with it and it should shield the scope nicely. I ordered the "7" & 8" mak / SCT / CPC" model and it fits very nicely around the 200p Current modification's to the scope are as follow:- Fully flocked Right angle finderscope rigel quick finder secondary mirror collimating knobs. Ikea white sofa legs which has raised the scope around an additional 2 - 3" in height. Modifications I would like to make in the near future as follow:- Moonlite focuser (The most painful cost 🙂 ) primary mirror collimating knobs Wixey for altitude 18mm BST Eye piece to complete my initial set - Before one day moving up to more refined eye pieces... Solar film for the lens cover. I would be interested to hear any feedback regarding the items i would like to purchase next from members with experience with them. Also any new suggestions to make the observing experience more enjoyable would be appreciated. Pic of current set up attached. Regards Baz

To the best of my limited knowledge it looked ok. It wasn't extending into the path of the secondary mirror, Assuming that is what I was looking for. To be honest only one of the mirror holes was what seemed to be keeping the mirror from lining up in the center of my collimator. I made them all slightly bigger for a bit of extra adjustment but hopefully tonight I should be able to get the scope put back together and collimated properly! I will keep you all posted. Thanks everyone for your contributions and help, Alan64's plonker proof guide with pics has been a great help! 🙂 Baz

Thank you Geoff, I will check it out! Regards

Thanks John! I had no idea what the removable cap was for! It was on my list of things to find out. Where did you get the baadar film from? I would like to do this modification. Appreciate your advice. Baz

Thank you Mick, To be fair you might have a fight on your hands, My 6yr old Nephew has his eye on my BST collecting. I think he only likes them because of the different colour's they come in though 🙂 Regards Baz

My favorite one at the moment seems to be getting set up, Spend 10mins getting my eyes adjusted ready to start viewing, Clouds roll in, Wait 10 -15mins and they dont pass. Pack everything away, Look out the window 20 mins later and its crystal clear again 🙂

Oh I forgot to mention. I did try to change the orientation of the mirror before surgery. However due to the seam in the tube the mirror only installed in one position. Regards

Just a quick update, I managed to gently bore the 3 holes out slightly last night. This has given enough adjustment to line the primary up properly. Before putting the mirror back on I went through my box of astro bits and had some spare flocking from when I lined my 200p. I spent some time lining the tube. Admittedly its not the best job as I was using random off cuts I have left over but I have had done approximately 90% - The tube is much darker now and I am hoping this will help improve the contrast. It all helps i guess! I will put the mirror back tonight and re-align Thanks all. Baz

Hi DaveL59 Thanks for the suggestion, I will certainly check this tonight also, I hadn't thought of that so that could be the potential cause. Baz

Very true! I am often left frustrated with this hobby, However when you do have an observing night where everything goes right it certainly outweighs the frustration 🙂

Morning all, Thanks for the advice gents, It is very useful! I picked the scope up this morning so will have a play tonight. As advised I will remove the mirror and check the orientation 1st. Hopefully this and maybe a bit of shimming will get the mirror inline. In the event that I need to increase the hole sizes I will use the above guide. (Cheers Alan64) So far viewing the moon has improved greatly by adjusting the secondary mirror. However stars only produce about 2/3 of a full circle when I unfocuse them. I look forward to getting the scope collimated and showing my nephew some great objects. Again, Thanks all for your input, I will be telling my Nephew how a great bunch of observers from all over have helped me sort out the problem 🙂I will let you know the results asap! Baz

Hi all, I am looking for some opinions. I managed to get an hour of observing in last night, The sky here had some intermittent cloud but between this it was generally clear. I noted that the sky was surprisingly dark considering the moon was close to full, However the stars were no where near as bright as usual, Even prominent stars such as Vega had lost its sparkle. Objects in my higher powered 8mm BST were kind of blurry and in meduim/lower power such as my 15mm objects were still not particularly clear either. Am I correct in saying the result of this was down to seeing conditions? If that is the case what do you tend to do in this situation? just view what you can in very low power eye pieces? Or just call it a day! I am interested to know as sometimes we can only work with the hand we have been dealt! 🙂 Cheers Baz