Fellside

Redtail Have you any idea where the USB-X440 or IPX800 boards are available in the UK? Graham

Hi I t looks like the M54 or M42 adaptors ar removed and the ccd is atached to the wheel with three screws from inside the filter housing. I think you are then correct as the adapters are the parts that alow the ccd to rotate. Pause Ok a little ivestigation. These vidios by RayD on here answer almost all you questions. and Hope this helps Graham

Hi How are all controlling your ROR motors. I have a couple of Circuit diagrams from Steppenwolf and the LesveDome site http://www.dppobservatory.net/ROR/ED-ROR-basic-V01.pdf I have a 12volt wiper motor or I could change to a Garage door opener which I know is popular. I would prefer to stick to 12volt if possible. Are there any other circuit diagrams out there. How are you controlling your Roof? Many thanks Graham

Hi Welcome Have a look at https://www.atik-cameras.com/product/efw3-filter-wheel/ The Atik OAG is not mentioned but the Atik 16200 is. There are different methods of fitting the ccd to the back of the filter wheel. This will have a bearing on where the OAG ccd reaches focus. I think the shorter the back focus the better. The EFW3 drawing on the Atik site show three mounting holes on the front of the wheel that look of a similar layout to those of the Atik OAG. but no dimensions are given. I would be very surprised if it did not fit. A pretty big design error on Atik`s part if it did not fit. http://www.atik-cameras.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Mechanical-Drawing.pdf I have the EFW2 fitted with the Atik OAG and a Lodestar X2 guide ccd. It all works well. I would give Atik support and email to inquire about the best layout for the combination of 16200, EFW3 and OAG. They have been very helpful in my experience. Graham

Hi Thomas, Are all the components screwed together? Have you any way of adjusting the tilt. If possible try turning on component of the imaging train by ninety degrees. That might narrow down which part is causing the problem. Maybe the filter isn't seated in the draw correctly. I have been using Maxselector recently and have found is works quiet well. As with all these programs they can get a little confused when you get close to a perfect setup. Graham

Hi Woody I was going to say Starlight Xpress SXVR-25MC But Steve beat me to it with his QHY8L Both I think have the same chip. 25MC has a good reputation and there is one on UK Astronomy Buy and Sell at the moment. (its not mine) I considered the 25MC for my RC10 but in the end I went for Mono. Graham

Hi I`m looking for a Hotech SCA laser collimator 2" version If anyone has one they would like to sell. Many thanks Graham

Hi I`m looking for a Howie Glatter Single-Beam 2-inch Laser. You may have one sitting in a draw and is never used. Regards Graham

John Does the RC8 Tilt adapter isolate the image train from the Mirror cell or does it screw onto the mirror cell thread. Make sure your laser is collimated. Ideally the laser should be screwed into the focuser but not many can do that. Hotech SCA laser Collimator comes with a automatically centering device which may help get accurate alignment. https://www.firstlightoptics.com/hotech-collimation-tools/hotech-sca-laser-collimator.html With the laser in place it should only take a few minutes using the push/pull screws to get the red dot in the center of the secondary donut marker. As many others have said the donut is probably marking the mechanical center of the secondary mirror and not he optical center. But it will probably be close. Graham

John I have the the same manual for the RC10. My secondary mirror was not removed. From what you say it is as well that i did not remove it. There is a small amount of dust on the secondary but nothing like the amount I had on the primary mirror. Graham

Neil 1% and 2020 does sound much more like a manufacturing tolerance. I think that is a good place to start. Thanks John I have not seen any published dimensions for the the distance between mirrors. I may be wrong. I should think it is fairly hard to measure the distance with the mirrors installed in the tube anyway. I will go with setting the focal length and see what sort of images I can get. Graham

John Before the refit I had a plate solved image that showed the Focal length as 2191mm. The further you are from the true Focal length the harder it is the setup a good collimation. I will take Plate solved images and depending on what I get I will try to move the primary mirror towards the secondary or away from it and keep it collimated. I sure I have read somewhere that the figured FL is written on the primary mirror. Apart from the hand written text on the edge of the mirror, see the first post on this thread. On the back of the mirror etched into the glass was Y202. Does that mean plus 202 so that's 2202. That seems a long way from the advertised 2000 FL. Not sure. When I am happy with images I will stop. At that point I will fit the CCDT67 reducer. Graham

I tested the Secondary dew heater this afternoon and it is showing 11Watts at 0.8Amps on the Powerbox software. On full it was to hot to touch. So there is plenty of head room for those subzero nights in mid winter. Thanks for reading Graham

All the equipment installed and ready to go. Just need a clear night or two to get the collimation finished. Normally the weather will break at this point. RC owners seem to be very much in the minority but I hope one or two of you found this useful. The fear of collimation has given these great scopes a bad name. Other opinions may differ.

The whole back plate and mirror assemble is lowered back into its original position and all screws fitted loosely before a final tighten. In the picture below you can see the 2 pin GX12/GX16 socket for connection to the dew heater. These are very nice plug/socket combination and I would have fitted a 4 pin version if I had fitted the primary dew heater. I left the original plug socket arrangement for the fan motor supply in place as it works ok at the moment. I will see how things go over the next winter as to if there is another refit next year. This will be for Primary dew heater, some sort of DIY Snap Flap. Another thing I have thought about is shortening the top and bottom Losmandy rails and fitting a tube ring maybe half way along the tube. When fitted to the mount the scope is always fitted as far forward as possible so this would not cause a problem. But on the other hand automatic temperature compensation on the focuser may be able to take care of any supposed movement in the tube. All finished and ready to fit back on the mount. Here we are safely back on the mount. One 25mm extension ring had to be removed to allow the correct back focus. I now have the Tilt ring plus one 25mm extension ring fitted and focus is around half focuser travel. This will change when a reducer is fitted. Focuser has been changed to a TS-Optics 3 Inch Rack and Pinion focuser TSFOCR30S. I`m very impressed with this focuser and its good value compared to others of this size and load carrying capacity. There are a number of thread size combinations. It is possible to fit a reducer internally and have an all threaded image train. The 2"/1.25" unit show is to allow the fitting of a laser for collimation. I would like to have a threaded fitting for the laser but you have to stop somewhere and after all these things only get you close to collimation. Its a star test that counts.