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Slight change to setup


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Hi all,

As mentioned on another thread i've had a change of setup. Involved a trip to Essex to do so. Also meant braving the M25 and it lived upto expectations as i took 50mins to cover the final 6 miles. Not good seeing i had managed to dispatch the Winchester to Junction 5 M25 in 1hr 15mins. That 50mins was supposed to be the time Ant and I would have to chat.

Anyway it was all well worth it as I now own a secondhand Celestron C8 all the way from Flagstone, Arizona. Which means i've scrubbed round my plans for a larger Mak. And can now put the saved (saved a lot) money towards Skyscan for the EQ6.

Got out last night for first light. Well impressed!. Collimation was already very close. Optics very clean. Turned the C8 on M13 and it broke it down to the core. Not bad for a crappy night with a 50% dewed up corrector plate. Dragged out my wifes hair dryer later to clear the 100% dewed up corrector. That bought me about another 15mins on Mars. And did the Celestron perform well! With a TV Powermate 2.5x and Meade 26mm 4000 (192x), the view was very nice. And Mars had barely risen.

The forecast is for another clear night tonight, hopefully better than last nights rubbish. But more importantly it's forecast clear for 3am. So i'll be out for a proper peak at Mars. And if the dew holds off a bit perhaps an image of M45.

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Clear skies everyone

Russ

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Nice one Russ, I must admit I did frown last night when you mentioned 'coming in because my Celestron had dewed up' but I thought nothing more of it.

Did you escape import duty on the scope? I get collared about 25% of the time with astro gear and it never ceases to annoy me!

My dream scope has aways been the Celestron 9.25", I'm selling my LX90 and depending on how much I get I'll be looking at Skyscan, the 9.25" or the 150mm Mak (in that order, I can't see the 150mm being a big enough jump over the 127mm to warrant the change).

Good luck tonight, it was very poor last night esp at the Horizon, after 2am there was only really Mars (which is really starting to look good!) to look at. The little Mak and the binoviewers were just amazing at around x250.

Gaz

...next stop Ebay, look at that Meade....... :)

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Nice to see a report of some equipment actually being used.

I think you've already identified your next purchase need Russ. No, not that scope that's just come onto e-bay - but either/both a dew cap & dew zapper (SCS Astro do both from their Orion Telescope Center page). For SCT's they are absolute essentials.

Keeping everything crossed that you have a really clear night for tonight & get that good look at Mars that you're waiting for! :)

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Agreed. A dew shield is the absolute essential. The dew zapper merely a nice compliment.

I'm lucky insofar that my Roger Tuthill dewshield incorporates a built in heater. :)

Nice kit, but when you are as clumsy as I am you minimize the amount of wires in your setup! :)

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LOL! I'm probably on a par with you there, Gaz!

Russ. Hope your skies fared better than mine for looking at Mars. Didn't bother setting up last night as there was just too much haze about & the sky was quite bright. Certainly not condusive for deep sky imaging. :)

By 3am the sky had totally clouded over & was quite foggy. Hope things were better Southampton way.............

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......hmmm the answer would have to be no!!!

Misty when i setup. Went to bed, woke up at 3am, twice as bad. And the dew was awful. Took the cover off and the scope dewed up in less than a minute. Did use the hair dryer trick for another peak and Mars is now looking really nice. Much better than at any point in the 2003 opposition.

For those who can't get up, Mars should be in the evening sky from October.

No1 job for tomorrow is call SCS and order a dew zapper. Then get on the blower to Telescope House and order a flexi dew shield. Only ever needed a dew shield with the Maks but all my SCT's have needed a dew zapper too. But then my area suffers real bad from dew.

Gaz, my dream scope is still the C9.25. And there's been a couple on Astro Ads and Ebay recently. Trouble is i'd blow my entire budget buying one and that wouldn't leave anything for Skyscan. Would also like an 80ED again. Think i'm ready for it this time.

I have a good feeling about the C8. Everything about it feels as good as the one I had in the early 90's. The two Meade's never felt right. There's image shift with the C8 but not to the same degree as the LX200.

Russ

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Russ, if you're ordering an Orion product from SCS, I'd be prepared for a wait. In my experience I've found that the product hasn't been in stock & that they've had to place an order with Orion Telescope Center...................resulting in a delay of a few weeks.

This turned out to be a blessing in disguise for me a couple of years back. Thinking my Tuthill no-du cap had finally expired (i.e. the heater) I placed an order for a dew zapper with SCS. As expected I was told they would have to order direct from the USA. A couple of nights later I discovered that my Tuthill dew cap was working fine - it was merely the plug that went into the dewcap that had broken. Hastily I was able to contact SCS & cancel my order before anyone was put out. :)

Hopefully your dewshield should arrive without a delay. You'll find it makes a big difference to your observing (as well as cutting stray light from local light pollution reaching your objective).

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Great looking scope there Russ. As you know the C8 & 9.25 are both on my 'want to have in my lifetime list. Looking forward to taking a look at Mars myself through it.

Glad your pleased

Rob :)

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Gaz,

Someone else imported it from the states and they paid £22 import duties. Not sure how that works. Because when i imported the Intes from Boise, Idaho I got globbered for £90 on a £450 item. But then the import duty is a luck of the draw. And i've never been lucky with that.

I don't want to knock the Meade's I had. The f10 model gave superb views of the planets and deepsky alike. The f6.3 model was more of a one trick pony. Couldn't get a view of the planets i liked but DSO's were real nice. Blimey were they heavy though. Trying to lift the OTA and fork assembly onto the wedge was not a joy.

Andy, as you say, hopefully the Dew shield will arrive by tomorrow. See how it goes. I reckon i'll still need that zapper though.

Rob, hopefully you'll get a peak through the scope very soon. We'll get our next observing session planned.

Russ

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Hi Russ,

Really chuffed that the C8 turned out nice. I would like to have had a better look around it but time was really against us!!! Did you get home time for Emma to go to work?

Nice to meet you again as well, shame it was for about 2 minutes...

Looks like UKTeddy isn't the dodgy bloke that he's made out to be on other forums???!!???

Ant

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Hi Ant,

Yeah that was a bit of a surprise about UKTeddy. He has a reputation which from my experience now is unfounded. He was great to deal with, in fact couldn't have been any more helpful and the scope, for the money, is a great deal.

Just one thing i've noticed. He had a few other items on Ebay at the same time as my C8. All of those have been resubmitted. Yet all had reached their reserve. I wonder if his reputation now proceeds him and people pull out when they twig who they are dealing with. A real shame!!!!

Regards

Russ

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UKTeddy, there was murder over on AstroAds a few months ago. I don't know the 'ins and outs' but the guy didn't help himself by creating a separate account and then telling everyone how great 'UKTeddy' was and how they were all bang out of order! :) It got quite amusing for a while.....

Gaz

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Thats the trouble with a close knit community like this, if the wrong person (i.e. someone who is trusted on a large forum) has a bad experience with someone - then it doesn't take long before everyone is then weary, the guy can never repair his reputation cause no-one will buy from him except people that don't know about him etc etc etc

it's a vicious circle.

I'd happily buy from him, but for the time being on a pick up an pay job.

BTW Russ, is the C8 fast star compatable?

Ant

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