badhex

Awesome, thanks! I'll give you a shout if this adaptor doesn't work out. Yes, rotation is not required for me as I'm only adding a low profile EP holder to the T2 end.

When I first started out in Astronomy I also had an EQ mount, and it took some time to get used to all the various steps needed to get set up. Sometimes early on, my alignment was so far out that my mount may as well have been and alt-az, I was having to adjust in both axes throughout! Like @Louis D said, as a visual observer I don't typically use EQ mounts or goto mounts these days because a manual alt-az is arguably the easiest to get set up for a quick session. However, practice does make perfect, so don't get too disheartened - you can and will learn how to get set up quickly and with enough accuracy with your EQ mount for a quick session - and you don't have to be completely spot on every time unless you're doing something really critical. In some ways, those quick sessions may actually help you since that's probably what you'll get the most of. Not sure what mount you have, but you mentioned not being sure how to point with the RA motor attached. Sounds like it might be a mount where you can disengage the motor altogether? My first mount was the same. If you're a bit unsure at the moment, start by learning how to move the mount around without the motor engaged, so you can get the feel for it. Much easier to make corrections just using your hands. It might be worth 'sacrificing' a night (maybe when conditions are not so perfect) to take your time getting everything setup correctly just so you feel more comfortable with what goes where, what does what - similar to what @apaulo suggested. Depending where you observe, you might also want to mark out where your tripod legs go for acceptable alignment with chalk if it's a patio for example. I also mark my dovetails with a small piece of tape so I know where the approx balance point is. All these small tricks can shave off a bit of time and help you to get set up more quickly. Overall, don't lose heart! With all this cloud and limited observing opportunities it may have felt like a blow, but it's just an early step on a long road - when you get Jupiter and other wonderful objects in the eyepiece it will all be worth it!

Got hundreds of amazing pictures of Saturn, its rings and moons today! 😂

Definitely! At least you can always buy a bigger scope!

Cheers, yes, thankfully it works! It's actually a surprisingly nice adaptor, complete with lens spanner holes. Ironically, perhaps, it's not the only adaptor I now need. I'm actually changing the visual back on my Skymax 102 since the stock one is a bit rubbish. I have a two part SCT > T2 adaptor already which came as part of a Bresser T2 extension set, however it turns out that it has some lateral wiggle prior to clamping it down, meaning that can easily end up uncentred. @globular has the same adaptor, and they measured it at 0.5mm off. Not a lot, but still not ideal. The upshot is that I have now made another cheapo ebay adaptor purchase of an SCT > T2 adaptor - so you can keep your fingers crossed until that one arrives 😂

Magnus I can't be the only one who looks at your outrageously good horizons and becomes instantly and insanely jealous each and every time 😂

To be honest, I would much rather buy from and support a real astro supplier like FLO, and have a guaranteed high quality product and the high quality service that goes with it! That said, I'm pretty skint at the moment so I'm making do with cheaper bits and bobs for now until I'm flush again.

I had a feeling it might be 🙂 I also end up referring back to it quite a lot so it's always in my recents bar 😂

The first issue of my astronomy now subscription came with a coupon code for £5 off this special on Saturn making it only £7 delivered, so I couldn't resist. Only had a quick flick through so far but looks great!

Oh nice, look like that works well! I've also just found a very cheap single piece SCT > T2 adaptor on ebay - £4 delivered! TBH I am not sure how good the quality will be, but I guess for £4 it's worth a punt. I would normally spend a few extra quid and support a proper astro dealer, but I'm totally skint at the moment so looking at alternative options in the short term. I'll let you know how I get on, happy to PM you the link if you are interested.

Here you go. The WO, Skywatcher/Skywatcher Deluxe, Opticron , Stellamira and others with the same shared design have a clear aperture of 41.5mm, so may cause some vignetting when going for maximum TFOV in 2", which is 41mm FL at 68˚ / 46mm field stop (or of course, shorter FLs with a wider AFOV). Anything with a field stop of 41.5mm or less will be fine. Whether this bothers an individual or even whether they will detect the vignetting or not, is another matter of course and somewhat personal - and it doesn't (ahem) reflect on the rest of the build quality, they are very solid. I would imagine that it's more of an issue with the 1.25" version (which is the same design scaled down and therefore has a reduced clear aperture and potential for vignetting), primarily because I assume way more people own a max TFOV EP in 1.25" format than 2". For example, it would affect the 24mm APM/Stellamira UFF and its cousins, ES 24mm 68˚, Televue Panoptic 24mm and so on, all of which are pretty popular EPS. BTW, I haven't actually measured the clear aperture on the 1.25" despite owning one, but I can tell you it's definitely reduced compared to the GSO 1.25" (again a scaled down version of its own 2" big brother).

Good work with the tape, thanks Glob. I'll have a look if I have any knocking about which could do the job. Thanks Peter, good to know that a small amount of decentring is hopefully okay. Regarding the chamfer, I'd actually expected such a detail but as Glob says, sadly it has not been implemented. Finally, I did find this: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/adapters/astro-essentials-low-profile-sct-2-to-t2-m42-adapter.html The threads are 5mm each, and the overall length is stated at 11mm, which suggests an optical length of 1mm. I'm assuming it's probably a bit more than that due to tolerances etc but looking at the pictures, not much more - maybe 2-3mm at most. I've messaged FLO for more detail, will let you know.

Thanks, it's a bit rubbish that it does this! I'm also visual only. If I come across an answer I'll report back. Best I can think of is an o-ring to centre it. I have seen a short SCT > T2 adaptor somewhere, if I find it again I'll post here.

