astro_al

Thank you @MalcolmM, the pictures are very helpful. I have a Mewlon 180 on order so very relevant (ETA between August and December 😞) I got a response from Vixen this morning and they confirm what @Franklin said. Adding the motors to the APZ drops the load capacity from 8KG to 6KG. As such I will be putting the manual controls back on the APZ as I need the 8KG limit for the Lunt. The FC-100DZ and binoviewers total about 5.2KG and have been fine on both the AP and APZ with the motors. I haven’t tried anything heavier and now that Vixen say 6KG with motors then I won’t. The AP is a nice tracking mount for the FC-100DZ, but in the end I prefer the alt-az format of the APZ. I have an AZ-EQ6 on a permanent pier in alt-az mode in the back garden and use that for a tracking mount. The APZ is my grab and go mount for the front garden. I was hoping to give it a little upgrade but never mind. Thanks everyone that provided input.

Agreed!

Yes, 8KG in its default configuration with the manual controls. My hope is that it is still 8KG when the manual controls are swapped for the motors.

I guess I was hoping that because the AP has a rating of 6kg with or without the motors that it was more to do with the mechanics. If it is 6kg then I will go back to the manual config and find a new home for the AP. I need 8KG for the Lunt and binoviewers.

I really like the APZ. I have had mine for about 3 years and it has been my most used mount. I recently bought an AP from Franklin which is also a great mount, however now that I have sold my FS-60Q I think it is borderline in terms of load for the FC-100DZ and binoviewers. I also typically don’t use EQ mounts as I like my binoviewers to stay level. As a test I added the motors and counterweight bar from the AP to the APZ and while it doesn’t automatically track I was able to set tracking at 0.8x and slewing at 0.6x and keep my thumb on up or down on the controller to keep Jupiter centered. Could be a decent solution for me. I also contacted Vixen to see if the APZ with motors is still rated at 8KG, but no response as of yet. Their brochure states the motors are an option for the APZ and there is no mention of it reducing the payload capability so I am hopeful it is the equatorial wedge that is the weaker point in the AP config. Either way they are both great mounts.

Also a Vixen half pillar came earlier in the week courtesy of @Franklin . Finishes the AP mount off nicely!

Pair of 14mm Starbase orthoscopics for my binoviewers. I have been enjoying the lunar views with my 15mm APM Ultraflats, FC-100DZ and 2.6x GPC and wanted to try a similar view but with less glass. They have a nice feel to them and the eye relief seems decent enough!

Great to meet you too @SuburbanMak! That set up looks very nice indeed. I bet that 30mm UFF will be good in the FS60Q 👍

This was my configuration when I had a Quark. Still pretty unwieldy with the binoviewers added though.

I have used the Baader Herschel wedge with a 6” refractor on multiple occasions. I do remember the same smell the first time but it seemed to dissipate. I have left the scope pointing at the sun for several hours at a time when imaging but for visual I moved the scope away from the sun when not observing as per the instruction manual. Overall I have had no issues using the wedge with a 6” aperture scope. From the manual: Maximum telescope size: We have used the Herschel prism succesfully with telescopes with 6 and 8 inch aper- ture. Because of the huge amount radiation, we recommend to point the telescope away from the sun when you do not observe - make a break every hour or so to give the equipment time to cool down. The limiting factor for the focal length is the 2" adaption. The image of the sun in the image plane is ca. 1cm per 1m focal length, so focal length should not be longer than ca. 4,5m. If you can project the sun with your telescope and a 2"- focusser, you can also use the Herschel prism.

Sounds familiar! Had me scratching my head for a while before I noticed the swarm of midges hovering above my garden.

It’s a well-used Takahashi FS-152

A bit breezy today so battling the seeing more than usual. 2022-04-24 10:42:23 UTC 152mm refractor @ F10.25 Baader CoolCeramic Wedge and Continuum filter (540nm) ASI178MM 0.3”/px

Very nice, on my wish list! I would try Rupert at www.astrograph.net as he is a UK reseller of Solar Spectrum kit. Regards Al

Short session on Saturday but had a brief spell of decent seeing. 2022-04-02 08:52:45 UTC 152mm refractor @ F10.25 Baader CoolCeramic Wedge and Continuum filter (540nm) ASI178MM 0.3”/px

Some rare Saturday sun! Shame the seeing wasn’t better, but still good to be imaging. Also managed some visual Ha in the afternoon

Glad someone is seeing the sun! Raining all day here.

