What did the postman bring?

[Mr Spock]

Black paint for all those nasty, shiny, reflective surfaces. 

Yeah, I missed some bits. Will fix that tomorrow.

[bomberbaz]

Finally managed to find one at a good price, will work well with the ED100 also the DOB for super high power work. 

[Stu]

Two vixen clamps to make it easier to use the Unitron 114AZ, and the TOE 3.3mm completes the set. Not sure if the 3.4HR is scared or not, we will see.

[JeremyS]

2 hours ago, Stu said:

 the TOE 3.3mm completes the set. Not sure if the 3.4HR is scared or not, we will see.

 

Well, as an owner of the already fantastic Vixen HR 3.4, I’m scared 😱 

🤣

[Franklin]

7 hours ago, Stu said:

Two vixen clamps

I picked up one of those clamps with the idea of mounting it at the top end of a vixen bar to act as a safety bolt. But mine doesn't fit a standard vixen bar, it appears to be a bit too narrow. Looks exactly like the two you have but only one bolt hole and a bit narrower. Does anyone know what the smaller one is actually intended for? Arca Swiss?

[Stu]

1 hour ago, Franklin said:

I picked up one of those clamps with the idea of mounting it at the top end of a vixen bar to act as a safety bolt. But mine doesn't fit a standard vixen bar, it appears to be a bit too narrow. Looks exactly like the two you have but only one bolt hole and a bit narrower. Does anyone know what the smaller one is actually intended for? Arca Swiss?

If it’s ADM then it is likely one of their MDS ones (Mini Dovetail System).

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/adm-mini-dovetail-series.html

I’ve fallen into that trap myself in the past 🤪🤣

[StuartT]

ZWO off axis guider. Finally I can really start using my new Edge 9.25" 😃

[Elp]

On 04/05/2022 at 21:50, Mr Spock said:

Black paint for all those nasty, shiny, reflective surfaces. 

Yeah, I missed some bits. Will fix that tomorrow.

Did you apply this via brush? Been thinking about musou for the internals of my 130pds.

[Franklin]

5 hours ago, Stu said:

If it’s ADM then it is likely one of their MDS ones (Mini Dovetail System).

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/adm-mini-dovetail-series.html

I’ve fallen into that trap myself in the past 🤪🤣

That's the one. Thanks, I think I'll stick it in the classifieds, no use to me.

[Mr Spock]

3 hours ago, Elp said:

Did you apply this via brush? Been thinking about musou for the internals of my 130pds.

Yes, I used a brush 

[Alan White]

Well Postie Pete has been today while I was at work,
he deliverd something as rarely found as Rocking Horse Manure.....
A Vixen 22mm LVW, only been looking for a number of years.

Lucky find on Fleabay on Wednesday evening while sitting in the hospitla carpark.
 

Edited May 6, 2022 by Alan White

[Starwatcher2001]

16 minutes ago, Alan White said:

A Vixen 22mm LVW, only been looking for a number of years.
 

Hope it scratches that itch after all this time Alan.

[Franklin]

27 minutes ago, Alan White said:

A Vixen 22mm LVW, only been looking for a number of years.

 

Cracking find, I'd love a set of those. There was a near full set on fleabay not long ago but the seller was asking around £200 a piece. A bit too much for me.  And yes @Mr Spock I am jealous.

Edited May 6, 2022 by Franklin

[Chaz2b]

For the first time, I’ve been disappointed with my recent purchase of a Celestron ED 100 F9 refractor! It’s not damaged much…a deep scatch to the lovely black outer and someone has cleaned the inside back of the objectives!! Unless you know what you are doing, it’s best left alone. Luckily the day time viewing is not affected and I’ll get a touch pen for the scratch..but the cleaning? Grrrrr.

Purchased second hand, preloved…used…

chaz

[Olli]

Nothing to exciting but hopefully my back will thank me later. Bought a nice bag for my mounts. 

[Ratlet]

Not the postie, but been agonising over a proper scope for some visual to go with an astrophotography setup.

