Meet The Family

[PaulG]

I've been Moon squizing for over a year now and started with a little old Celestron EQ70 Refractor.

It had a wibbly wobbly EQ2 mount but gave me and my son many hours of fun looking at and taking afocal shots of the Moon.

I now have three Moon squizing telescopes starting with

Daddy Fractor ~ 150mm F8

Mummy Fractor ~ 120mm F8.3

And baby Mak ~ 140mm F14

The aim is to end up with just one telescope .

As my better half keeps reminding me, you can only use one at a time .

Paul

[A McEwan]

Nice Fractor Family! Do they all get on? It looks like you would need more counterweight with Daddy Fractor though...?

[Beulah]

Nice gear!

I always think a minimum of two scopes is ideal, if one breaks down, you got t'other to use until the original is fixed.........

Another thought is when you are showing the night sky friends/family....everyone can be looking instead of hopping about in the cold - you would need about three or four scopes for that.......

[PaulG]

Nice Fractor Family! Do they all get on? It looks like you would need more counterweight with Daddy Fractor though...?

Thanks Antony

I have another counterweight, one is not quite enough to balance.

I have to sit the scope right back in it's rings as it is very front heavy, i could do with weighting the focuser down (perhaps with a nice crayford ).

I future funds allow, a refractor like your ED120 would be the next step up, yours looks superb .

I expect the fit and finish is streets ahead of the blue tube brigade.

Even the old Helios paint is miles better than the F8.

Nice gear!

I always think a minimum of two scopes is ideal, if one breaks down, you got t'other to use until the original is fixed.........

Another thought is when you are showing the night sky friends/family....everyone can be looking instead of hopping about in the cold - you would need about three or four scopes for that.......

Thanks Sam

I agree with both points completely but trying to convince by beloved is quite a challenge.

Paul

[Johnboy]

I agree with both points completely but trying to convince by beloved is quite a challenge.

Paul

You could always say that it's about time 'Baby' had a little brother or sister perhaps....

[A McEwan]

Thanks Paul, The Equinox is indeed "superb" - but strangely, I've always had a hankering to try one of those 6" f8 achros and have never managed to!

I remember one guy on Cloudynights forum did a whole heap of work to his and the end-scope was apparently also "superb". There is a post all about tweaking them but I don't know if I'm allowed to post links to other forums so I'll PM it to you.

A big finderscope (9x50 at least) would help heavy-up the back end, as might a few spare tube rings wrapped around the back. Brass focuser knobs help too (and look really nice). A Moonlite would certainly help!

Personally I've always liked the Skywatcher Blue (My Mak and ED80 are that colour) but I know what you mean about the Helios Black - it was very nice!

Bet you get some great lunar detail through Papa Scope!

Ant

[Rob]

OMC 140 !!... yum. Mine was really APO like... with apature to boot!. Nice scopes.

[PaulG]

You could always say that it's about time 'Baby' had a little brother or sister perhaps....

Thanks for the tip but I prefer to keep my bits where they are .

Thanks Paul, The Equinox is indeed "superb" - but strangely, I've always had a hankering to try one of those 6" f8 achros and have never managed to!

I remember one guy on Cloudynights forum did a whole heap of work to his and the end-scope was apparently also "superb". There is a post all about tweaking them but I don't know if I'm allowed to post links to other forums so I'll PM it to you.

A big finderscope (9x50 at least) would help heavy-up the back end, as might a few spare tube rings wrapped around the back. Brass focuser knobs help too (and look really nice). A Moonlite would certainly help!

Personally I've always liked the Skywatcher Blue (My Mak and ED80 are that colour) but I know what you mean about the Helios Black - it was very nice!

Bet you get some great lunar detail through Papa Scope!

Ant

I've only had the F8 for two weeks so I'm chomping at the bit to give it a go.

I wanted to try one to get a larger image on the DSLR chip.

The Helios image is a little small and the Mak127 I had was that bit too big so the F8 should be better.

I was hoping to extract a bit more visual detail with the F8 too.

The other reason for buying was I just wanted to look through a big refractor.

I don't know what it is looking through a refractor, it just has that "something" about it.

OMC 140 !!... yum. Mine was really APO like... with apature to boot!. Nice scopes.

Like the F8 I've not had the OMC long so it will be fun comparing the three back to back.

[Taff]

Hi Paul' you have a nice set up of scopes.Can i borrow one. Mark

[PaulG]

Hi Paul' you have a nice set up of scopes.Can i borrow one. Mark

That's not a bad idea.

I have thinking about this, howz a bout a gear swapping scheme where local (to each other) SGL members swap out their equipment.

This would be on the understanding that the gear is treated with care & respect and if you "bend it you mend it".

You could swap say for a month or two (depending on the cloud gods )

I wouldn't mind traveling say 25 miles to swap for a scope I haven't tried before.

I know people will say "get your butt down to a star party" but they are not that frequent and can sometimes be too far away.

Paul