What did the postman bring?

[Dunk 23]

On 20/11/2020 at 17:21, Dantooine said:

And here is the photographic evidence of my totally uncontrollable ordering finger on my keyboard. I’m not sure when I will get the chance to open the box to be honest but hopefully it’s soon. 

 

[Dunk 23]

See you also got the may contain clouds sticker. Mine did  also had about 5 minutes out with it in the last two weeks since getting it.

[DaveL59 2,605]

today a few bits arrived. Flash adaptor and bits for the Sony SLT-A77ii I'm awaiting and a mini telescope masquerading as a finder

TAL 8x50 finder from a TAL2 and wow that is solid and huge! Feels like the focuser could do with an overhaul as it sticks a bit, some internal dust but very sharp and clear. Single circle reticule for targets. Will have to see if I can sort end caps for it to protect those nice lens coatings. Looks like I'll have to drill whichever OTA I want to mount it onto as it has a 2-part shoe, so will be a while before I get around to doing that I expect.

[Dean Hale 222]

Couple of filters and the 20mm 1.25 StellaLyra eyepiece only £39. Just had a quick view between the clouds and seems more than adequate for a beginner like me. 

Edited November 24, 2020 by Dean Hale

[Captain Magenta 1,912]

A couple of books, courtesy of @Second Time Around, as soon as I received them I lost 20 minutes of my life getting absorbed in the surprisingly fascinating theory behind optimizing mirror supports to allow various “sags” to cancel each other out!

 

[Second Time Around 654]

Nice blog in your signature, Magnus.  I've bookmarked it to look at properly.

[markse68 1,578]

28 minutes ago, Captain Magenta said:

A couple of books, courtesy of @Second Time Around, as soon as I received them I lost 20 minutes of my life getting absorbed in the surprisingly fascinating theory behind optimizing mirror supports to allow various “sags” to cancel each other out!

 

Those look very interesting Magnus!

Mark

[markse68 1,578]

Missed a few of these but finally nabbed one- possibly from the same Scope Dave’s finder came off- another interesting Tal ep. It’s a bit narrow afov but nice and light.

Mark

[Pryce 171]

The postman was nice today.  He delivered my EQ6-R Pro! 

 

Everything on this photo will have first light very soon! 

[globular 259]

4 minutes ago, Pryce said:

Everything on this photo will have first light very soon!

Enjoy 

[HollyHound 823]

A couple of Orion Dobsonian magnetic counterweights (3lb & 1lb)... to allow me to fine tune balance when using the heavier eyepieces, ES Teleextender (arriving soon) and binoviewers... they may also double as handles for moving the dob 

[Dantooine 765]

1 hour ago, Pryce said:

The postman was nice today.  He delivered my EQ6-R Pro! 

 

Everything on this photo will have first light very soon! 

That’s a lot of stuff. Have you been given a tip-off about the weather

[Dantooine 765]

On 21/11/2020 at 20:44, Dunk said:

See you also got the may contain clouds sticker. Mine did  also had about 5 minutes out with it in the last two weeks since getting it.

Lots of anticipation

[MrFreeze 153]

Nice new visual back for my Mak to go with the SCT-Mak adapter FLO sent last week. Now all it needs is is a 2" eyepiece and diagonal.

David

[John 33,666]

One of these care of @billhinge

So that I can put my T-Rex alt-azimuth mount on my Berlebach Uni 28 tripod:

If needed this will go tall - the dovetail clamp is at around 2 metres at max:

Most of the time though the legs will be less than 50% extended.

Edited November 26, 2020 by John

[Deadlake 133]

32 minutes ago, John said:

One of these care of @billhinge

So that I can put my T-Rex alt-azimuth mount on my Berlebach Uni 28 tripod:

If needed this will go tall - the dovetail clamp is at around 2 metres at max:

Most of the time though the legs will be less than 50% extended.

How much weight does it save you over the steel tripod you have?

[John 33,666]

1 minute ago, Deadlake said:

How much weight does it save you over the steel tripod you have?

