Revelation 100mm First light

[Uranium235]

Hiya,

This was the first proper(ish) test of what ive come to call "The Rev". Its basically a clone of the TS 100/600 ED refractor, except I nabbed mine from Telescope House for the "cant say no" price of £400

First impression was "look at the size of that focuser!", a beefy 2.7" 10:1 speed monorail which is rotatable. The glass looked ok, no damage or dust inside (quite a relief), and some beefy WO style tube rings. Though that did present a problem of having no synta finder shoe - but I managed to bodge one on to an upside-down vixen dovetail and bolt it to the tube rings.

To go with it I managed to snaffle a Televue TRF-2008 0.8x reducer for £160, however that introduced a few problems (will explain). First time out, I tried the suggested spacing of 56mm and the results were **horrible** This was confirmed when I removed the reducer and the coma disappeared.

"Hmmmm..." I thought, "thats pretty p**s poor for a televue". So I searched SGL for others who had this reducer. Mike Wilson (many thanks to) was very helpful in explaining that it was going to be a case of lots of testing with CCD Inspector. So I tested a range of spacings, 43,45, 48, 50 and 55mm. The best results came from the 45-49mm range, though it will still need further investigaion as the curvarute is still at 6% and now only appears on one side of the frame (cam probably not flat).

In the new year I will buy an adjustable t-ring extender to nail the distance for good. For now its set at 48mm. So with the scope now running at about f4.8 I decided to start hoovering up photons. However, the weather was very changeable... its the first time ive managed to get rain out a clear sky! It was also blowing half a gale, so that upset the guiding in RA every now and then.

First I picked up a few L frames from NGC 1333 (an ongoing project) before switching to Ha for the Horsehead. The conditions were getting pretty poor (could hardly make out the sword of orion), so it was just 30 windswept minutes.

Now im a bit more speedy, I can choose to take the work away from the mount (shorter subs), or go deeper. I'll probably end up doing both.

All I need now is the Bmask that FLO got specially made for me as it wasnt listed.

Anyway, here is the HH I took. It would have been much better if it were clearer as the sky was more like pea soup by the time I took this.

Horsehead Nebula:

Ha (6x300s)

Rev 100 + TRF-2008 (f4.8), Atik 314L+, CG5-GT

Setpoint: -10

Guiding: very windy

Thanks for looking

Rob

[Sam]

That's a pretty fine result for a windy day.

[angusb1]

That is a very nice first light. I am green with envy at how you managed to get that scope half price too, how did you manage that?

[morimarty]

A superb first image rob in awful conditions. I think you and the REV are going to be hard to keep apart.

ATB martyn

[Uranium235]

That is a very nice first light. I am green with envy at how you managed to get that scope half price too, how did you manage that?

It was a 2nd hand model that had been traded in by a customer who was upgrading. It had been checked over by TH to confirm it was in good condition, which it was. That nice blue anodised finish seems to be a bit of a dust magnet though.

The reducer was also sourced from another SGL member who advertised on Astro buy&sell.

Last night I think I found out why the camera wasnt completely flat. I applied moderate pressure to the filter wheel and found that the t-threads actually rocked a little bit (reducer side), which was quite a shock as I thought T threads were supposed to avoid this. Anyway, Ive butted the FW right up to the reducer now and put the T extentions camera side, which has stiffened things up nicely. Ive also reduced the spacing to 46mm. So it will be a case of a little more testing before I can truly use the Rev in anger.

Always the way.... if you get new kit, dont expect it to work perfectly first time. A bit like building a new PC really.

[MikeWilson]

Excellent results and well done on sorting out the square/orthogonal issue. The trouble with these problems is that it's a seemingly never-ending iterative process of trial and error to get it right..

Sent from my mobile using TapaTalk (so please excuse bad grammar & spelling!) :-)

[johninderby]

I have one of the Rev 100s myself which I use as a grab'n'go scope. Picked it up from an SGL member at a great price, one of those deals you just can't say no to.

BTW you can fit a Synta type finder shoe to the focuser by simply drilling a central mounting hole in the shoe and fastening it on using the existing mounting hole in the focuser.

John

[Coco]

Excellent results for a great scope, also sold as the Avian Starseeker

Avian Optics : Avian StarSeeker 100 Astro Telescope

which got 90+% in a scope review, made by Long Perng Taiwan ???????? LONG PERNG CO., LTD

The Skywatcher flattener works a treat with this scope First Light Optics - Skywatcher Field Flattener

Enjoy