Stu

Nice case Paul. At first glance I thought you had done my normal trick which is to cut part of myself off and bleed all over my handiwork [emoji6][emoji12]

Glad you enjoyed it Paul. I think the beauty of the system is that it is there if you need/want it, but you can just revert to star hopping for those targets you are familiar with. With a dimmed screen and Rubylith cover it was not affecting my vision any more than a red light torch. Another benefit is that I need to put my glasses on to look at the Rigel finder and take them off to observe. I don't need to do that with the nexus. Anyway, back to Alan's lovely scope and apologies for the diversion.

Forget the Argo Navis Alan, just get a Nexus wifi unit connected to the encoders and then you can connect your phone to it wirelessly and away you go. It really is the business I cannot recommend it highly enough. As a dob virgin, I was finding stuff faster than the master star hopper Mr Moonshane which is saying something. Agree about the mirror Alan, I guess that's a possible upgrade in future. I don't think I would go bigger but a better figured/smoother mirror might well be appealing. Not for a while though!!

Fabulous report Alan, sounds like a really wonderful scope. The John Nicholl mirror sounds the business too! After just having had four nights with my scope under decent skies, I have a flavour of what you have coming, and it's a treat I can tell you!! In terms of finding things, did you get the encoders fitted to yours? I can honestly say that the push to with encoders linking to an iPhone (dimmed and with red film applied) are incredible. I was able to trawl around the Virgo cluster and down the Markarian chain of galaxies and identify each one as I went. Mag 14.2 was my best effort and there is more to come. Plenty more for you I'm sure!! Have a look for the Crescent nebula too when it rises a bit earlier, stunning sight visually! I'm sure you have many happy nights ahead of you. As a junior cadet member of the Dob Mob, may I welcome you as possibly the first international member [emoji6]

Nice sketch, just like the plough but with 1 star moved. I'm pretty sure I looked at 188 last night in the dob. Nice little cluster.

Sorry to hear that Damian. Deep breaths and hang in there!! Perhaps a beer or two and back to it fresh tomorrow?

Amazing perseverance Damian. I'm sure I would have got disillusioned by now, all credit to you.

Looks brilliant now Damian, a proper mirror! A question. I get that you have ground it to a target Sagitta, but how do you check the curve/figure itself as you are going on? Does this just naturally follow given the tools you were using or did you test as you went along?

Ah yes, I've got my top ring removed at the moment so was just measuring the actual tube internal diameter. I forgot there was such a lip on the ring.

My 300mm is 323mm diameter at the top of the tube so a little more generous than yours John

Crikey, I didn't expect to generate this level of debate! [emoji6][emoji6] Thanks all for the input, I have a far greater understanding of it now. Jason, a question. If offsetting is a relatively simple process, and assuming your secondary mirror covers the holder still, is there any reason not to do it?

Thanks Shane, I get it now! Was reading the diagram incorrectly Cheers Stu

Thanks Shane :-)

Thanks all. Where is the offset measured from then? I can calculate the value but don't know what to do with it! :-)

Hmmmmm, must be being a bit daft, I need to get my head around that in the morning! Cheers Shane

Thanks Shane, just the sort of stuff you get from a DIY store? Offset?? Can you explain? Cheers!

Quick question, I have a recoated secondary coming back to me shortly, what is best to use for fixing it onto the secondary support? It seemed to be held with some form of silicon I guess? Any particular type I should get? Cheers, Stu

Amazing stuff Damian, a crazy amount of work already! Looking forward to the next instalment [emoji3] Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I look forward to it! Is the mirror going in a Mapstar special custom truss Dob?

Great stuff Damian. It will be a real labour of love once finished, something to be proud of.

It's not too shabby that, lad [emoji6][emoji12]

All sorted, thanks Steve :-)