Craig a

Well thank you first light optics for a speedy delivery, what a nice surprise when I got in from work! Was expecting 20 working days delivery time but look what’s arrived after 4 working days

😂 no worry’s you had me in a panic for a while till to got in from work! 130pds is now sitting on the neq6, re balanced and just ordered a shorter usb3 cable for the camera when it arrives, the two meter one that it comes with is abit too long for for my needs, took my fishing scales out and weighed the 130 with its guidescope and rings, 13lbs on the dot without the camera, also out of curiosity weighed the 10 inch f4 and that’s over 30lbs without a guidescope or anything else! What a difference I was able to take a counter weight off the bar also, a hell of a lot more manageable this setup

On looking at flo at the moonlite for newtonians it’s the 35mm travel that’s the one I’ve got, there’s only two 50mm travel(standard) and 35mm travel, I’ve got the 35mm travel, when you asked for the tube length I gave you the measurement of the length of the whole tube from the camera end to the telescope side

Surely I could cut the tube down to length?i will test it tonight on a object I can see approx 20 miles away from our window, the travel distance of the tube is 35mm if that’s what you meant?

Tube length is 80mm approx

That’s a nice looking setup you have there very nice indeed

Looking good, I carnt wait to get my hands on this camera, to see the difference between my old 1100d and the 533 will be like going from writing on slate straight to a computer and keyboard 😀, did you use a uv/ir filter with this camera?

Looks nice and flat from where I’m sitting looks like a really nice bit of kit 👍

Ok this is what I now have through the Cheshire, I found my problem and it was the mounting plate on the moonlite focuser having abit of play in the holes on the tube so I squared the focuser to the mark opposite with the plate loose then tightened down the plate, hey presto the secondary was centred when I put it back in with no adjustment needed on the focuser itself

I taken it apart and re checked everything ended up exactly the same, high in the focuser, the only thing I can think of is the secondary mirror itself isn’t on the holder square, looking at it it’s only stuck on with A double sided sticky foam rectangle, being one of skywatchers cheapest telescopes it was never going to be an engineering masterpiece was it 😂, I decided to just adjust the focuser to get the secondary centred I didn’t want to adjust the spider taking it off center inside the tube, will only know what the outcome is on the next clear night On a test image.

I think what I’m going to do is start over again something just doesn’t seem right, I’m wondering if my Cheshire or my collimating cap is faulty as when I use the collimating cap it says different to the Cheshire, 🤔

Thanks for that but if you look at the third circle out from the center you can see it’s slightly high do you not think?

I measured where the centre directly opposite the focuser is on the tube then inserted a Cheshire with the crosshairs and adjusted the focuser to get the crosshairs on that mark meaning the focuser is pointing at the same central point opposite

Yes the moonlight has tilt adjustment, I just thought that would defeat the object of getting it square to the tube by marking the opposite center point on the tube , as I’m going to be imaging with it would a tilted focuser just make the sensor tilted with it?

Thank for replying, I’m not looking at any reflections I’m looking at the actual secondary mirror itself being up towards the the top of the focuser even though it’s centred in the tube

I’ve just received a new 130pds and have fitted my moonlite focuser to it, to do that I removed the spider from the tube. While I was at it I measured and marked the center point opposite the focuser hole, and then adjusted the moonlite focuser to point at that mark.when I put the spider back in I centred the secondary by measuring all the spider veins, now when I looked through the Cheshire it’s showing that it’s centred i.e towards/away from the primary but in the towards top/bottom of focuser is saying it’s high in the focuser, so do I adjust the focuser to center the secondary or do I move the secondary moving the spider veins putting the secondary off center in the tube? But adjusting the focuser will make it point away from the mark I put in opposite?

Well I’ve got the 130pds here with me now I’ve been tinkering with it already, I’ve painted the inside of tube with Stuart sample black 2.0 paint, it’s totally Matt black the flattest blackest paint ive ever seen also done around the secondary and any shiny nuts and bolts in there, my moonlite mounting kit has also arrive from flo cudos to them they are fast at delivering, so the 130pds has a moonlite dual speed focuser on it now, just waiting on a losmandy plate from Altair Astro to fix the tube rings too, I don’t like the stock vixen bar it came with, next job is collimation

Totally makes sense Adam, to be honest I’m looking forward to using that little 130pds my 10inch f4 scope is big and heavy and the slightest gust of wind the sub is ruined, collimation is dark art at f4 also I can spend hours and hours on it and still not be happy, I already have a skywatcher coma corrector for the pds as my first scope was the 200p that corrector also acts as a 0.9x reducer helping to raise that arc sec pp abit more again, I’ve also read thorough that huge thread on here about imaging with the 130pds and have to say there’s some spectacular images in that thread particularly uranium’s images he’s got the 130 down to a t!

That’s a lovely image btw, do you consistently get good guiding with that ratio?

I do already have the skywatcher 50mm evoguide I just thought the fl on that with the pixel size on the starshoot would be a mis match? 4.43pp with that 50mm guidescope and guide cam 1.19pp with 130pds and 533

Exiting times ahead!!!!!

Well I’ve pressed the buy button on the 533 I’ve also got the 130pds and the moonlite installation kit for it so I can take my moolite focuser off my big new and fit it to the 130pds, first light optics saying 15-20 days delivery time on the cam 😀

So if I got the 130pds with the 533, would my st80 and starshoot autoguider successfully guide it? The 533 and 130pds gives 1.19pp and the st80 and starshoot gives 2.68 pp? I don’t want to go down the OAG route

Also the weight loss by getting the 130 will be huge and won’t act like a sail as much as the big Newtonian, so will be easier on the mount to guide