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the plague of the 80mm refractor


alacant

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2 hours ago, RichLD said:

Off topic so apologies in advance. Thank you Olly for pointing me and others in the direction of Mr Neyer's website - his images are ridiculously good :icon_biggrin:

This one in particular caught my eye - good grief it's brilliant!

Yes indeed. His images are, above all, original and, although he doesn't use a small refractor but a medium to large sized one, his images are accessible to smaller refractors. Users of 80mm refractors could, with his originality of mind, do likewise.

Olly

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Guilty as charged!

Time and again I find it hilarious to read some of the drivel I wrote 10 years ago. I guess the date is about 2006/7.  Little to be gained from defending historical crimes. Ten years later I hope I am a little wiser... and no doubt a little more curmudgeonly :)

Perhaps one of the points behind the misguided piece was to bemoan a lack of originality. Olly's sentiment should be high in all our minds: Strive to create something original and follow less-trodden paths.

 

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3 hours ago, Tom How said:

Guilty as charged!

Time and again I find it hilarious to read some of the drivel I wrote 10 years ago. I guess the date is about 2006/7.  Little to be gained from defending historical crimes. Ten years later I hope I am a little wiser... and no doubt a little more curmudgeonly :)

Perhaps one of the points behind the misguided piece was to bemoan a lack of originality. Olly's sentiment should be high in all our minds: Strive to create something original and follow less-trodden paths.

 

Well I'd vote for that as post of the year if such a thing existed! A less curmudgeonly post was never posted. (Not the best sentence I ever wrote but Hey-Ho!)

Oly

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3 hours ago, Tom How said:

Guilty as charged!

Time and again I find it hilarious to read some of the drivel I wrote 10 years ago. I guess the date is about 2006/7.  Little to be gained from defending historical crimes. Ten years later I hope I am a little wiser... and no doubt a little more curmudgeonly :)

Perhaps one of the points behind the misguided piece was to bemoan a lack of originality. Olly's sentiment should be high in all our minds: Strive to create something original and follow less-trodden paths.

 

There's always space for 1 more curmudgeon. :)

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On 09/09/2016 at 19:07, daz said:

I can't take that rant seriously - another one that calls it North American nebula, when it is the North America nebula!

 "My Goodness, It's full of Indians !! Apologies to  Arthur C. Clarke and Mr Kubrick :icon_biggrin:.

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The article is a bit of a rant (has to rate as at least a couple micro-Zwickys), AP is what you make of it. But there is a point in there about f7.5 not being a great place to start imaging for beginners. Exhibit A:

15147147820_89347b3d5e_b.jpg

(135m lens at f3.5, 30 minutes total integration time - quick results with a very cheap rig.)

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14 hours ago, Knight of Clear Skies said:

quick results with a very cheap rig

+1. Absolutely. I wish I had started with what I already had; a camera and a lens. Many think astro-photography means a camera attached to a telescope. Maybe what the author is saying that that really should not be the case. I think that recommending 130 or 80 or 200p or eqsomethingorother or correctorthis or fieldcurverthat or whatever the current minimum is on sgl (costing over €2000) should come only after the would be ap-er has had a go. With a camera and a lens. Cheers and clear skies.

*May I add exhibit B? The same type of secondhand ebay 135mm fl f4 refractor with poor man's H-alpha filter. 3 days from full moon. 

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 09/09/2016 at 08:37, Moonshane said:

 What he seems to fail to appreciate is that when your budget is tight you can mitigate possible problems and wasted money by following tried and tested routes to success. Only then can you start experimenting and almost everyone goes through an evolution with their kit be that either through accruing more funds or by enhancing their practice.

I think that this is an extremely salient point. Budget really does matter. There are not many people out there who can decide one day that they want to start astro imaging and then instantly commit the funds required for a 120 triplet and a Mesu 200 with associated Atik camera's etc. People generally start off as cheap as they can because they don't know if they are going to enjoy it or be good at it. It's taken me almost 3 years to get an NEQ6. I could never justify the cost of this before despite it being a first mount for many people. I've struggled and learnt on both cheap and terrible kit and only now do I have equipment capable of producing good quality images, but even then, my skill level doesn't match what my kit can do... yet. 

The attraction of the ubiquitous ED80, as many people in this thread and others have pointed out, is that it simply works. The first (and only) imaging scope I bought was the 130 PDS. This scope in the right hands is capable of far more than you would expect... but I'm still having issues every now and then. You don't need to collimate it frequently, but it does need doing from time to time and if you happen to ham-fist this in the middle of a dark and cold night, it can cause serious issues. Then, since getting a new camera with very small pixels, all the defects of the scope are shown in glorious detail. I've had to hacksaw 15mm off my focuser tube AND move the mirror about 10mm up the tube in order to stop the focusing tube protruding into the light path. This then moves the point of focus out but also requires much more precise collimation (apparently... I used to do it the lazy way with a laser but that is no longer accurate enough). All this is to simply get it to work, never mind the non-linear response of the mirror to temperature changes and the issues with autofocusing a newt. I can readily see the attraction of a small frac. I'm still not buying one though because I like diffraction spikes, I'm stubborn and a glutton for punishment. Also, I'm from Yorkshire so naturally tight too.

Edit: Just seen when this thread was originally posted. Oops. Sorry for bringing up old news.

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1 hour ago, Tiny Small said:

This then moves the point of focus out but also requires much more precise collimation (apparently... I used to do it the lazy way with a laser but that is no longer accurate enough).

Same offer I made to Carole... if youre coming to SGL12, bring it over to me and I'll tweak it for ya. (I have a rather unique collimation device for the 130)

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1 hour ago, Uranium235 said:

Same offer I made to Carole... if youre coming to SGL12, bring it over to me and I'll tweak it for ya. (I have a rather unique collimation device for the 130)

Ta for the offer but I'm not going to be there. I'm going to just start from scratch with it as my laziness over the last couple of years (bunging a laser in and giving it a quick tweak) has likely resulted in some pretty bad alignment. My Cheshire arrives today so I'll just do it right and then not worry about it so much.

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Why do so many sea fishermen use twelve-foot beachcasters and catch dogfish? They could be out on a boat using a decent boat rod and hauling great white sharks out by the ton, if only they spent a few more quid.

If I see another dogfish, I think I'll puke...

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