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Excited? Moi?

Stu

By Stu
in Discussions - Scopes / Whole setups

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Stu

Stu

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Scope is out cooling and waiting for the clear spell forecast later on. Thanks to Mike's guidance, it all went together very well.

My Hotech laser collimator turned up yesterday, I must admit it makes the whole process really very quick to check and adjust bother secondary and primary (assuming the secondary is basically properly centred and round etc)

My one remaining issue is related to Skysafari and the Nexus/encoders. It still operates in the reverse direction vertically, regardless of the setting in the app. One for further investigation another time.

I'm just going for some simple targets tonight to get used to it, M42 is top of my list for some reason [emoji6]

a22ca00f850cbebbb4b6d8ad5962a346.jpg

Will report back later if the skies clear....

Stu

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Stu

Stu

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Thanks all. Despite no one forecasting it, I've just had to contend with a brief rain shower [emoji20]

I chucked a cover over most of it and hopefully the primary will have stayed dry as I had a top cover on plus the shroud.

Anyway, fingers crossed for later.

Look out for small flying children [emoji12]

EDIT Shane, I assume you mean UHC? Will do. The moon is not brilliantly positioned but will give it a go

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Stu

Stu

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Thanks John.

Skies are clear now. Last hurdle before observing is the small bundle of joy lying in my lap in the darkness guzzling her bedtime milk. Not so much of a hardship [emoji3]

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Stu

Stu

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Just popped in for dinner. First light on M42, as Shane would say 'behold' [emoji3]

Lovely green colour to the nebula which I not seen as strongly before. Moon is not doing it any favours, and I've got some work to do setting SIPS up correctly, can only focus the 21e currently.

More later [emoji3]

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Stu

Stu

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I missed this Stu - What is it? And don't say a Dob. :grin:

Russell

Well.....its a Dob..... [emoji6]

It's actually a 16" Sumerian Canopus which I picked up on Friday. Very lovely scope which I am slowly getting to know how to use.

I'm having a few issues setting up the SIPS on it though, I think I may need another spacer so will get that sorted. Tonight turned into a bit of a 'just set it up and try to see something' kind of session [emoji6]

To John's point, E & F eluded me completely, I suspect through a combination of poor seeing, the moon and my issues with SIPS. I suspect the collimation also needed another tweak but was busy just getting the basics right so will worry about that another night.

The best views I had were earlier on, with some lovely views of M42, distinctly green and plenty of detail visible. I'm going hold my 'wows' and 'awesomes' for when I get it fully sorted, and more to the point, get it under a dark sky.

From what I've seen so far, my views of newts vs refractors have not changed. The star shapes and purity of image in a refractor are what 'does' it for me. I think I will continue to view through my Fracs for stellar targets, clusters, doubles etc, but the Canopus will totally blow the fracs away when I can get it to a dark site and view nebulae and galaxies, that's what I really bought it for.

I suspect I shall probably concentrate on using the VX10L at home, along with the fracs, and keep the Canopus for star parties but also for hopefully more regular dark site trips now I have some aperture which will fit in the car!

Enough rambling, I need to go and have another quick peek before packing it all down. The shroud is covered in frost already [emoji12]

Stu

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alan potts

alan potts

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Nice reports Stu,

I think next week I will be going through the same learning curve as you, mine is said to be on it's way ealry next week so could be here for weekend depending on the courier. With my address being rather bizzar, House 15 3rd Road, that is enough to even tax the Mayor here who is not sure of the number, he asked me what number would I like.

I would be grateful of any tips you pick up in view of the fact mine will be the same but a bit bigger. BTW my little 190mm showed E and F last night, I am sure this is only location and conditions. It must be difficult finding a dark site near to you but I seem to recall the South Downs was mentioned, I once lived on the North side but that was more than 40 years ago.

Alan

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Peter Drew

Peter Drew

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The E and F stars of the Trapezium don't get easier to see by increasing the aperture unless the seeing is particularly good. E and F require tight star images, any bloating of the main four will indicate that the seeing is not up to it and the similar effect on E and F will render them invisible. I have found that 8" aperture is a sweetspot for this observation.   :smiley:  

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swamp thing

swamp thing

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Nice one Stu :)

See you out there (dark skies) soon :)

If you can focus one eyepiece you shouldn't have any problems with others Stu.  I set mine up using the 31mm T5 Nagler as this is the eyepiece that needs the most in-travel in my scope. Once that is done, your all set ;)

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John

John

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The E and F stars of the Trapezium don't get easier to see by increasing the aperture unless the seeing is particularly good. E and F require tight star images, any bloating of the main four will indicate that the seeing is not up to it and the similar effect on E and F will render them invisible. I have found that 8" aperture is a sweetspot for this observation.   :smiley:  

They can be fickle little so and so's !

For some reason I find getting the eyepiece focal length "just right" is the key to clear views of them. 8mm seems to be the "Goldilocks" one with my scopes even though the scopes do have different focal lengths (900mm and 1590mm). Why this is I'm not sure but the results are consistent so there must be something "right" about it :smiley:

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Stu

Stu

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Nice one Stu :)

See you out there (dark skies) soon :)

If you can focus one eyepiece you shouldn't have any problems with others Stu. I set mine up using the 31mm T5 Nagler as this is the eyepiece that needs the most in-travel in my scope. Once that is done, your all set ;)

Thanks Steve, looking forward to meeting you under some dark skies! You can show me the ropes [emoji6]

I am confused by the SIPS setup. The info I have details setup with an eyepiece in place, just using the tube with a tape screen across the end.... How does this account for different eyepieces?

I was following this guide which I found on t'interweb

http://www.loptics.com/documents/SIPS.pdf

Drop me a pm if easier.

Stu

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