Upgrade to TS Optics Photoline 115mm APO

[Deadlake]

1 minute ago, Louis D said:

I'm picturing $800+ APOs sent from Europe to the US as tube, lens cell, and focuser all separately on different days to legitimately keep the cost below $800 per individual per day (the letter of the law here).  Some minor assembly required.

Well its standard approach here as well, issue is with lenses. LZOS lens cell for a 130 mm/F6 is retail around £3800. Don't know how thats going to get thru, one part of the triplet at a time? 🤣

[Louis D]

2 hours ago, Deadlake said:

Well its standard approach here as well, issue is with lenses. LZOS lens cell for a 130 mm/F6 is retail around £3800. Don't know how thats going to get thru, one part of the triplet at a time? 🤣

I never claimed it would work in all situations.

The law of unintended consequences comes to mind about now.  Back in the 80s or 90s, Congress enacted a luxury tax on all yachts sold by American companies to "stick it" to the wealthy.  This had the unintended consequence of putting thousands of American yacht makers out of business (including my cousin in New Jersey) because the wealthy simply bought foreign made yachts and registered them overseas before bringing them back to US marinas.  Needless to say, that stupid law was repealed after about 15 years, but the damage had already been done.  The US yacht building industry has never really recovered.

Edited February 23, 2021 by Louis D

[Deadlake]

58 minutes ago, Louis D said:

I never claimed it would work in all situations.

The law of intended consequences comes to mind about now.  Back in the 80s or 90s, Congress enacted a luxury tax on all yachts sold by American companies to "stick it" to the wealthy.  This had the unintended consequence of putting thousands of American yacht makers out of business (including my cousin in New Jersey) because the wealthy simply bought foreign made yachts and registered them overseas before bringing them back to US marinas.  Needless to say, that stupid law was repealed after about 15 years, but the damage had already been done.  The US yacht building industry has never really recovered.

I was just imagining the lengths people go too.... 

[Louis D]

1 hour ago, Deadlake said:

I was just imagining the lengths people go too.... 

Found it.  The 10% luxury tax was enacted in November 1991 and the yacht part was repealed in August 1993.  The car part wasn't repealed until 2002.

Imagine buying a $3,000,000 boat, only to have to pay another $300,000 just because of where you bought it.  It was probably cheaper in the 90s to buy a yacht anywhere else than the US, and this just sealed the deal to buy elsewhere.  As long as you didn't flag it in the US, there wasn't any way to compel an owner to pay the tax avoided.  The wealthy didn't get that way by beings stupid with their money.  Ever notice real estate developers (like a certain orange one) put up very little of their own money?  Instead, they rely on "partners", "investors", and bank loans secured by the property involved to finance their deals.  This greatly limits their downside exposure in case of bankruptcy.

[Deeko]

Bought the scope from Rupert at Astrograph. He said his supplier will bench test it and so will he when it arrives with him before sending on to me. I paid a total of £1200 for it, shipped in from EU via Rupert. Arrives with me on Monday. Now I may just need to upgrade my HEQ5 Pro, but the scope seems to be only 1.3kg heavier than my current 80mm, but understand it will be longer so different load distribution there and also more surface area for wind etc. Though there is a chance it might be ok on the HEQ5 Pro for now and worth a try.

I have read that the EQ6-R is a decent mount but guiding capabilities not much better than the HEQ5, though it can take a larger payload. My HEQ5 Pro has a belt mod, guiding is just ok. If I want something better at guiding that an EQ6-R then am I looking at a CEM45 or CEM70,. I see the CEM45 is in same class as EQ6-R but CEM70 a step up, but is it worth nearly double the price of an EQ6-R when you factor in the tri-pier?

[Deeko]

It arrived today, bigger and heavier than I anticipated! The whole focussing assembly can rotate 360 degrees which I didn't factor in as a feature. You can see the large knob that locks/unlocks this feature in photo below. I already have a separate rotator that sits between the camera and reducer, I wonder if I can remove that and just rotate the whole focuser for framing instead - has anyone any experience using this for imaging?

