Altair Astro 8-inch RC out of the box...

[fwm891]

Hi,
Its arrived today (sounds like a baby ) double boxed in heavy cardboard and a moulded polystyrene interior held the OTA, Losmandy mountings and extension tubes (1x2", 2x1"). Everything looks really solid. Focuser is really smooth and held in place by a very substantial knurled ring which allows the focuser to be rotated to frame images etc. The focuser has a wedge shaped inner face to mate against either the OTA or the extension tubes. Extension tubes are really positive in fit against the OTA and each other.








Couldn't resist just pointing it out of the window (well through the double glazing ) dusk was well advanced when this image was taken, full frame Nikon used (36x24mm) image is uncropped and I took this to get an idea of the frame coverage. Some vignetting but that was expected:


I needed all the extension tubes and the focuser to get focus (focuser had 10mm indicating on its extension) giving around 260mm from the back of the OTA to the focal plane so bags of room when I fit the OAG, FW and Atik383L+ on the back.
My only concern at this stage is the balance point being right under the primary, especially when I put the OAG etc on as that will throw it back slightly I imagine.

Collimation is as supplied I will check that out tomorrow and update this partial review once I can point the scope at the sky and prvide some proper images
For APS size sensors:

[baggywrinkle]

Looks very nice, looking forward even more to your images from this. It has good reviews.

[brantuk]

Looking good there Francis - very nice indeed.

[johnrt]

Looks super, my 6" version has turned out to be a fantastic imaging OTA. I would be very interested to see if the 8" version suffers from loose primary and secondary mirrors as my 6" did on delivery.

[Sp@ce_d]

Very nice...

I'm seriously considering breaking the 'frac habit and going for one of these. I blame John's fantastic results with the 6" !

Looking forward to seeing your results..

[r3i]

Always great to receive a big box with a new toy inside .

Overall, I've been quite happy with mine.  I was a little underwhelmed by the focuser when I first got it out of the box but it has worked absolutely fine since.  Collimation took a little while to get my head round but I think I've pretty much got it sussed now.

Useful accessories to get include: 

• The TS Tilt Plate so that you can decouple the focuser from the mirror cell and get the optical alignment spot on.
• A focal reducer to speed up the scope and give an alternative FOV.  One that works well is the Astro Physics CCDT67.
• A dew heater for the secondary if you have a regularly soggy atmosphere.  Either use a normal dew heater wrapped around the secondary, or one of the bespoke Kendrick heaters.

I've had no problems with loose mirrors.  The only issues I've had are relatively minor:

• The finder shoe need shimming a bit to enable my finder scope to point in the same direction as the scope.
• Some internal reflections when imaging with the focal reducer, which was resolved by flocking the primary baffle.
• There were no instructions supplied with the scope but fortunately other brands of the GSO scopes do supply them:  Orion and Astro-Tech.

Hope you enjoy the new scope and look forward to seeing your results.

[fwm891]

Thanks all for the comments and suggestions

Mike:

Always great to receive a big box with a new toy inside .

Overall, I've been quite happy with mine.  I was a little underwhelmed by the focuser when I first got it out of the box but it has worked absolutely fine since.  Collimation took a little while to get my head round but I think I've pretty much got it sussed now.

Useful accessories to get include: 

• The TS Tilt Plate so that you can decouple the focuser from the mirror cell and get the optical alignment spot on.
• A focal reducer to speed up the scope and give an alternative FOV.  One that works well is the Astro Physics CCDT67.
• A dew heater for the secondary if you have a regularly soggy atmosphere.  Either use a normal dew heater wrapped around the secondary, or one of the bespoke Kendrick heaters.

I've had no problems with loose mirrors.  The only issues I've had are relatively minor:

• The finder shoe need shimming a bit to enable my finder scope to point in the same direction as the scope.
• Some internal reflections when imaging with the focal reducer, which was resolved by flocking the primary baffle.
• There were no instructions supplied with the scope but fortunately other brands of the GSO scopes do supply them:  Orion and Astro-Tech.

Hope you enjoy the new scope and look forward to seeing your results.

Been looking at the TS and AA tilt plates, neither seem to give access to the primary collimation screws - my thoughts on a tilt plate allowing access to the collimation screws:

tilt mech.pdf

Not sure about a reducer at the moment as I've got this specifically for the smaller brighter objects out there

Dew heater of some sort will be needed - even though I'm obsy based a RoR doesn't offer the greatest of protection from dew.

Like you I've downloaded info from other GSO variants

Various collimation instructions as well: http://www.deepskyinstruments.com/docs/DSI_Collimation_Procedure_Ver_1.0.pdf

Tried it on the mount today in daylight - doesn't seem too many problems, main one will be matching the focus motor to the RC 8 focuser so I can remote focus via liveview on the Nikon or sub frames with the Atik.

Will update as things are sorted, tweaked the secondary collimation today while the scope was on the mount but need the tilt plate and clear skies to take things much further.

Thanks again

[r3i]

Been looking at the TS and AA tilt plates, neither seem to give access to the primary collimation screws - my thoughts on a tilt plate allowing access to the collimation screws:

It depends on your spacing requirements but I have one of the 25mm extension tubes fitted to the rear cell then the tilt-plate fitted to that and then the focuser fitted to the tile plate.  This gives plenty of room for adjusting the primary collimation screws.

[fwm891]

It depends on your spacing requirements but I have one of the 25mm extension tubes fitted to the rear cell then the tilt-plate fitted to that and then the focuser fitted to the tile plate.  This gives plenty of room for adjusting the primary collimation screws.

Far too sensible

With the dslr I have all 3 tubes or 2" + 1" tubes with longer travel on the focuser

[Pig]

I do like Altair Astro products   congrats on the purchase Francis

[fwm891]

I do like Altair Astro products   congrats on the purchase Francis

I do too - only gripe would be lack of info with any of the scopes I've bought. Not to bad for me but anyone new buying AA scopes/mounts might get frustrated trying to sort gear out

[Pig]

I agree Francis, I have found this on ore than one occasion with quite a few Astro gear manufacturers.

[fwm891]

Quick first light before getting rained on...

1x1200s Ha sub binned 1x1

[r3i]

First light looks good Francis.  I was hitting the horeshead myself last night with the RC + FR + QHY8L.  Wasn't great due to getting a lot of reflections off Alnitak - will have to try it again without the FR in place.  I was also imaging with the 70mm frac + Ha + SXV-H9 at the same time, which fared better.