Pixies

New/old stuff has arrived: The RA output from the controller is dodgy, but I might replace with Arduino goodies. Also - old bent rusty on left, old straight clean on right:

Some goodies for the Vixen SP mount (fixer-upper):

Can you confirm that the secondary holder is able to be pulled right back on to the 'vane assembly' (not sure what this is actually called). If it really is as far as it can go, something is definitely wrong. Any pictures?

Try and find a low southerly view, it'll be the darkest part of the sky and you'll have the galactic-core part of the Milky Way, plus Sagittarius, Scorpio, etc. You might be able to bag some of the brighter Messier/DSOs especially with a wide-field view or binoculars. Mind you, I can't say how light the skies will be at that lattitude.

Nope- sorry To bring the secondary away from the primary, loosen the 3 adjusters and tighten the central screw. This will pull the secondary back towards the vane assembly. When you hit the adjusters, back them off a bit more and tighten the central screw again. Keep going until the secondary is under the focuser. However, from my understanding of @godra's first post, this is what he is doing, but the secondary hits a limit before it is correctly under the focuser. The spring is just to stop the secondary from flopping around when not being pulled against the adjusters. I would be suspicious that the adjusters aren't fully backed-out or the spring is misplaced and stopping the secondary from being fully pulled back.

I have a few - not exactly as wide a range - a 7mm (University Optics) and a 6mm (sorry Michael) and 4mm Circle-T orthos. When all else fails trying to split a tight double, these are the ones to do it.

OMG! That's horrendous! Who on earth wants to do something like that. If it is deliberate, I hope someone is caught.

Looking at an image of a Tal-1 secondary (from Astro-baby's strip-down guide): Assuming the Tal2 is similar, it would be interesting to see whether the secondary holder is a far up against the vane assembly as it can go, or whether something is stopping it. You have the 3 adjusters backed out so that they don't protrude out at all? The adjuster bolt hasn't been replaced in the past, with something longer, which is fouling inside the holder when you tighten it up? The spring isn't incorrectly installed, stiffened-up, etc.? I've never used a Tal in the flesh, so just guesses. I would suggest removing the whole vane/secondary assembly to investigate, if you are happy doing something like that.

I wouldn't worry about that too much. As it's only the secondary that can be adjusted - it's limited to what can be done. Just look to get the dot (eye hole) inside the doughnut marker on the primary.

Are you able to take a photo of the view? A smartphone camera is usually small enough to get a reasonable picture through the small Cheshire eye-hole.

Hi there. You are correct. The benefit, I guess, would be for someone using a wide-angle 2" EP to start, then swapping to this zoom without having to use another fitting. Originally I thought it might help with stability, but certainly in my equipment, the 1.25" fitting is fine. Also, if using the specifically-made barlow, then you have to use the 1.25" fitting.

I was using a Baader zoom to help locate and find a good magnification. Of course, all these need quite high magnification, so it was mainly a 8mm Vixen LVW and a 7mm University Optics ortho. I tried with 6mm and 4mm orthos, but the seeing wasn't good enough and contrast was poor too.

My Vixen 80M Custom cost me £40, and that included the mount. Split Epsilon Lyrae at around x80 the other day. I was using 1.25" eyepieces though and haven't tried with the original 0.96" fittings and eyepieces.

You need to see whether it affects your ability to adjust the secondary. I found that the secondary kept slipping back in to the same position whenever I tightened the bolt and I couldn't get it into a position I wanted Easy to fix though. Like John said, you need to insert a large steel washer. I'll find a link to my old post from last year.

Try Go Stargazing: https://gostargazing.co.uk/stargazing-event-organisers/

Yep - that's how I fixed it

Unless you over-tighten the secondary bolts and gouge grooves into the soft metal of the secondary holder that then prevent you from making any fine adjustments again 🙄

Had a try at some tonight in my Vixen 80 f11.3 STF 2741 (HR 8040) - split at x113 with a cool blue/grey secondary to North-East of primary STF 2751 (HR 8065) - notched at x113, secondary to North-West. Uncomfortable viewing position! STF 2583 (Pi Aquilae) - even at x130, elongated and notched occasionally. Secondary to West, primary trailing. Seeing was pretty average and the skies light. This long (for me) refractor is a new acquisition and I am still to work out how best to mount/position it. At times it was very uncomfortable looking towards the Zenith. I still have to work out a good height and seating arrangement, my drum stool doesn't go low enough and my Manfrotto is not tall enough without becoming too wobbly.

Used the dob tonight and found it! Blimey - that took a lot of peering at charts to compare the view and find it. It's pretty faint and hard to find with the light skies here. Waited to 1am to get the best view. I reckon it's the same brightness as HD 230191 - Mag 10.0

Had a look tonight in the Vixen 80. I'd say it's between H220819 (mag 6.6) and HD220057 (mag 6.9), nearer the former. So 6.7

It's looking like a very clear night here, tonight. I'll set the dob up for it, as I still haven't had a chance to see it yet. Looks like the nova in Cassiopeia is brightening again, too!

The Nova is Cas is getting jealous! All this attention to some fly-by-night upstart in Hercules who shows off for a day or so then burns out! "Over here - look at me!"

I've set that list into a Sky Safari observing list and I'll give them a shot over the next few weeks (hopefully)!

The Bresser has a ES-style finder mounting bracket, but you can swap it out quite easily for a Baader universal which will allow you to use the usual Sinta style ones. I have lots of black nuts and bolts which are the correct sizes to fix the bracket to the tube, so if you ever go down that route, give me a shout and I'll post some to you. The Bresser focuser is a big leap in quality over the standard Skywatcher and makes using a DSLR pretty simple, too. The AZ Pronto mount suffers with having the dovetail clamp on top, so the scope's centre of gravity causes it to fall back as you near the zenith. A mount like the AZ5 has it mounted on the side which allows you to find a good balance point and not have to worry about it tilting.

It's not the Maglite itself, it's the 4x D-cell batteries!