Short Stubby Thing

[Alkaid]

Acquired this 6" F5 newt from Knighty2112 (thanks Gus!).   Bit of a departure from the norm for me as I like long(ish) focal length scopes, but I have recently decided that when camping in darker skies I need as much aperture as I can get....and decided that one of these was the largest scope I could fit on a parcel shelf.  In fact it fits with room to spare.  The AZ4 just folds up and goes in the boot.   I've popped my own finder on it and will also add something like a Rigel soon.  It will be first light tonight from city skies, just to see how my xcel eyepieces perform in it (I've heard they're alright at F5). But seriously looking forward to some Messier hunting with this tubby little fella and a wider field than I'm used to at a nice dark sky in the Yorks Dales.

[Knighty2112]

Looks good on the mount Steve. Hope you get some clear skies tonight. Clear over here tonight so far, so going to pop out soon to have a looksie. Sadly, I won't get a chance to use the new scope until Friday. Was hoping to get it today, but not to be alas. Managed at last to fit a weight modification to my az3 stand though to balance my ST120 frac when I use it at least. Get to try the mod out tonight for the first time.  

[Alkaid]

That ST120 looks ace. Is that a counterweight mod? Looks good!

[Knighty2112]

Just now, Alkaid said:

That ST120 looks ace. Is that a counterweight mod? Looks good!

Yes. I pinched the weight bar & the weights from an older equ stand, and made a metal bracket to attatch it to the underside of the stand. Seems to work fine in the daytime OK, but gets the final test tonight. Seems to cope with my heaviest EP and my 2" diagonal OK, so should cope OK with more normal EPs etc.