What did the postman bring? V2

[ScouseSpaceCadet]

More toilet reading from WoB:

[Alan White]

5 hours ago, Vroobel said:

Looks nice.
Out of curiosity, how do you focus this lens as it looks Electronic and the Filter Unit and Camera are not connected electrically?
 

[Alan White]

10 minutes ago, ScouseSpaceCadet said:

More toilet reading from WoB:

You must be flushed with success 😉 
I will walk myself out with my coat and remaining dignity 🚶‍♀️

[Vroobel]

6 minutes ago, Alan White said:

Looks nice.
Out of curiosity, how do you focus this lens as it looks Electronic and the Filter Unit and Camera are not connected electrically?
 

Thanks.  Presently I use a designed and printed Bahtinov mask, but will consider ZWO EAF in future. I know that Astromechanics from Russia makes dedicated ASCOM-compatible EF focusing modules, but they won't work with the ASIair.

Edited April 11 by Vroobel

[Naughty Neal]

I have cheated here and copy & pasted  the pic from the 'For sale' section.

Postman  today was Stu and we had  pre arranged  a location to meet up  on his journey  home for the weekend  to hand over the SP Gem combo.. Fortunately I knew of an easy location that only diverted Stu a matter of a few hundred yards off the M25 so he could then simply rejoin to continue his Westward journey.

The SP GEM and tripod  now resides with me.

 I know the age of these are at least some 30 or more years old now but the quality remains as does  butter smooth movement of the pivots/beairngs.

The tripod isn't too bad but obviously has some wear marks and scratches for the many years it has been around .

At some stage in the summer I will likely remove all the wood and give it a light wire wool and then a nice coat of clear Briwax.

Edited April 11 by Naughty Neal

[F15Rules]

Lovely mount Neal, and it looks great in the black painted version.

What scope will you be mounting on it?

I have a lovely old Vixen 80mm F15 (1200mm) focal length refractor which would have come on a mount like yours.. I don't have an SP mount at the moment  but I am storing one long term for my son in law, so am using his, in the traditional Vixen "Hammerite Green"..and a Skywatcher EQ5 tripod..

Enjoy!👍

Dave

[Naughty Neal]

I haven't decided yet but have the f12.5 80mm Scopetech  or the f11 102ed Ascent but suspect it will be for the latter.

The 80mm will likely be confined for solar use with a wedge.

The white OTA on the Balck SP will look very contrasty.

[Naughty Neal]

That reminds me that I  haven't posted a pic of my new solar  wegd e yet from my little spending spree.

[Alan White]

Postie has been with my classifieds purchases, some for curiosity, some as spares and the filter for my 10"

Edited April 12 by Alan White

[mikeDnight]

Here's a blast from the past. When I first bought a Takahashi telescope back in 2003, their catalogue showed some lovely large aperture finders/guide scopes. Unfortunately for me, buying the scope itself wiped me out financially and by the time I'd recovered, these large finders were nolonger available. It seems to be my lot in life to miss the boat by minutes! I guess I'm not alone in this?

 Today Mr postman drew up outside in his time machine and handed me a package. Inside was a vintage 70mm Takahashi finder/guider with swivel bracket. Now attached to my FS128 I'm hoping it will give me a slight advantage when it comes to fuzzy finding and double stars. 

 

[Alan White]

My @mikeDnight, what a big un.
That will no doubt give an advantage at lower magnitude.

[saac]

Postie just delivered a nice aluminium case for my Raspberry Pi5 and a rather cute round LCD display   I now need to find a suitable project lol. 

Jim 

 

[Space Oddities]

Postman delivered these 2 little gems, to go with my Tak FC-76DCU. Clouds weren't included so I might be able to test these tonight!

[peanutcol]

A copy of Turn Left At Orion for £6 posted from eBay 👌

[F15Rules]

6 hours ago, mikeDnight said:

Here's a blast from the past. When I first bought a Takahashi telescope back in 2003, their catalogue showed some lovely large aperture finders/guide scopes. Unfortunately for me, buying the scope itself wiped me out financially and by the time I'd recovered, these large finders were nolonger available. It seems to be my lot in life to miss the boat by minutes! I guess I'm not alone in this?

 Today Mr postman drew up outside in his time machine and handed me a package. Inside was a vintage 70mm Takahashi finder/guider with swivel bracket. Now attached to my FS128 I'm hoping it will give me a slight advantage when it comes to fuzzy finding and double stars. 

 

Cracking finder Mike, it should be a nice low power scope in its own right!

I saw that for sale, it had an odd looking connection "stem"..how did you make it fit on your scope setup?

Dave

[mikeDnight]

46 minutes ago, F15Rules said:

Cracking finder Mike, it should be a nice low power scope in its own right!

I saw that for sale, it had an odd looking connection "stem"..how did you make it fit on your scope setup?

Dave

Thanks Dave.

  I had chance to look through it for the first time earlier this evening. The Moon was crisp and highly detailed despite the low power. 

  I think the finder stem should really be attached to a Tak accessory ring which  goes around the lower end of the scope. I know Tak provide them currently for the TOA and even for the FC100D series, but I think I've missed the boat for the FS128 as I think its a different tube diameter. However I bought the 70mm and worried about how I was going to attach it when it arrived. I decided to use a threaded rod that extended the length of the top dovetail bar that has doubled as a handle. On the underside of the dovetail bar there's a channel through which I ran the threaded bar. At the top is a nut and at the bottom a fancy knob that I scrounge of an old Japanese mount. Together the nut and knob allow me to tighten the stem which is sandwiched between the the knob and the bottom flat face of the dovetail/handle and lower ring. There are washers on either side of the stem to allow movement. It will suffice until I acquire a FS128 accessory ring in another twenty years. Unfortunately for me, by that time someone else will be looking through my telescopes most likely. 