Hl all, Some time ago I bought a set of Bresser T2 extensions of which an SCT adaptor was part at one end. I hadn't specifically bought them for that but figured it would come in handy at some point, and now that day has arrived as I want to replace a Mak visual back with compression rings. I knew it comprised of a lipped T2 tube, with a knurled outer ring to screw onto the SCT thread. Presumably this is to allow imagers to slightly undo the ring and rotate the T2 tube for cameras etc. Upon further inspection, I've now found that there is some significant lateral play between the two parts, see video below. 20231027_134729.mp4 It's possible to screw down the ring so that the inner T2 tube doesn't move, however the T2 tube is unlikely to be centred correctly, which I would have thought introduces collimation issues. What's the best move here? Use a very thin O-ring to try and centre the tube, or just buy an SCT > T2 adaptor which is all one piece?

Yep, Terry Pearce is the chap you want. He realuminised my 6" newt mirror but he can basically do anything within reason. I don't know where you are based but he runs a mirror making class also, you'd be welcome to come along to that.

Cheers Mark, sounds like it was 'all the fun of the fair' 😂 I will definitely head up at some point and bring a small scope, very happy to share views at the eyepiece and lessen the burden on other scopes!

Ordered a cheap Mak > SCT adaptor from a business on ebay which was supposed to arrive aeons ago but never did, so the seller gave me a refund. Adaptor has now turned up! It's actually decent quality too which is good; since it was pretty cheap it was always a bit of a gamble as I've heard quite a lot of reports of the internal threads not fitting the Mak threading correctly.

Due to the events of moving, amongst other things, my decent observing sessions have been extremely limited. I probably haven't had a decent session from home since before I had a shoulder operation in early December last year, though I did have a couple of nice evenings on holiday earlier this year. Italy seems to have far more clear nights during the summer, perhaps I should have moved there instead! What's probably more frustrating is that my new flat does not really have a decent place to observe from, and I'm seriously lamenting losing the shared rooftop I had before. Aagh.

Apologies for the drift into EP discussions, though often people will try to help solve your root challenge (in this case increasing exit pupil size and/or TFOV) if not always the specific question asked - I would take this as a sign of people just trying to be helpful 🙂 I think maybe the takeaway should not be that you are using the wrong kind of scope, just that reducers can sometimes come with caveats that may mean you're trading one issue for another (which may be an acceptable outcome as noted). This may be especially true for SCTs/Maks (which I'm going to guess you are using - is it a C5?) since there have been many discussions on SGL about using reducers with the C5 vs changing to a 2" visual back to try and maximise both exit pupil and TFOV. I asked a very similar question a couple of years ago, if you're interested, linked below. I definitely recommend reading at least the link http://www.waloszek.de/astro_ce_c5_2z_e.php which @vlaiv supplied in my post, it's really interesting and might give you some ideas about getting more out of your C5 if you wanted to go that route. Finally I would also suggest that you are right about not necessarily knowing until you try it! IIRC @Ags has used and enjoyed the Celestron 0.63x reducer on a C6. Like eyepiece preference, every experience can be quite different depending on the person.

I was concerned for a moment that the 50mm might make some outrageous claim about AFOV since the 30mm is supposed to be 68° which is not possible at 50mm in a 2" barrel AFAIK - but it turns out that the 50mm is only 48° which I believe is fine. I have the 30mm and do not rate it in a fast scope as the edge performance is not good, but in an F10 I guess it's probably fine. I do not know for certain but I wonder if the 50mm is the same in that regard. I don't know if the design is the same in both but if so I believe the "super plossl" is essentially an additional 5th lens, perhaps like and Erfle. All of this said: as everyone stated above, the 50mm will have vignetting and potentially isn't perfect in the outer field of view but since this is about maximising exit pupil at the cost of the edge anyway, it will give a 5mm exit pupil which may work well for the use case, and it's relatively cheap. I personally would not buy another superview based on my experience with the 30mm though, but that's because I primarily use 2" format scopes at F7 or faster. It is not great in an F6!

Cheers. At some point I shall venture to a real world shop (imagine that!) and have a play with both options to see which I prefer. The mount I'm using at the moment (AZT6) is about 1kg and very sturdy for the size, but definitely overkill.

Hi Mark, as you may have noticed I didn't end up making it due to illness spanning both weekends 😭 I hope you had an okay night weather wise on at least one of the days?

Thanks, great advice - definitely something to look into!

Cheers Peter. I hadn't thought about finding a spare, although I'll admit I'm not hopeful! Despite their popularity at the time (or so I understand) there seem to be very few in the wild these days. Maybe I should start a Charles Frank owners club here on SGL! At any rate, I have now managed to track down Barry from Beacon Hill and we had a really nice long chat this morning, partly about my request and partly just about vintage scopes, craftsmanship etc. I name dropped you Peter as I assumed you probably knew each other! He thinks it shouldn't really be a problem to make what I'm after, though we agreed I'd send either the whole focuser or the focuser tube over to him so he can check tolerances etc. Hopefully this should be a great opportunity to breathe a bit of life back into a venerable scope!

Very nice setup! Once I get the optics fine tuned and tested, I'm planning to start cutting weight with a smaller mounting option, I like what @grjsk has done with the ball head, I'm not a photographer so it never occurred to me that when the ball is locked into the side notch it is effectively now an alt-az mount. Fluid heads are also a mystery to me but I've read a few like yourself who have had successes with them so that's another avenue to explore!