I've been assimilated (again)...

[Euan]

This Borg thing is clever, they have a good marketing ploy here.... want to upgrade you focuser? Sure, just buy this Feathertouch. Want to upgrade the whole scope? Sure, just change the front objective

I mock, I love it really, it's meant I've been able to gradually pimp up this scope over the past 6 months. So far these are the changes since the original 77ED:

• Feathertouch M57 Focuser
  
• SGL Motorfocus (almost finished)
  
• M57 Camera rotator (very, very useful)
  
• 101EDII front objective
  

I've always been slightly annoyed with 2" eyepiece holders in my imaging trains in the past, I've had this cause all sorts of tilt issues. The Feathertouch has full threads so the whole imaging train is bolted in nice and tight, and the camera rotator allows it all so spin really smoothly and lock down again with no flexing.

The thing I really wasn't expecting is the 101EDII pretty much doubles the tube section compared to the 77ED, due in part to the fact that the section past the black band is a solid light shield. It's made me realise that this is probably as big as I can go in the current obs, as well as getting close to sensible limits on the EQ6.

This will run with my current reducer at F5.5, the beauty of the modular system is there is still the F4 upgrade to be done at a later stage, but given that involves moving to 2" filters (gulp)...I will be leaving that till next year

[Cloudwatcher]

Ooo! Loverly job........... want one!