baader 2" clicklock diagonal

[faulksy]

my new diagonal landed today from 365 astronomy, what a thing of beauty, cant believe how good the quicklock system is only a slight twist and your e.p. isnt going anywere, also noticed the optical path is a lot larger than other 2" diagonals very obviouse to see dont no if this will improve things but it cant be any worse, not that a std 2" is bad. anyone got any thoughts on this larger light path ?. heres a pic on my scope hope you like.

[NGC 1502]

Looks a cracking piece of kit

Do you mean that the longer light path (the quicklock part seems to put the EP further from the diagonal) means you have to rack the focuser closer to the scope ?

If that's the case, can't see any problem, as long as you can reach focus.

I like the idea of secure EP fitting, especially with that 28mm widefield.

Regards, Ed.

[Dunkster]

Looks like your focal length is extended enough with that dodgy brass focuser

Looks a beast, btw

[faulksy]

hi ngc and dunkster,what i mean about the optical path is the aperature is deffinately bigger all the way through not longer. even the bore size that goes in the focuser has no restrictions.that reminds me dunkster need to polish that dodgy brass knob lol. thanks for the comments guys

[John]

Looks a great bit of kit

I've seen light path intrusions in other diagonals such as over thick internal rings to hold the barrel onto the eyepiece body. Being a one piece machined design, my Tele Vue Everbright is rock solid (literally !) and has a full width light path right through as, to be fair to it, does the Revelation Quartz Dielectric. The latter does not have the overall build robustness of the Tele Vue though, or the Baader I expect.

[NGC 1502]

hi ngc and dunkster,what i mean about the optical path is the aperature is deffinately bigger all the way through not longer. even the bore size that goes in the focuser has no restrictions.that reminds me dunkster need to polish that dodgy brass knob lol. thanks for the comments guys

Oh I see what you mean, larger diameter light path. Well I wouldn't worry for a moment about that, it would only be a concern if the light path was restricted.

But going back to what I first thought you meant (longer light path) the aftermarket focuser that you have, means that focus is further back from the scope.

Because of the way SCTs work, it will increase the effective focal length, and give a higher magnification that the basic maths would suggest.

Not an issue in itself, just something to consider.

A very nice outfit, Ed.

[Dunkster]

Yeah, surely a wider light path is good for illuminating the whole FOV better (more to the point, the edges), as then the baffle tube becomes the restriction...which iirc is about the same as the widest field stop of a 2" EP anyhow

[faulksy]

thats how i look at it dunkster should make a improvment, hope i can try it out tonight and let you all no, heres hoping

[Dunkster]

Best of luck faulksy, looking grim here the field stop on your aero is pretty close to the max, so it might reduce vignetting... be interesting to compare

[faulksy]

let you no dunkster, not very good here, you should get one for your 11 beast that would be good, just looked at 7 timer and met office and around 22.00 skys are serposed to be good, fingers crossed

[m.tweedy]

I use The same Diagonal on my C11 with a moonlite Crayford and it is solid (it needs to be to hold the E21)

Mine is on an NEQ6 GEM. I see yours is a CPC-do you have enough clearance when viewing near zenith? i would hate you to hear a horrible metal grating sound. I seem to recall suggesting these bits of bling when Dunkster first got their C11

[faulksy]

I use The same Diagonal on my C11 with a moonlite Crayford and it is solid (it needs to be to hold the E21)

Mine is on an NEQ6 GEM. I see yours is a CPC-do you have enough clearance when viewing near zenith? i would hate you to hear a horrible metal grating sound. I seem to recall suggesting these bits of bling when Dunkster first got their C11

hi tweedy, i have loads of clearance on my fork mount, a bit strange but this new diagonal sits the e.p around 10mm closer to my focuser, so even with my old diagonal and my focuser fully extended i had around 40mm clearance probably a bit more.question with a full width light path on the new diagonal and my e.p.s sitting a good 10mm closer to the focuser will this change my viewing i.e shorten my focal, widen my fov ever so slightly of course

[Dunkster]

let you no dunkster, not very good here, you should get one for your 11 beast that would be good, just looked at 7 timer and met office and around 22.00 skys are serposed to be good, fingers crossed

I use the TV diagonal, also known for its throughput

I use The same Diagonal on my C11 with a moonlite Crayford and it is solid (it needs to be to hold the E21)

Mine is on an NEQ6 GEM. I see yours is a CPC-do you have enough clearance when viewing near zenith? i would hate you to hear a horrible metal grating sound. I seem to recall suggesting these bits of bling when Dunkster first got their C11

Indeedy and I've never failed to relay it, given an opportunity

[m.tweedy]

A lot of us seem to be travelling down the same (but cloudy) path with our gear.

[m.tweedy]

hi tweedy, i have loads of clearance on my fork mount, a bit strange but this new diagonal sits the e.p around 10mm closer to my focuser, so even with my old diagonal and my focuser fully extended i had around 40mm clearance probably a bit more.question with a full width light path on the new diagonal and my e.p.s sitting a good 10mm closer to the focuser will this change my viewing i.e shorten my focal, widen my fov ever so slightly of course

you will not notice the difference in FL

[Dunkster]

It's a quality bit of kit, really happy with mine, contemplating getting the smaller one for my C8