What did the postman bring?

[Nyctimene]

On 28/08/2019 at 16:02, markse68 said:

Clever- sounds like they made the scope too light 😉😂 Do those thin struts keep the uta rigid enough? Guess they must- interesting design!

8 kgs in toto - it's aways fully built up, including RDF and light shroud, and I can take it out in one trip, as a real grab-and go scope. And all  parts fit in the box with the handle, that serves as the ground board (with Teflon pads on it's top) - designed for airline hand luggage transport.

The struts, made from selected beech wood, and joined with special hinges, hold collimation very well, even at f/4. I'm doing the star test every third or fourth session, and have to adjust the primary only slightly. The stability relies on many triangles in the construction; it serves as an example for the Hamburg High School for Applied Sciences (aeroplane and automotive constructions department).

Stephan

Edited September 5, 2019 by Nyctimene

[AdeKing]

On 26/08/2019 at 10:56, johninderby said:

Lot more expensive than the Altair new though. About 62 quid delivered from Berlebach.

The ENS price was very reasonable in comparison. Don’t come up for sale second hand in the UK very often though.

That's true enough, it was on ENS for ages before I purchased it. I was surprised when it was still available when I searched last week and so snapped it up. 

[JOC]

Courtesy of SGL Classifieds - many thanks David for an easy transaction.

Nearly a full house, 14mm, 12.5, 9mm & 6.5mm, just the two extremes to find the 17.5 and the 4.5 and I'll have the lot.  However, I don't need them to come up just yet - I shouldn't really have found the funds for this one.

[Ally8446]

Oh yea 👍👍

Thanks to @Louis D for the recommendation. 

[L8-Nite]

Not from the postman, but I received a photo and message from my Niece that there was a telescope for sale at the "Shed" in the local recycling centre.  I don't need another scope, but  I jumped in the van to go and have a look; it followed me home. 

Its a 150P and all that was missing were the eyepieces and the knob for manual tracking. 

EDIT:  My mistake, there is no provision for attaching a manual control knob for tracking, must be an addition on new models. The few marks on the scope and base were actually glue residue from stickers I would think, and they easily cleaned off with a rag soaked in "Goo Gone".

.

Edited August 29, 2019 by L8-Nite

[johninderby]

And the ££££ ........ ?

[L8-Nite]

41 minutes ago, johninderby said:

And the ££££ ........ ?

It weighs in at 34.8 lbs.  

[Rob Sellent]

Finally arrived a Vixen FL102 😀 Made a little write up here. 

[CraigT82]

An old non goto EQ6, tatty but solid and a steal at £200 on ukabs.  Ye old fullerscope is much steadier on this compared to it's old mk3 mounting... now a proper lunar weapon! 

[markse68]

10 minutes ago, CraigT82 said:

Ye old fullerscope is much steadier on this compared to it's old mk3 mounting..

What size is that fullerscope Craig? And what are those mods you’ve done to it? 

[markse68]

Some brass for my new secondary holder 😃

[CraigT82]

28 minutes ago, markse68 said:

What size is that fullerscope Craig?

This one is about 8.75", I measured the primary at 220mm and it's got a fl of 1621mm so F7.4 ish. 

That's just a battery pack and cable for the fan I've got mounted behind the primary. The best mod for this scope is the motor focus which you can also see in the picture... really makes focusing a much less shaky affair! 

[johninderby]

A couple of boxes from Germany. 🙂🙂🙂

[JeremyS]

26 minutes ago, johninderby said:

A couple of boxes from Germany. 🙂🙂🙂

So, a Newtonian OTA and mount then....

[Ags]

I got a no-name-brand manual filter wheel and dichroic Meade LRGB filters second hand today. Wheel and filters in good condition. The Meade LRGBs came in an Astronomik LRGB filters box, so there was a moment of excitement 😀

Edited August 30, 2019 by Ags

[johninderby]

3 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

So, a Newtonian OTA and mount then....

Dob 👍🏻👍🏻

Few things to do to it this aft and start a thread. 🙂

[Stub Mandrel]

16 hours ago, CraigT82 said:

Ye old fullerscope is much steadier on this compared to it's old mk3 mounting... now a proper lunar weapon! 

Nice retro look 🙂

[DaveS]

Nothing expensive, just another UV/IR cut filter for my main imaging rig

Now I'll reset the filters from SNHORGB to a std LRGBSHO for the Deer Lick / Stephan's Quintet.

[Stub Mandrel]

8 minutes ago, DaveS said:

Now I'll reset the filters from SNHORGB to a std LRGBSHO for the Deer Lick / Stephan's Quintet.

Would you like a tissue?

[DaveS]

Haha. I was posting from my mobile so a bit collapsed

Old                                               New

Sulphur                                        Luminance

Nitrogen                                      Red

Hydrogen                                    Green

Oxygen                                        Blue

Red                                              Sulphur

Green                                          Hydrogen

Blue                                            Oxygen.

 

Reading the tables, there is a sort of logical alignment if you think about the Hubble Palette, and that I more often do NHO than SHO.

[Gina]

That's interesting.  I've never tried imaging in Nitrogen.

[DaveS]

You can only do it with 3 nm filters, and I think Astrodon are the only company that make them. Even with 3 nm filters there's still about 15% overlap.

[JamesF]

Courtesy of FLO, a couple of male-to-male T2 adapters (fitting filter wheels, for the purpose of):

And whilst in a T2 kind of mindset, yesterday I received a couple of these:

It's a 40mm T2 extension from SRB Photographic, but what looks like it could be particularly helpful now they've arrived is that the male T2 thread is only about 3mm deep: helpful where there's not a lot of clearance between the filter wheel body and the filter carousel, where deeper threaded sections can foul the carousel.  Saves having to buy/make spacers to take up some of the depth of the thread.

James

[Gina]

1 hour ago, DaveS said:

You can only do it with 3 nm filters, and I think Astrodon are the only company that make them. Even with 3 nm filters there's still about 15% overlap.

I did wonder if if might be possible to do it by taking a 5nm Ha image and subtracting a 3nm Ha image since the 5nm includes the NII wavelength and the 3nm doesn't (well not much).  I haven't tried it though.  You would need a dual imaging rig with everything matched bar the filters and the images taken at the same time.  I don't think I would want to shell out on a 3nm Astrodon filter - I think there are probably better things to spend the money on (if I had it).

[Davey-T]

Another item from David Hardies sale of the century, 17mm needed to fill that gap between 13mm and 21mm 

Dave