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shake down 1st light

beamish

By beamish
in Imaging - Planetary

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beamish

beamish

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At last the promise of a "clear" night was not an empty one. The NEQ6 was placed at the end of the garden and the C11 was set to cool. All peripherals were gathered back together for the 1st time since gawd knows when ( end of May!!). Cables, power sources, saved from the death EFW ( now regrettably not USB controlled) etc etc etc

With a mix of excitement and anxiety I mounted the scope up just before midnight, did a better than rough align on the mount and needed to co-align the 9x50 finder (not the best bracket in the world if I'm honest Celestron !) so aimed at the moon with nothing more than a Celestron Silvertop 25mm plossl.

HOLY GEEWIZZ !! when that thing swung into view I had to look for my shades ! But man alive the clarity and sharpness of the view was stunningly breathtaking, it's not like I've never seen it before either !! The whole Terminator was there to be touched, Mare Crisium with it's rivers of uplift were beautiful !! I just enjoyed the views for ages before swinging over to view the main attraction of the night's entertainment, Jupiter. The scale of the view was what threw me most ! By the time I moved up to a 12.5mm volcano top it was as far as I wanted to go:icon_eek:simply no reason to try a higher power. I then reluctantly I have to admit decided it was time to see what the camera may show up, the anxiety welled up again.

Wow !! I need not have worried. Indeed if there was anything to worry about it was whether the brightness of the "L" feed was going to burn out the chip !!Swiftly went thru the filters to ascertain the differences and where the optimum levels may be for a start.

I had a hiccup with the lappy that thru a spanner in the works but nothing too serious I only lost the last 45mins of data form the evening -which was a little upsetting cos that's when the transparency really started to improve, the seeing was pretty much okay to half decent TBH

In conclusion:

Initial thoughts on the combo NEQ6 and C11 CF (with extra long & thick dewshield, sleeving over the top half of the body of the scope)- well the monster mount is a delight ! purrs like a kitten and is amazingly quiet even on full speed slew ;) the scope -optics are very good, but I did notice a drop in comparitive contrast when visually viewing Joop against the 715D Mak, but hey the rest makes up for that. Focusing was silky smooth and positive, put it where I wanted and then from there used the motorised crayford. Do I want to keep it - well of course I do ! this was merely it's 1st outing for me and I'd be fooling myself if I were to be expecting XLNT imaging results straight off the cuff !! :p

shame about the later stuff tho :( no idea where it went :( shows up on the logs- hey ho)

No pics of the rig I'm afraid- don't like taking flash pics in the garden at night -can do without some of the locals taking an interest :p but in course I shall post a pic of the DIY Lymax type cooler I made ( responsible for nearly losing two of my fingers ;) which appears to have worked well and here's a single IR742 mono image the first of the data runs where skies were improving but sadly the last run before it all went Pete Tong.

Loads of possibilities !!!:) well happy

Thank you David !!!!:)

Karlo

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ChrisEdu

ChrisEdu

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Nice! These C11 scopes are good fun! I didn't (couldn't) go down below my 40mm EP last night, and probably wouldn't really have wanted to for much. I just wish I could get the SPC900NC to work properly so I can capture some images of Jupiter and the moon.

The moon is rediculously bright, even with a moon filter in place. You could do a projection through the eyepiece, there is just so much light! No wonder I was able to finally see Uranus with mine last night, even with the moon trying to blot everything else out of the sky!

You're right about the finder mount - it's pretty useless, much like the finder - cheap and nasty. I can't wait for Telrads to be available again!

I can't wait to start getting some upgrades for my kit and adding some nicer EPs. :(

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beamish

beamish

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Cheers guys, yup pretty made up with it TBH.

Q Are telrads no longer sold ???????

It's not the finder so much as the bracket- too much movement, perhaps I was spoilt with the Intes finder bracket :( Looking fwd to spending more time honing in Joop and Mars :)

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Merlin66

Merlin66

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Great first light! Welcome to the C11 club as a full member....

I replaced the celestron finder bracket with an Antares 6 screw version (needed it to hold the 8 x 50 illuminated finder.) Works very well.

I'm impressed with the lack of mirror slop/ flop -very smooth.

I was thinking of adding a feathertouch microfocuser - but really can't see the need now to part with $235

I'm getting the Bob's Knobs replaced...the current C11 offering is very, very difficult to grip - Bob has offered a "modified" design knob.....

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beamish

beamish

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Ta !

If I'm honest the C11's focuser is smoother than the Intes !! but as I said I use it only to get me in the ball park. I was filled with trepidation last night walking down the garden knowing I had to lift onto the mount for the 1st time in "anger":o it was fine tho.

Umm Antares bracket eh ? Far easier once everything is back on the pier.

Beautiful scope !! It just has to be said !:(

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beamish

beamish

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Yes cheers Ken I have it's XLNT !! The kit included a Farpoint C/weight on a Losmandy foot-clamps onto the DvT ahead of the mount

Farpoint - Products - Dovetails

acts as the system you were proposing- damn good idea too if you ask me -wouldn't want to see it slide off :(

Chris I really liked my Telrad but you know I've grown to love my optical finder -just need a better "quick release" bracket ( am seeking as we tap :) )

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Merlin66

Merlin66

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When I was using the C11 on Friday night I got the chance to measure the mirror slop ( the movement of the image on the CCD when you reverse the focus direction)

At f10 the movement was 6-8 pixel (5.6micron pixel) - certainly much better than my ol' Meade. For the life of me, I can't see why you would want to fit a Crayford?????

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beamish

beamish

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simply because I don't wish to touch the scope when focusing via a screen and making fine adjustments. I could try without the crayford but I reckon I'd be going backwards. If the weather EVER improves I'll give it a whirl next time out and feed back.

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