GSO 150mm F4 Imaging Newt

[Skyline]

Yes the Tak does look good, but a cheaper snip for our UK light polluted towns would be something like a skywatcher 130pds.

What I am interested about, is there a difference in Taiwanese & Chinese optics including mechanics.

Al.

[johnrt]

Yes the Tak does look good, but a cheaper snip for our UK light polluted towns would be something like a skywatcher 130pds.

What I am interested about, is there a difference in Taiwanese & Chinese optics including mechanics.

Al.

Are you asking if there is a difference in quality and performance between a Skywatcher 130pds and a Takahashi Epsilon???

[Skyline]

No, we know there's a mass difference in these 2 telescope manufacturers. My question is pertaining to GSO & Skywatcher QC.

I too would be interested in that 6" f4 what GSO are offering, I can handle the fiddling around with & collimation using a Non Laser method. What worries me is the mechanics of the scope. The last thing I would want to do is change the Mirror cell because of a design fault, if there is such a thing.

Regards

Al.

[laser_jock99]

First light image 'out of the box' rapid process- I need to collimate the scope properly but the light gathering power looks promising. Full review to follow

NGC7000 single 300s sub @ ISO 3200 (full APS-C frame) no darks/flats

[pmesquita]

Hello all,

I'm a bit late posting here but if anyone cares to see some results with a 150/600 F4 GSO newt, a Baader MK III MPCC and a  monochromatic 450 (Luis Campos MonoMod) with an Astronomik 12nm H-Alpha filter... check out 3 pics on 2nd year album here on SGL:

- Rosette Nebula (smaller version)

- California nebula

- Flaming Star Nebula

I believe that newt collimation is over claimed as difficult...I never had any problems and I've had over 20 newts up to now....:-)... and I'm a lazy newbie...

cheers

Paulo Mesquita

Sintra

Portugal

[laser_jock99]

Great pictures with your GSO 6" F4- as you say the key to getting the most out these fast F4 scopes is to get the collimation absolutely spot-on. A skill which once mastered should only require seconds.

Since my initial outings with this scope I'm now able to get round, coma free stars even on large APS-C sized CCD's almost to the corners. Even when the F ratio is reduced to F2.9!

NGC7000 GSO 6" F4 Newt (reduced to F2.9) in 159 seconds

[Mike Hawtin]

We've been here before, take a look at this thread, you can get these things to work and during the process you will gain a useful insight into Chinese/Taiwanese materials and manufacturing quality.

http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/147326-gso-6-imaging-newtonian-f4-looking-for-opinions/

Mike

[laser_jock99]

We've been here before, take a look at this thread, you can get these things to work and during the process you will gain a useful insight into Chinese/Taiwanese materials and manufacturing quality.

http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/147326-gso-6-imaging-newtonian-f4-looking-for-opinions/

Mike

Thanks for the link- never read that till now- there's a few points in there that clearly need correcting from actual scope owners rather than the 'theorisers'!

The 'only' mods I found necessary on the 6" were uprating the primary mirror adjuster studs from M4 to M5 and the obligatory stronger springs. With longer M5 studs I was able to shift the main mirror up the tube 10mm or so. I also got rid of the 'locking' screw and replaced these with three 'passive springs'. I flocked the tube while it was in bits- but mechanically the rest is as stable as you might expect at that price level. Tube flex doesn't seem to be an issue on the 6" with a pro sized DSLR but on my 8", 10" & 12" GSO steel tube Newts I took measures to add a Tube Strengthening Plate which seems to have cured any 'variable orthoganality' issues that there were. All good fun!