New 'scope

[blinky]

Went and collected my new scope today - The William Optics ZS66 APO. What a lovely piece of engineering Nice shiny blue colour I got it with a SCT to 2" adapter and a 2" to 1.25" adapter (From Ambermile). Going to collect the scope rings tonight as Andy forgot to bring 'em.

Anyway here are some piccies of it along with the rest of my setup:

Orion Optics (UK) 8" Newt on an EQ5 mount (I have both motors but only use the RA one as the Dec get's in the way). The EP on the Newt is a 2" 26mm Revelation (From aunt FLO) and an electric focuser (Also from aunt FLO)

Shown is my Eyepiece collection in its case (Old data case from work!) as well as my homemade mount for piggybacking a 35mm zoom lens. You can also see my modded (By me) ToUCam (SC1 mod).

2 Things are still on my shopping list - a DSLR (350D or 400D) and an HEQ5 Skyscan. Not sure when the list will be completed but hopefully the DSLR will materialise in the next couple of months. The HEQ5 might take another year of moaning to the missus that I can't find anything

Problems?

Well the newt focuser has a couple of screws to hold the EP's in place and unfortunatly these are threaded (I think) and I cannot get it to hold anything, at the moment the 2" - 1.25" adapter fits like a glove so this is OK but the 2" one is not quite so tight and I jam a bit of cloth in along with the adapter when using it

The threads on the top of the mount rings are also threaded I think and I am not sure if the scope rings will work in it, guess I will find out tonight!

Here are the piccies!

[FLO]

Congrats Blinky

I am looking forward to your first-light report.

[blinky]

Heres hoping for tonight, the mist is finally starting to clear a bit.

[geppetto]

Yummy 8)

Good luck for tonight mate

[Caz]

Congratulations blinky... 8)

[Stardust]

Be interested on your views of the ZS66, really like mine

DAve

[MartinB]

Looks like a very fine imaging set up does that Blinky.

[Rob]

Very nice indeed!!...

[blinky]

I just tried fitting the scope rings on top of my Newt scope rings. They fit on OK but they are too far apart for the ZS66 to ba able to be mounted Can I just use a single scope ring or am I missing something here

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

You will usually find that a strip of aluminium is fixed to the main 'scope rings, then the guide rings are fixed to the strip closer together.

Captain Chaos

[blinky]

Just like the strips you get from Homebase/B&Q? Cool they are only a few quid

[GordonCopestake]

Make sure it's thick enough to not give any flexure

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

I think I used 30mm X 8mm Ally. It seems to work fine.

Captain Chaos

[blinky]

I just wondered if it would be to lightweight and cause thescope to 'bounce' around but if you say its good then I will give it a try

[GordonCopestake]

8mm thick is more than enough I would have thought. It's the paper thin stuff you have to stear clear of

[tom.yates]

Very nice set up