The overall weight is about the same. I just wanted to use the Uni 28 with the T-Rex Mount

At some point I will compare the EQ6 steel tripod + pillar extension with the Uni 28 and see how they compare in terms of performance and convenience with this mount.

I suspect there will not be much in it but I do like wooden tripods

 

[HollyHound 823]

For my initial foray into EEVA, got this on sale from @FLO to use with the ASIAir Pro.... a ZWO ASI 294MC (non cooled, as I'm only doing shortish exposures). By all accounts this should be more than enough to get started

Edited November 26, 2020 by HollyHound

[HollyHound 823]

After much deliberation back and forth, and good advice from everyone on here, I decided that I would get a 2x telecentric focal extender (to complement my 2.25x Hyperion barlow). These ES Focal Extenders have a good reputation and this 2inch variant will also allow me to try it with the Pentax XW30 too  This thing is quite heavy but fortunately, I now have the adjustable counterweights for the dob, to keep everything in balance 

Edited November 26, 2020 by HollyHound

[HollyHound 823]

4 hours ago, HollyHound said:

These ES Focal Extenders have a good reputation and this 2inch variant will also allow me to try it with the Pentax XW30 too 

Well I had an 90mins with the 10" dob before the haze came over and can confirm that this ES Focal Extender is effectively optically transparent and worked perfectly with all the Pentax XWs (30, 10 & 7) as well as the Panoptic 24 & 15mm. The moon using 2x on XW10 & XW7 was incredible... lovely bit of kit 

I've now ordered the ES 2x Focal Extender 1.25" variant, as it's significantly lighter and should work well on the StellaMira and remain balanced in the Zero mount 

[John 33,666]

25 minutes ago, HollyHound said:

Well I had an 90mins with the 10" dob before the haze came over and can confirm that this ES Focal Extender is effectively optically transparent and worked perfectly with all the Pentax XWs (30, 10 & 7) as well as the Panoptic 24 & 15mm. The moon using 2x on XW10 & XW7 was incredible... lovely bit of kit 

I've now ordered the ES 2x Focal Extender 1.25" variant, as it's significantly lighter and should work well on the StellaMira and remain balanced in the Zero mount 

I've used both the ES 2x Focal Extenders and they are really good

I'm still waiting for that Thornbury haze to come down here - hope it stays away for a bit longer !

[Jamgood 233]

This came today, along with clouds. I'll wait for first light to open it properly.

[Captain Magenta 1,912]

5 hours ago, John said:

The overall weight is about the same. I just wanted to use the Uni 28 with the T-Rex Mount

At some point I will compare the EQ6 steel tripod + pillar extension with the Uni 28 and see how they compare in terms of performance and convenience with this mount.

I suspect there will not be much in it but I do like wooden tripods

 

I’ll be interested to hear your result John.

My own part in this same transaction is that I symmetrically bought the wooden Uni tripod from @billhinge of which John’s EQ6 head was a spare, to directly replace my SW steel tripod. So I too will do a like-for-like comparison. Personally, I think the steel tripods are quite springy, but we’ll see...

[John 33,666]

14 minutes ago, Captain Magenta said:

I’ll be interested to hear your result John.

My own part in this same transaction is that I symmetrically bought the wooden Uni tripod from @billhinge of which John’s EQ6 head was a spare, to directly replace my SW steel tripod. So I too will do a like-for-like comparison. Personally, I think the steel tripods are quite springy, but we’ll see...

The steel tripod that came with the T-Rex mount is a 2 inch steel legged EQ6 one. Pretty sturdy I've found. I prefer the look of the Berlebach but we will see. The BB did well tonight with my 130mm F/9.2 triplet frac on board. Didn't try and compare the tripods though - too busy observing Mars and the Moon under excellent seeing before the fog came along !

 

 

[HollyHound 823]

1 hour ago, John said:

Didn't try and compare the tripods though - too busy observing Mars and the Moon under excellent seeing before the fog came along !

Same here... that “haze” turned into a full on proper fog Still, got 90mins on the moon and Mars too and an excellent view through the new dob Hope you got some good views