Doc

Nice one Dave, I have just bought one as well there is a thread in the DIY section. Mine came with a really old gearbox and motor set up, which was way past it's sell by date, so I scrapped it. What I'm going to do with mine is fit stepper motors and a kit from a manufacturer like Onstep, EqDrive, or EqStar. 

http://instein.eu/onstep.htm

http://astroproservice.com/index.php/product-category/telescope-control-systems/

https://astro-gadget.net/gadgets/category/control-of-telescopes/eq-control

Looking at your mount it would be very easy to do as you have all the brackets and pulleys there already. I've also noticed that your brass gears and worms have been removed and new ones fitted to a different position.

Looks great Ags 👍

32 minutes ago, mikeDnight said:

I'm like a 7 year old in a sweet shop looking at this beautiful collection. Even the filter set is is mouthwatering. 

Coming from you Mike a man who knows class equipment it's a wonderful compliment.

40 minutes ago, F15Rules said:

Well, the lovely "Lady Andromeda" shown below would be a nice match!

I had the privilege of owning this lovely D&G USA 5" F15 until about 4 years ago, but only had  CG5 mount at the time. Her present owner, Steve, (@Saganite), now has her pier mounted on a nice EQ6, much better suited to her size!

Dave

That's a lovely scope Dave and a great name for her as well. I have thought about a pier but the garden layout doesn't really lend itself to one but you never know one day I might persuade the other half I need one.

14 minutes ago, F15Rules said:

What's the damping time on that set up?....minus 2 hours, perhaps??😅🤣

Seriously, that's a lovely vintage set up and eyepiece set..I imagine the scope is a superb double star splitter!

Dsvr

Yeah a little overkill 😁

One day I'll invest in a 6" F15 to make the mount sweat a bit.

I'm so pleased you took the plunge and done this. It's not that hard if you take it step by step and fully prepare yourself with the right kit. Well done that man 👍

A few photos for you to look at. The bottom of the box is not done yet it's basically just boxes but one day I'll get foam cut for the diagonals, finder, dew controller/bands etc.

The holes that are empty in the eyepiece tray are for eyepieces yet to get in the set. So far I have 4,6,8,10,12,16,20,25,30,40, and 55mm. I still need 3,5,35,45,65, and 75mm so I need 6 more but they are the expensive ones and very hard to find.

Last photo shows the eyepieces.

The first photo shows the Clave 80/1208 refractor on top of a Fullerscope IV mount.

I bought this from e-bay last year. In the tray I have drilled holes for my Clave eyepieces and in the bottom fits all my astro gear. There is room for my filters, battery, two diagonals, finder, tools, dew controller and bands. So all I need to do is remember one box when I go out to the darksite.

It all depends on how much the original owner will let you have it for. I tend to agree with Dave it's worth about £100 in this state. If you can get it for that type of figure keep it and over the time learn to strip it down and restore it, think of it as a long term project, I have loads of these, keeps you busy.

If I recall correctly as it was 15 days ago the seeing was not that great, a little hazy, but it would only have been about 21.45 when I looked at Izar so not properly dark.

The gears are excellent and I would say very concentric. I've managed to get the backlash out of the RA but there is still a very small bit in DEC but I'll concentrate on that a later date. Thanks for the info Peter, did you know Ernie or Rob or even the main man Dudley?

If you are doing astrophotography you need tracking and maybe even guiding so get the go-to with tracking.

After a bit of faffing around I mangaed to get the worm and wheel rotating in unison. There is still a little backlash in the gears but it's pretty good. Any ideas how to eliminate the backlash. I made a few videos for you to view, next step will be pulleys, belts and stepper motors. 

5 minutes ago, Rusted said:

You are a clever chap!

What about concealed compression springs in blind holes to hold it open until tightened down?

Yep one step ahead of you, the springs are in the post.

Thanks for your comments Rusted.

Spent the day in the workshop again and this time built myself a dovetail clamp for the Fullerscope. It's 250mm long and 125mm wide and has three large thumbscrews to tighten the clamp up, the telescope ain't going anywhere.

Clave done different sizes to the rest they were: 27mm, 1 1/4", 50mm and a 2". I don't think they never had a 0.965" size eyepiece.

As for FOV eyepieces from 3mm to 45mm had a FOV of 48°.  55mm had a FOV of 42°. 65mm had a FOV of 37°. And the large 75mm had a FOV of 32°.

I used to love my green eyepieces and had a complete set of Delos and a few Naglers and then I discovered Clave of Paris eyepieces and even though they only have a FOV of 48° I just loved them, they were sharper, and showed more detail, and were comfortable as all my viewing is done in the centre.

If you love the Huygens just wait to you try the ortho's they are sharper still. They are on my list to collect as well.

99% of the public don't even look at the nightsky so wouldn't care one bit if it was full of satalites. When all 12,000 or even 42,000 which is the ultimate goal are in orbit that will be the end of astronomy.

Another day in the workshop. I designed and built an adjuster to adjust the azimuth axis on my Fullerscope mount. It works really well and has about 10° of adjustment for polar alignment.

The last video shows the altitude adjuster which has about 9° of adjustment. For some reason only works on full screen.

