Doc

Oh sorry I should have answered this, for some reason I didn't see the post.

Surely at F24 it's got to be approaching APO quality. I wouldn't even attempt to do the maths but I'm sure it's aroud that number.

Glad it all worked out for you Ron, smashing images as well.

Thanks for all the info Rob. The Turret will be a secondhand TEC. What I'm aiming for is my Clave 80/1203 F15 scope combined with a Feathertouch 3.5" focuser, a TEC Turret, and a complete collection of Clave eyepieces. Happy days.

Would be about 12 foot long so will need a substantial mount.

There will be no imaging at all, the scope is F15 so will only be used for visual. The eyepieces hanging off the back will be pretty lightweight as well but in time I'm investing in a TEC turret so the weight will be the turret plus 5 Clave' eyepieces. Thats a great photo Rob really shows the workmanship of the Feathertouch.

Thanks for all your suggestions guys it's basically cemented what I already knew, my next purchase after I have robbed a few piggy banks will be a feathertouch focuser. The next dilema is which one. My tube is 90mm in diameter and I see the feathertouch 2.5" one has a M95x1 thread and the feathertouch 3.5" one has a M109x1 thread so If I go for the 2.5" one I need an adapter with a female M95 on one end and 90mm diameter on the other so I can drill three holes to secure the tube to is this correct?

I have one Glen and it's pretty awesome, you will love it.

I'm thinking in the long term to replace the focuser on my Clave 80/1203 refractor, it is the weakest part of the set up. I have never used a scope with a feathertouch focuser so need some advice. How do the new Moonlite focusers compare to the Feathertouch focusers. The Feathertouch are about twice as much approaching the £700 barrier, are they worth this, can you tell the difference. The Clave is a very unique scope, so I'm torn on the above two.

I agree paint the lens with red nail varnish.

Thanks Tyson but remember it's only the lens that is Clave as they never sold complete telescopes only individual parts of a telescope, you had to build it yourself.

Post some photos up, and I'm sure we can give you a rough estimate.

While I was making the mount, I pm'd Peter a few times and he talked about his design, my design was basically a clone of the Panther Mount, you can see the build thread here: https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/307728-my-new-diy-altaz-mount-a-panther-clone/ I met Peter once at Kelling many many years ago.

There are some great telescope set up here, I really like Fozzie's one, so elegent. Here's mine:

Last night was clear but bitterley cold, but I did venture out for a few hours. The first object was of course the moon and the Clave performed very well indeed, there is very little false colour on the limb of the moon, I have never really been bothered by CA and this was hardly none so I well pleased. The contrast is surpurb as is the sharpness. I then had a tour of the night sky trying to split some double stars, I tried numerous stars getting tighter and tighter seperation and I eventually got to Gamma Cass which was easy at 2.2" seperation and the B star being 10.9 mag. I tried Eta Gem also known as Propus, this star has a seperation of just 1.8" and with the 4mm Clave inserted giving me x302 I could just glimpse a seperation between them. I looked at some really faint stars that were mag 11.2 and just mangaged to view them. Colour is very good in this scope, yellow and red really popped out. The Clave being F15 actually splits double stars cleaner then my 120ED Esprit. Considering a 80mm F15 objective should have a dawes limit of 1.45" and a limiting mag of 12.2 I was quite impressed as my observing site is far from dark and the sky conditions were not perfect. I defocused a bright star in and out of focus and the rings were concentric on both, I have little experience in this department but by looking at photos on the web the rings looked very good indeed. Mars looked OK, couldn't see any details but it was a nice shade of red and looked like Mars. Things I did make a note of is that I need a 2" extention as my 2" 40mm and 55mm eyepieces wouldn't reach focus, 1.25" eyepieces are fine. Also the focuser installed is a bit flimsy and basic, I really need to invest in a Moonlite or Baader focuser. Overall very happy and impressed with the scope.