Show us your set up in action at night.

[louizi]

1 hour ago, iapa said:

Have to let me know it is,

they’ve had my CGEM-DX, just waiting to get it back

hoping for serious improvement if their video is anything to go

Wow.....

This must have cost s fortune...

[R26 oldtimer]

This is by far my favourite "show us...." thread!!

[Joves]

On 21/02/2019 at 08:44, Stu said:

Mewlon out playing tonight, having fun. 

Absolutely beautiful scope and setup, Stu. I’m sure you’ll have many a memorable night with that!

[RiponJas]

Bit of visual to get back into the swing of things. About to pack it all away, hence the harsh lighting. ?

[Guest]

On 20/03/2019 at 19:30, iapa said:

Have to let me know it is,

they’ve had my CGEM-DX, just waiting to get it back

hoping for serious improvement if their video is anything to go

David did a fantastic job on both my Star Adventurer and my NEQ6 ?

The belt drive makes a huge difference ....to everything ?

David

[Guest]

On 26/02/2019 at 20:20, geordie85 said:

You'll have to let me know how it performs once its settled in. I've been tempted to get this done for a while now. 

No regrets here - much more responsive to slew, there's zero resistance in the rotation of the axis now - before it was quite bad.

David

[geordie85]

1 hour ago, David_L said:

No regrets here - much more responsive to slew, there's zero resistance in the rotation of the axis now - before it was quite bad.

David

It sounds like it's worth the money and time being without a mount. Would this assumption be correct? 

[iPeace]

Stanley the TV-85 out for an early Moon.

[JohnSadlerAstro]

Hi,

Loving the fracs, but it's time for a newt ?!

The weather has been bad recently, but I did get out to collimate the polescope and troubleshoot the alignment issues I had last month. All round a successful evening, with everything resolved!

Cloud was on its way but I got to see a few galaxies before putting the setup away. ?

John 

[Sunshine]

A great night to take the Mak out of winter hibernation and try out some new eyepieces.

[Han Solo]

Here is my set up. Cables everywhere! And excuse the mess in the background! I still need to figure out the cable management. How do you guys do it with a rig which you strip down each evening?

 

Skywatcher HEQ5 with belt mod

William Optics Zenithstar 73

TS Optics 60mm Guidescope

Altair 183M PRO TEC camera

Altair GPCAM2 290M

 

Edited April 27, 2019 by Han Solo

[wimvb]

3 hours ago, Han Solo said:

I still need to figure out the cable management. How do you guys do it with a rig which you strip down each evening?

I use cable ties. I bind the power cables together, and the the data (usb) cables. Then I hang the looms over the mount. The dovetail bolts come in handy for this. Nowadays I have a semipermanent setup, so I can leave everything connected. But when I had to dismantle every night, I kept the looms together as much as possible.

[Han Solo]

12 minutes ago, wimvb said:

I use cable ties. I bind the power cables together, and the the data (usb) cables. Then I hang the looms over the mount. The dovetail bolts come in handy for this. Nowadays I have a semipermanent setup, so I can leave everything connected. But when I had to dismantle every night, I kept the looms together as much as possible.

Sounds like an idea. Is it good practice to mount as much as possible on the scope. i.e dew heater controller and any excess cable lengths?

[wimvb]

I think so. The fewer cables that hang from the scope/mount, the better. Cables can get stuck or drag, affecting the guiding performance. Just make sure that you can do a meridian flip without the cables snagging. I use one larger cable tie as a loop to hang a over a dovetail bolt; the looms hang loosely in this loop.

[Stu]

Not totally at night, but near enough.

This is the Orion Optics 8" f8 on my Sphinx mount which just about takes it! I had to close the tripod down a bit and even then it was clashing with the leg so couldn't align it properly, just pointed it at the moon and set it tracking. I need a half pillar really but Vixen ones are a fortune I think!

[Geoff Barnes]

I'm sure I can hear that poor Sphinx mount groaning "Get off me ya great lump"! 

Handy to be able to park your car in the back yard too Stu!

 

[Stu]

It coped surprisingly well Geoff. It's not that heavy but is looooong! 😀 It really needs to be on a dob mount and an EQ platform but that will have to wait for a while.

[Sunshine]

1 hour ago, Stu said:

Not totally at night, but near enough.

Beautiful scope, are you not afraid of keeping that tripod unopened like that? 

[Stu]

47 minutes ago, Sunshine said:

Beautiful scope, are you not afraid of keeping that tripod unopened like that? 

I was initially, but it was actually very stable. I think I probably need a short pillar if I'm going to carry on using it like this though.

[david_taurus83]

Not really a shot in action but it spends more time in this position than anything else!

 

Changing things up from this:

 

 

Some difference!

 

 

To this!

 

 

102 EDR is ready! Chance of less clouds later. Hopefully get to do some testing. What's the chances of the flattener working straight off the bat?🤔

[Stu]

This is the Mewlon 210 in action last night at our club night. The mount is a Vixen Sphinx, good mount if a little chattery, having the wrong counterweight with me probably didn't help.

Skies were pretty dodgy, but we had some good views of the crescent moon, and I tried for a few doubles and globs. Jupiter was a wash out, behind hazy clouds and showing literally no detail at all. Good to be out with fun company though.

[mark skelton]

Here's my set up,

[Nigella Bryant]

Here's my grab and go scope, modded 12inch OO12 UK f4 on a modded neq6. 

[Stu]

1 hour ago, Nigella Bryant said:

Here's my grab and go scope, modded 12inch OO12 UK f4 on a modded neq6. 

Nice, but I'd hate to see your permanent setup, must be huge! 🤣🤣

[wimvb]

2 hours ago, Stu said:

Nice, but I'd hate to see your permanent setup, must be huge! 🤣🤣

I'd LOVE to see it, but hate to lug it.