Probably fate when I saw this for an absolute steal on gumtree.  Just need to get some clear skies and not have to work 6-6 to take it for a spin 🥳

 

Plus I can now do visual whilst the astro stuff does its thing!  Gonna split me some doubles. And look at the planets.

[PeterC65]

A month ago I posted a photo of my "now complete eyepiece collection" then last week this arrived ...

... a Baader Classic Plossl 32mm, shown here with the (included) eyeshield extension which is needed if you're going to press your eye up against the rubber eyeshield.

My current 'big exit pupil eyepiece' is a Celestron Omni 40mm but with this the exit pupil is 8mm in the new Explorer 150PDS and I wanted something a little smaller. The Baader Classic Plossl 32mm gives me 6.4mm which seems more sensible.

The Baader has a slightly wider apparent FoV (50° vs 43°) and shorter eye relief (21mm vs 31mm) than the Celestron which personally I find much easier on the eye so it may become my 'big exit pupil eyepiece' for all of my scopes. I've also discovered today, during daylight testing, that I prefer the x2.25 Barlowed ES 82° 6.7mm to the ES 52° 3mm so that could be two eyepieces on the way out ... making room for a 2" widefield eyepiece for the Explorer 150PDS perhaps!

It seems there is just no end to eyepiece purchases!!

 

 

[bomberbaz]

Collapsible stool for observing, intended use for sw steel tripod, skytee 2 and my fracs or giant bins. 

 

[Ratlet]

A bracket from svbony and shoe so I can put a red dot on my camera.

Also svbony had lucky dip and I got.... A collimator eyepiece lol.  Guess I'll need to buy a newtonian since I've got only a mak just now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[DaveL59]

Not so much for astro tho may try some pics against the moon with it. Been of half a mind to import one of these from Japan but the VAT and duty hit made me hold off for quite a while. Funny the other night one came up on the bay of e in the UK, OK maybe more than an import would've cost but what the heck. Hit buy and the bay offered a discount code, 10% off so probably came out same as importing 😄

The rubber could do with a clean which I'll use 303 on as that'll give a bit of protection too. Optically and the bodywork is nice and clean tho so hopefully will work well for bird/wildlife shots etc. At 400mm on my Sony A77ii that'd give a reach of 600mm. Only downside is no tripod mount so the camera would have to carry it when on a tri/monopod or a lot of practise to get good handheld shots with it. Apparently it should be as sharp as the 70-400 G lens tho smaller/lighter, also sharper than the 100-300APO that I already have 🙂 

 

[powerlord]

Photographic, if not astrophotography..

A nearly 100 year old colour slide photo in 3d.

Made from potatoes. I kid you not.

Learned about on this great channel..

So bought one off ebay for 3 quid!!

 

[markse68]

Took the plunge and bought one of these 

I had been a bit sceptical, thinking my Asi120 with circle overlay was just as good but I was very wrong- this thing is fantastic! A really useful tool 👍 Its actually making collimation exciting 😂

Mark

[powerlord]

11 hours ago, markse68 said:

Took the plunge and bought one of these 

I had been a bit sceptical, thinking my Asi120 with circle overlay was just as good but I was very wrong- this thing is fantastic! A really useful tool 👍 Its actually making collimation exciting 😂

Mark

I liked mine so much, I wrote the new manual.

stu

[markse68]

14 minutes ago, powerlord said:

I liked mine so much, I wrote the new manual.

stu

Hi Stu, really? that’s cool 👍 Could you maybe explain me the relevance of the calibrated offsets you get from the excel spreadsheet then? I had to introduce small offsets to align the first circle perfectly with the end of the focuser draw-tube to centre everything so that would have made the calibrated offsets redundant?

Mark

[powerlord]

Yeh - the originally manual was utter pants. I saw FLO were getting lots of returns (based on the number of discounted ones they advertised here as returned), so figured I could do a bit better. 🙂

The offsets are offsets of the camera lens centre from the body of the camera centre in tiny fractions of mms.

the offset you set in the app is the offset of your focus tube. glad you like it. hope my manual helped.

that bit (spreadsheets) and the app install are still prerry awkward, but nowt i could do about that

stu

Edited May 10, 2022 by powerlord