8" RC

[martin_h]

So, I took the plunge, bit the bullet etc and got myself a new scope, Altair Astro 8" carbon tubed RC. Ordered Monday morning, delivered Tuesday mid day!!

First impressions out of the box, nice finish, sturdy, with its 2 losmandy dovetails, back heavy!! gonna be fun balancing this with all the gubbins strapped to the back but I do intend piggy backing it with my star 71 on top, so I can push it forward quite a bit to get some weight on the front end.

2nd impression out of the box............ supplied focuser is tosh!!! it wont hold my filter wheel (7 x 2") and CCD, and there will be a OAG and guide camera to add to that as well. So to that end I have ordered a 2.5" R&P focuser from TS, which of course is out of stock with a 1 to 3 week wait, but its chucking it down with rain at the moment and the forecast is not looking good for the foreseeable.

More info/progress as and when it happens.

Edited July 27, 2016 by martin_h

[johnrt]

Congrats Martin,

Welcome to the RC club! I have to agree on the focuser they are pants, you've made the correct decision to ditch it! I love my RC, the smaller version of yours, and I'm sure you're going to love yours too. Have you tacked the dreaded collimation yet?

Edited July 27, 2016 by johnrt

[Uranium235]

I can well understand your focuser problems! As a test, I swapped out the diamond steeltrack for the original focuser on my 200pds the other night and it turned out to be a total dog turd... couldnt even get a 2sec exposure out of it without smearing. So last night I did some work with adding some strengthening plates on the inside of the OTA and put back the steeltrack.... hopefully tonight I can get some testing done.... should be alright as its now quite stiff and the whole OTA resonates when I flick the camera.. a good sign!

Are you going to use the 71 for guiding?.... seems like an awfully expensive guidescope!

 

[Ikonnikov]

I have the 3" version of the TS rack and pinion focuser on the 10" Altair RC-CF and although yet to be used in anger despite being installed several months ago (see the Yorkshire summer) it seems a pretty solid piece of kit and far more capable of handling my G3 CCD plus accessories than the stock version.

Paul

[martin_h]

21 minutes ago, Ikonnikov said:

I have the 3" version of the TS rack and pinion focuser on the 10" Altair RC-CF and although yet to be used in anger despite being installed several months ago (see the Yorkshire summer) it seems a pretty solid piece of kit and far more capable of handling my G3 CCD plus accessories than the stock version.

Paul

Good to know

[martin_h]

2 hours ago, johnrt said:

Congrats Martin,

Welcome to the RC club! I have to agree on the focuser they are pants, you've made the correct decision to ditch it! I love my RC, the smaller version of yours, and I'm sure you're going to love yours too. Have you tacked the dreaded collimation yet?

Collimation? Whats that then??

[martin_h]

1 hour ago, Uranium235 said:

I can well understand your focuser problems! As a test, I swapped out the diamond steeltrack for the original focuser on my 200pds the other night and it turned out to be a total dog turd... couldnt even get a 2sec exposure out of it without smearing. So last night I did some work with adding some strengthening plates on the inside of the OTA and put back the steeltrack.... hopefully tonight I can get some testing done.... should be alright as its now quite stiff and the whole OTA resonates when I flick the camera.. a good sign!

Are you going to use the 71 for guiding?.... seems like an awfully expensive guidescope!

 

OAG for guiding. The 71 will be a counter balance.lol........ I want to have it mounted so that I can just swap the CCD and filter wheel if I want to use the other scope instead of unshipping the whole lot.

[r3i]

Congrats on the new toy.  I've had mine for a few years now but only recently got round to replacing the focuser - as it happens I also went for a TS 2.5" R&P.  Like Paul (Ikonnikov) I've not had much chance to use it other than a quick test before the summer recess, but I have high hopes for it - I particularly like being able to have a set up where everything is screwed together rather than relying on potentially sloppy compression fittings.  At the same time as buying the focuser, I got an M63-M48 adapter, which when used along with an M48-T2 adapter that I already had enables me to screw my OAG & camera to the scope.

[martin_h]

Flipping heck!!!!! Focuser is going to take 12 weeks!!! Ahh well all good things come to he who waits...... so they say

[r3i]

2 minutes ago, martin_h said:

Flipping heck!!!!! Focuser is going to take 12 weeks!!! Ahh well all good things come to he who waits...... so they say

Very frustrating, but worth the wait.

[ollypenrice]

What, someone else doesn't like Crayfords? 

Olly

[martin_h]

On 27/07/2016 at 15:50, martin_h said:

Flipping heck!!!!! Focuser is going to take 12 weeks!!! Ahh well all good things come to he who waits...... so they say

I have just noticed that TS do the same focuser but with 12mm less draw tube travel, so have emailed them to swap the order if they can....cos that one is in stock!

[r3i]

18 hours ago, martin_h said:

I have just noticed that TS do the same focuser but with 12mm less draw tube travel, so have emailed them to swap the order if they can....cos that one is in stock!

I went for the smaller one too (simply because the longer was also out of stock when I bought in April).  I don't think the loss of 12mm of travel is going to be a problem, when there's plenty of opportunity to juggle the back focus position with the 3 extension tubes that come with the scope.

[martin_h]

Got an email from TS at 8am today saying focuser will be in post on Monday - result!