FLO Premium Cheshire - first light review

[Pixies]

Hi.

I bought a pre-loved FLO Premium Cheshire the other week. I have a shorty cheshire but find that very difficult to use as my short-sightedness means I can't focus on the cross hairs or the doughnut at the same time (with or without specs on). Also, the shorty is no good for aligning the secondary under the focuser on my scope, as it didn't get close enough to the secondary.

So I bought the above from @Rustang (cheers). And last night was the first chance I had to try it out.

It all went well, trying to align the secondary. This cheshire doesn't have a 'shoulder' on the tube, so you can insert it as far in or out as you need. With my Bresser 8" dob, the focuser is pretty deep, so I had it fully inserted and the focuser pretty much nearly full out. This stage of of collimation was nice and easy and quick. Firstly with the focuser racked out for reference and using Astro Baby's coloured paper tip:

and moved in closer to make sure it was all aligned:

And once that was sorted, the paper was removed and the secondary aligned with the primary doughnut and then the primary aligned so the eyehole was centred in the doughnut:

This last image isn't great, the eye-hole is small and it's really hard to line-up the camera lens with it. But in my eye it was sorted. Well - sort of. Aligning the secondary with the primary centre by making sure the crosshairs were over the doughnut was still a little tricky because of my eyesight. But I got it as close as I could then borrowed by daughter's eyes to confirm it was aligned. Aligning the primary was easy with my specs on.

So all fine, and I can recommend this cheshire. BUT, there's one drawback. It's because of the finish of the angled reflective surface. If you want to adjust the primary in the dark with a red led torch, there's a problem. The surface is so reflective, there is a specular reflection of the led, which makes it really hard to see the eyehole centred in the doughnut. You see a 'line' rather than a bright circle. My old shorty cheshire has a rough angled surface and the reflection is diffuse:

FLO Premium:

Shorty:

 

So I will be keeping the shorty in my case for night-time primary collimation.

It's a shame there's this one problem with it, when everything else with it is great. It's a well made piece of kit and will last a life-time. If I could suggest one other improvement, a small rubber eyeshield, like with the shorty, would help with the glare when holding up a torch to the side-port, close to your face.

10/10 for indoor full collimation. 2/10 for night-time primary collimation.

 

[Ruud]

That's a good review! Thanks.

Clear skies to you.

[Pixies]

Just noticed that there's a "Members Equipment Reviews" section. Mods - please feel free to stick this in there if necessary.

Cheers