 

[dannybgoode]

12 minutes ago, Deeko said:

It arrived today, bigger and heavier than I anticipated! The whole focussing assembly can rotate 360 degrees which I didn't factor in as a feature. You can see the large knob that locks/unlocks this feature in photo below. I already have a separate rotator that sits between the camera and reducer, I wonder if I can remove that and just rotate the whole focuser for framing instead - has anyone any experience using this for imaging?

 

Beautiful scope and I now know who to blame for the wall to wall cloud in Sheffield at the moment.  Would be lovely to get even just one clear night a month  

[Deeko]

6 minutes ago, dannybgoode said:

Beautiful scope and I now know who to blame for the wall to wall cloud in Sheffield at the moment.  Would be lovely to get even just one clear night a month  

I know what you mean! I may need to buy an Eq6-R for this as total weight going on my HEQ5 pro will be about 9kg, so the clouds ma not be the only thing stopping me from using it given current stock levels!

[dannybgoode]

1 hour ago, Deeko said:

I know what you mean! I may need to buy an Eq6-R for this as total weight going on my HEQ5 pro will be about 9kg, so the clouds ma not be the only thing stopping me from using it given current stock levels!

Best bit of advice Adam @ RVO ever gave me was to overspec the mount.  I bought an AZ EQ6 GT when they first came out and astrophotography was still a distant dream.  I have only just started to make the most of it however I am glad I bought it when I did  

[Carl Au]

3 hours ago, Deeko said:

It arrived today, bigger and heavier than I anticipated! The whole focussing assembly can rotate 360 degrees which I didn't factor in as a feature. You can see the large knob that locks/unlocks this feature in photo below. I already have a separate rotator that sits between the camera and reducer, I wonder if I can remove that and just rotate the whole focuser for framing instead - has anyone any experience using this for imaging?

 

I own the slighly smaller 102, lovely build quality arn't they. 

[Deeko]

6 minutes ago, Carl Au said:

I own the slighly smaller 102, lovely build quality arn't they. 

Yes they are indeed, very happy  Does your focuser assembly rotate and if so do you use it?

[Louis D]

5 hours ago, Deeko said:

I wonder if I can remove that and just rotate the whole focuser for framing instead

I don't do imaging, but rotating the focuser on my fracs on my alt-az mounts can lead to the focuser knobs being in really awkward positions.  I do have a built-in camera rotator on my 90mm Sharpstar made TS-Optics APO focuser that is handier to use than loosening the diagonal screws or rotating the focuser to bring the eyepiece to the side.

I suppose if you have a motorized focuser on your frac, then the orientation of the focuser is irrelevant as long as the motor clears the mount.

Perhaps if you manually focus once and then take hours of data, then focuser awkwardness could be lived with.

[Deeko]

I tried to put it on mu HEQ5 Pro and it sure is heavy! With the camera etc. on it hits the tripod legs, sliding it up the saddle makes it extremely unbalanced with no realistic way to fix it and imo unusable. I have been thinking about a new mount for some time and this will push it along. It looks clear to me though that if I went with the EQ6-R Pro I would still need the pier extension and reading around it does not seem like a reasonably engineered component.  Are there decent tri-piers the EQ6-R Pro can be used with instead of a pier extension+tripod? The alternative appears to be the CEM70 with tri-pier but that is x2 the cost and would need some strong persuading for that.

[Carl Au]

18 hours ago, Deeko said:

Yes they are indeed, very happy  Does your focuser assembly rotate and if so do you use it?

Yes it does, I love a rotable focuser. I assume you know that the siver thumb screw here on the right of the photo is what losens the focuser? If an object is going to be at an uncomfortable positon, i.e. too high you can rotate the focuser to move the eyepiece to a a better positon. The object usually stays in the finder if you don't knock the scope too much. 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 9, 2021 by Carl Au