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Hello Again!

Nick P

By Nick P
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Nick P

Nick P

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Posted

Hi All,

Haven't posted here for quite some time so I thought it right and proper to say hello again..... So hello everyone and thank you for maintaining such an outstanding resource as SGL

I'm very much a visual observer of the night sky and used to enjoy the views from a very nice Orion Optics short tube 8" reflector, unfortunately two catastrophic events conspired in its ultimate demise.......

1. Living next to the coast I hadn't appreciated the effect sea air and condensation has on mirrors.

2. Children!

Long story short, having removed the mirror cell from the tube and wondering if it was worth while getting it recoated, two of our younger daughters decided to sit on it! Now, anyone who has owned an OO reflector will understand that the tubes are not particularly 'robust' - so the tube was instantly transformed into a pancake and mirror put into daddies box of 'Junk' which has since gone walkabout in a house move!

Roll on a couple of years and said daughters are now excited by Tim Peak's adventures on the space station and their school being involved in the question and answer sessions - they are now thoroughly interested in all things astronomical - which gave me a very good excuse to get a new telescope.

So after much research on what we (I) wanted a scope for a new Evostar 90mm Refractor on an EQ2 mount was purchased from the very helpful people at FLO. I was quite worried about the mount, but I have to say it has been absolutely fantastic and whilst not the most stout mount it is very usable with no real issues upto 150X magnification, indeed my wife and I were able to see the GRS transit on Jupiter tonight - for its cost the performance is outstanding as long as one recognises the limitations of a 90mm refractor!

Apologies for droning on, look forward to meeting you all in the forums

All the best

Nick

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pipnina

pipnina

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I'm usually surprised when people say good things about the EQ2, for me it lives in a purgatory of "Why does anyone need this" but I was using it with a scope that was probably at the limit of what it could carry... Or maybe mine wasn't that good? I've got a different setup now and it's vastly better (thankfully). I may have to heed your warnings about sea air, most of my observing sessions are at a beach's car park haha.

 

Welcome back and hope you enjoy your second stay :)

    ~pip

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glowjet

glowjet

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Hi Nick and welcome back to the SGL forum, I hope the skies clear for you and everyone else for that matter, we have had bad weather for too long now, we must be due for a change, keep on enjoying that new scope of yours :icon_biggrin:

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Nick P

Nick P

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9 hours ago, pipnina said:

I'm usually surprised when people say good things about the EQ2, for me it lives in a purgatory of "Why does anyone need this" but I was using it with a scope that was probably at the limit of what it could carry... Or maybe mine wasn't that good? I've got a different setup now and it's vastly better (thankfully). I may have to heed your warnings about sea air, most of my observing sessions are at a beach's car park haha.

 

Welcome back and hope you enjoy your second stay :)

    ~pip

Hi Pip

So far I've found the EQ2 with the little frac to be fine, the image stabilises after about a second if I tap the tripod and about three seconds when focussing (even at 150X - 180X), even more surprising there is no image shake when using the slow motion control in RA which makes tracking a doddle! I was expecting to upgrade the mount pretty quickly but I don't think I'll need to...

The sad thing about the sea air is there probably isn't a solution for salt residue on the mirror - I had mine here for about 5 years before the coatings showed serious degradation  - Im sure yours will be fine though if you only observe next to the beach and keep it well stored

Clear skies

Nick

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g30rg313

g30rg313

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Hi Nick I'm looking for advice really.....you got me concerned now.....I live right by the sea.....on the north Wales coast to be more precise and now I'm concerned about my scope......I take my scope outside for viewing 2-3 hours at a time and the rest of the time it is stored indoors.....I'm wondering if there is a product out there that can protect my scope from the harsh sea air?  I hope to have this scope for a few years at least.

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