Made a latitude adjuster today. It consists of two clevis yokes which I made in the milling machine. The next part is a left handed and a right handed M10 threaded bar with a 6mm hole in the end for the clevis pin. The middle part is an hexagon bar with a M10 left hand thread in one end and a M10 right handed thread in the other. The way it works is you screw in for the mount to raise and unscrew for it to lower. I have about a 9° latitude adjustment. It was quite hard to do as there was not a lot of room between the polar shaft body and the adapter plates but it was fun project, and it works very well.

Simply stunning the best Venus photo I have ever seen.

I've always had an interest in astronomy since I was a child but it became a passion after comet Hale Bopp. I bought my first proper telescope soon afterwards an Hardin 8" dob.

You can see M81/82 with 10x50 bins I have seen them on numerous times, you can also see M101, M33 and heaps more. As you say take them to darker skies and you will see so much more.

While I do agree that AMICI are great for daytime use I do think they have a place for night time viewing as well. I have the APM AMICI diagonal and it's pretty awesome at night. it does have the light defect on very bright objects but it's not off putting. The best thing is the ease of star hopping as it's the correct way up, I like them a lot and think it's a good purchase.

15.4.2020
Observing from back garden in Nottingham
Warm
No wind
Clave 80/1208 F15 refractor mounted on my DocMount
Selection of Clave eyepieces

Started observing as it got dark about 21.00

Wasat (Delta Gem) - 3.5/8.18 mags - AB 5.4" Sep - Was a very easy split using the 10mm Clave at x121, secondary is very dim and very small and the seperation seems larger then stated.

Al Kirkab (Kappa Gem) - 3.56/10.00 mags - AB 7.2" Sep - The companion at mag 10 seemed to be at the maximum of my scope. I only saw a glimpse of B once, it was incredibly small, best
view was with the 10mm Clave at x121.

38 Gem - 4.7/7.8 mags - AB 7.3" Sep - Very easy double to split, there is a clear difference in the brightness. The main star appeared white and the secondary appeared orange. 
Best seen in the 12mm Clave at x101.

Algieba (Gamma Leo) - 2.23/3.64 mags - AB 4.7" Sep - This was easy in all eyepieces, it's a stunner and appeared Yellow and white.

I star hopped over to Cancer as hardly any of it's main stars were visible and had a lovely view of M67. Then onto the Beehive Cluster in the same concellation. This was also fantastic
and the cluster looked great in either the 40mm Clave at x30 giving a FOV of 1.6° and the 55mm Clave at x22 with a FOV of 1.90°

Back onto the double stars with Iota Cancer - 4.01/5.99 mags - AB 30" sep - This is a striking pair of binary stars, they appeared yellow and blue and almost the same magnitude, Best seen 
in the 10mm Clave at x121.

Izar (Epsilon Bootes) - 2.5/4.81 mags - AB 2.9" sep - Quite a hard star to split, I could see an elongation with the 12mm Clave at x101 but I could only split this by using a 6mm Clave
giving a magnification of x201. I couldn't see any colour in the stars.

Over to Coma Benerices and the globular cluster M53, had great vies of this beauty which is 13 arc minutes in size and shines at mag 7.91. Best view was with the Clave 16mm giving a 
magnification of x76.

Over to Canes Venacti and the wonderful Cor Coroli - 2.89/5.52 mags - AB 19.3" sep - A massive difference in brightness, this was great in any eyepiece, appeared yellow and white.

Had a break ad looked at Venus for about 20 minutes. It's phase which was at 37% really stood out, it was a wonderful sight and I feel so lucky to have witnessed it.

Castor (Alpha Gem) - 1.58/2.97 mags - AB 5.1" Sep - A clear split using the 12mm Clave at x101, both appeared white in colour, I could also see two other stars mags 9 and 10 respectively
these were some distance away from AB.

Propus (Eta Gemini) - 3.3/6.15 mags - 1.6" sep - Coud only manage a elongated figure "8" split with my 4mm Clave at x302. The main star appeared slightly orange in colour.

Over to Auriga for the carbon star UU Auriga this is a very bright orange carbon star which is 1110 light years from Earth, it shines about mag 5.3. Within the same FOV are the doubles
STF 928 and 929 and also the double STT147.

STF928 (Auriga) - 7.3/8.6 mags - AB 3.5" sep - Very easy split using the 8mm Clave at x151, the main star had a hint of orange.

STF929 (Auriga) - 7.23/8.43 mags - 5.9" sep - Easy split with a slight orange tint to the main star, best in the 12mm Clave at x101.

STT147 (Auriga) - 6.8/8.7/9.8 mags - AB 42.7", AC 44.5" seps - Makes a lovely looking triangle, all components appear the same magnitude, no colour seen. There is a close star associated 
with component C but this is at 0.5" seperation so unseen by me. Best viewed in the 12mm Clave at x101

Errai (Gamma Cephi) - 3.2/7.3 mags - AB 1.8" sep - Very hard split, I only managed a slight bulge in the diffraction ring with the 6mm Clave at x201

Alfirk (Beta Cephi) - 3.23/8.63 mags - AB 14.1" sep - Easy to split for some reason I didn't write any information down for this double star.

Tyl (Epsilon Draconis) - 3.83/6.87 mags - AB 3.2" sep - Very hard to split but with perseverance I managed a split showing a black gap between the stars with my 6mm Clave at x201. 
Both stars appeared white.

Finished the night in Hercules looking at the globular clusters. Both M13 and M92 appeared bright but for some reason M92 had a brighter core and in fact looked better the M13 which
is rather strange.

Finished the observing session around midnight.