[F15Rules]

7 hours ago, mikeDnight said:

Here's a blast from the past. When I first bought a Takahashi telescope back in 2003, their catalogue showed some lovely large aperture finders/guide scopes. Unfortunately for me, buying the scope itself wiped me out financially and by the time I'd recovered, these large finders were nolonger available. It seems to be my lot in life to miss the boat by minutes! I guess I'm not alone in this?

 Today Mr postman drew up outside in his time machine and handed me a package. Inside was a vintage 70mm Takahashi finder/guider with swivel bracket. Now attached to my FS128 I'm hoping it will give me a slight advantage when it comes to fuzzy finding and double stars. 

 

 

35 minutes ago, mikeDnight said:

Thanks Dave.

  I had chance to look through it for the first time earlier this evening. The Moon was crisp and highly detailed despite the low power. 

  I think the finder stem should really be attached to a Tak accessory ring which  goes around the lower end of the scope. I know Tak provide them currently for the TOA and even for the FC100D series, but I think I've missed the boat for the FS128 as I think its a different tube diameter. However I bought the 70mm and worried about how I was going to attach it when it arrived. I decided to use a threaded rod that extended the length of the top dovetail bar that has doubled as a handle. On the underside of the dovetail bar there's a channel through which I ran the threaded bar. At the top is a nut and at the bottom a fancy knob that I scrounge of an old Japanese mount. Together the nut and knob allow me to tighten the stem which is sandwiched between the the knob and the bottom flat face of the dovetail/handle and lower ring. There are washers on either side of the stem to allow movement. It will suffice until I acquire a FS128 accessory ring in another twenty years. Unfortunately for me, by that time someone else will be looking through my telescopes most likely. 

That's an ingenious solution Mike!👍

I almost bought one of those finders some years back for just £85 I think it was.. but I couldn't figure out how I'd fit it to my FS128 at the time..

Great job.

Dave

[wookie1965]

Not happy with royal mail today wife just been to put rubbish in the recycling turned around two parcels under the rose bush no card no note in the letter box. 

Luckily both well packaged. 

 

Edited April 13 by wookie1965

[wookie1965]

Thanks to Neil (Neil27) for the 12mm BST. 

Thank you to Dave (F15Rules) for the cap that fits on my dew cover. 

I can now uncover the scope without putting finger marks on the glass taking it off. 

Paul 

[inedible_hulk]

Poor service @wookie1965 from Royal Mail, but thankfully no harm done 😊. I’m about an hour south of you and it looks like we’re in for a reasonably clear night!

Edited April 13 by inedible_hulk
Corrected

[wookie1965]

Just now, inedible_hulk said:

Poor service from Royal Mail, but thankfully no harm done 😊. I’m about an hour south of you and it looks like we’re in for a reasonably clear night!

Btw, you might want to block out your full name and address which is visible in the third photograph.

Just done but I have had a fall and it's kicked off severe pain in my back sat with a Tens machine on and ice on my leg. 

[inedible_hulk]

That’s not good. The astronomy can wait. The stars aren’t going anywhere soon. Relax and take care of yourself mate.

[josefk]

On 12/04/2024 at 21:40, mikeDnight said:

Thanks Dave.

  I had chance to look through it for the first time earlier this evening. The Moon was crisp and highly detailed despite the low power. 

  I think the finder stem should really be attached to a Tak accessory ring which  goes around the lower end of the scope. I know Tak provide them currently for the TOA and even for the FC100D series, but I think I've missed the boat for the FS128 as I think its a different tube diameter. However I bought the 70mm and worried about how I was going to attach it when it arrived. I decided to use a threaded rod that extended the length of the top dovetail bar that has doubled as a handle. On the underside of the dovetail bar there's a channel through which I ran the threaded bar. At the top is a nut and at the bottom a fancy knob that I scrounge of an old Japanese mount. Together the nut and knob allow me to tighten the stem which is sandwiched between the the knob and the bottom flat face of the dovetail/handle and lower ring. There are washers on either side of the stem to allow movement. It will suffice until I acquire a FS128 accessory ring in another twenty years. Unfortunately for me, by that time someone else will be looking through my telescopes most likely. 

I don't know what it is but nevermind the actual utility of it - a big finder is aesthetically very very appealing to me. Weird (or weirdo maybe). Two finders screams SERIOUS intent! 🙂 

That bracket is exactly to fit an accessory ring snuggled around the OTA - a nice concept because it means you can get the finder quite far forward and out of the way easily. The rings also take a handle so quite useful even if a bit pricey.

 

[josefk]

Not the postman and not new - not even new to me - but returned to my care at the weekend.

29 years ago this year "my" first scope was a 4.5in Newtonian i bought my wife on an early anniversary.

About 15 years ago "my" second scope was this 120mm achro we bought our son for good exam results. Spot the theme 🤣

It's returned to me while he does some house renovations and generally makes a mess for a bit. I have permission to spend money on it and repurpose it as a white light solar scope if the fancy takes me...

This scope saw quite a bit of use so when my son fully reclaimed it after finishing uni I finally did have to buy my very own scope for the first time.

I found the Celestron Omni a and GEM mount a bit tedious to carry up to the local park so i "downsized" to the ~9kgs of Cassegrain and ~11ks of Berlebach Planet i still use now. I'm not sure i thought that through properly.

[StevieDvd]

On 13/04/2024 at 20:33, wookie1965 said:

Not happy with royal mail today wife just been to put rubbish in the recycling turned around two parcels under the rose bush no card no note in the letter box. 

Luckily both well packaged. 

 

 

 

And today the FLO delivery for me seems to be the rain resistant packing  - just in case. A new SW wedge to try out EQ mode on my Seestar & Dwarf smart scopes (weather permitting).