Thanks Nigella. I guess I will have to go out at night and in the cold. I thought those days were behind me 😄

I really need to improve my tracking. Any tips please? Did you have to refine your polar alignment at night or is there a good way to improve accuracy during the day? When I switched the AZ-EQ6 from alt-az to equatorial mode I think I just used the polar scope one evening. Not having to frequently correct manually would be very nice. Thanks!

Thanks Pete. I guess I don’t think of myself as an imager just yet

Testing out my white light imaging setup now that my focuser adapter arrived from Starlight Instruments after a year wait. Seeing was not too bad Saturday, much worse Sunday. Need to increase my image scale a little. Currently at 0.4”/px. Setup worked well though. Nice to have the motorised focuser and the mini PC was easily up to the task of capturing data from the ASI178, although working at around 1024x768. Looking forward to getting out more as the weather improves.

Thanks Michael. I guess I was hoping that introducing the Barlow of GPC would push the focal point out far enough to offset the physical distance required to accommodate it. Sounds like that’s not going to happen unless I introduce the Barlow further down the light path. Thinking a bit harder about it, when I introduce the GPC to my binoviewers it is not taking any additional in-focus and has the length of the body of the binoviewers to get to the 2.6x. My concern with adding the GPC before the diagonal is that I am not sure if its housing it will clip the light cone and get very hot. I don’t really like the idea of anything going before the wedge so may just end up looking for a camera with smaller pixels in the longer term. Thanks again. Al

I had the first opportunity today since my Feathertouch adapter arrived to test out my white light imaging setup. I thought back focus would be an issue as I was adding a 2” focuser to the existing 4” focuser on the scope - and it was. The only way to reach focus was to screw the camera directly into the Baader wedge (pictured) which gave a few mm to play with. So success, and I took a few test captures. However, I don’t want to image at the native focal length of the scope as I am under sampling. Simple, I thought, I would add the Baader VIP Barlow element or the 2.6x glass path corrector used with my Baader binoviewers to increase image scale and push the focal plane out which would be required to accommodate the physical size of the bayonet, Barlow and spacer. However, no matter what spacing I used with the Barlow I could not reach focus. I tried spacers between the Barlow and camera that resulted in a magnification increase from about 1.2x to over 2x but each time I couldn’t reach focus. Racking focusers out made things worse so it seems like I need more in focus. I am clearly missing something or the same rules for accommodating binoviewers don’t apply here. Please can someone shed some light on what I am doing wrong? Thanks Al

I used a binoviewer with my Quark while I had it. I had no issues with backfocus with the Takahashi FC-76DC due to the Quark’s built in 4.2x Barlow - assuming you don’t have the combo model. I did replace the eyepiece holder with a T2 fitting so I could use a bayonet fitting though as that is what my binoviewers use. Saves some backfocus as well. At the time I had a pair of Zeiss binoviewers with a clear aperture of 25mm. I believe the clear aperture of the Quark is 21mm so I stuck with 25mm Televue plossls as these have a field stop of 21.2mm. Ideally I would have used longer focal length eyepieces to drop magnification and increase image brightness to offset the drop in brightness from using the binoviewer. Working with the 25mms at 95x was OK for many sessions but the exit pupil was a bit low for me. I think that is one of the challenges of visual work with a Quark. I now use Baader Maxbright II binoviewers which I find to be good. These are coupled with an F7 100mm Lunt scope but need a 1.5x glasspath corrector to accommodate the required backfocus. I can still get down to 42x with the 25mm plossls though but tend to mainly use 20mm or 15mm eyepieces which give about a 1.4 or 1.8 mm exit pupil which I like - compared to 0.8mm with the Quark.

I agree that Lunt kit is extremely expensive in the UK and you can’t buy direct from them if there is a reseller in your region - as far as I know. Worth noting though that if you have Lunt kit already and want to upgrade then Lunt do offer a ‘trade up’ program. You won’t get as much for your old kit as selling privately but being able to buy direct from the US makes up for that despite a weak Pound, VAT, Duty and high shipping costs. Shows just how expensive the kit is in the UK. Lunt are good to deal with and the ‘trade up’ program worked out for me.