Antares 105 f15--spirit of unitron

[nightfisher]

Okay here we go,

I will be adding to this thread as time goes by, i have some minor work to do on this beauty, to get the very best from it, first job will be to lengthen the tube to allow more back focus.

It has a chip in the flint lens, so it has been stopped down to 80mm f19, to be honest this does not worry me as i use refractors deliberately stopped down at times, but i will try it at full aperture on Lunar views, if there is little flare then i will leave it at 105mm

In the picture it is on my EQ5 mount, this is going to be upgraded to an HEQ5 on CG5 tripod.

so here is the first picture to wet the appetite

[Marki]

Looking good, Jules. Kinda dwarfs the EQ5! And looks as if you need to higher your ceiling ;-). Look forward to hearing your first light...weekend looking promising (hope I haven't jinxed it ;-/).

[StuW]

*drool* nuff said...

[AndyH]

Damn, that's long

Andy.

[nightfisher]

Damn, that's long

Andy.

Longer than a long thing had a sudden eureka moment regarding the lack of out focus...........use a 2" diagonal, with 1.25 reducer, this will lengthen the light path by a fair amount

[AndyH]

Aye, by about 30mm. 40mm, if you use a 2"/1.25" eyepiece adapter with a 10mm thick flange on it's top, in the 2" diagonal.

[Mark at Beaufort]

Jules that is a super looking frac - it will be great on double stars. Are you coming to SGL8?

Mark

[Qualia]

[John]

Great scope Jules - looks wonderful

[nightfisher]

Jules that is a super looking frac - it will be great on double stars. Are you coming to SGL8?

Mark

sorry Mark, not able to get to sgl8, shame as i would have liked to go

[nightfisher]

I have done some more work on the Antares, flocked the dew shield and adapted the white light solar filter from my tal 100 to fit

[nightfisher]

I was lucky on friday, and got a decent first light with the Antares, i only viewed the Lunar surface, and i have to say im very pleased with the optics, so much that i forgot to remove the aperture stop to see if the chip cause`s flaring!

I got the old girl up to x300 mag, pretty good for an 80mm! i am hoping to point it at Jupiter this evening, it should be good

[Moonshane]

impressive looking scope Jules! a proper 'colour' too scopes just look right in white I think.

[Moonshane]

BTW, depending on how much extra back focus you need, could you not just add a 50mm (or even an 80mm) extension tube? http://www.firstlightoptics.com/adaptors/two-inch-focus-extension-tubes.html

[DaveGibbons]

wow! That's one heck of an ota Jules.It must give super clear views, the objective is halfway through the earth's atmosphere to begin with.

Dave

[nightfisher]

wow! That's one heck of an ota Jules.It must give super clear views, the objective is halfway through the earth's atmosphere to begin with.

Dave

Cheers dave, its a right piece of kit!

I have now got the HEQ5 syntrek mount, so it will sit better, and using the hand controller means i dont have the long walk from the eyepiece to the mount clutches :grin: every time i look at this OTA, sitting beside the Tal 100, i think, darn, thats long!!

[A McEwan]

Superb!

How are you liking the HEQ-5 Syntrek? I love mine. It's a great mount for a large variety of scopes, and handles long tubes very well.

I'll be interested to hear how much or how little the chip affects the views. Do you have a picture of the chip?

Ant

[nightfisher]

I have not tried the mount yet, need a multi meter to double check the polarity of the connections i have made, i really must get round to trying it with out the aperture mask

[nightfisher]

I now have a large finderscope for the Antares 105.........think "unitron" so i acquired a Tasco 4vte to mount on the big one!

[nightfisher]

I have taken a quick snap of lunar tonight at full aperture using the olympus pen dslr at prime focus

[Marki]

How did you find it tonight Jules? Got the syntrek going yet?

Superb!

How are you liking the HEQ-5 Syntrek? I love mine. It's a great mount for a large variety of scopes, and handles long tubes very well.

I'll be interested to hear how much or how little the chip affects the views. Do you have a picture of the chip?

Ant

Interesting to note...my Skylight f13 really pushes my EQ5 too much I think. Maybe time to trade up (santa permitting )

[nightfisher]

How did you find it tonight Jules? Got the syntrek going yet?

Interesting to note...my Skylight f13 really pushes my EQ5 too much I think. Maybe time to trade up (santa permitting )

Just a thought, if you are purely visual how about the skytee 2 mount, has a huge payload

[Marki]

Actually thats a pretty good idea Jules (and I think Santa's wallet prefers that over a whole new HEQ!).

[John]

FWIW I think the Skytee II would be well worth considering. I find sturdy alt-azimuth mounts work very well with refractors.

Doesn't look as though the chip is affecting the quality of the views at all Jules

[Moonshane]

I tried a Skytee II once and found the slowmo controls annoying. I much preferred my Giro II which although being more critical in terms of balance was much more usable. Each to their own though and I bet a lot of people would prefer the convenience of the slowmo controls.