6" f/10 refractor build.

[argonaut]

If I remember rightly, the Williams Optics CA reducer(can't remember the name), was one of the better ones in tests. Good at ridding false colour and not introducing much of it's own.

Andy.

I remember reading a report like that,some time ago though. I'm not sure if it was named the MV1.Something similar was being produced by Sirius Optics I think.

[argonaut]

It was clear earlier in the evening around 7pm so we moved the scope outside again. With my back once a week is all I can manage:)

The 'seeing' was not good. Some high haze and everything was twinkling,not a good sign really. I do have a Baader Moon and Skyglow filter which I tried out. Mars was still washed out,worse than last week. I was hoping to catch Saturn later on in the evening,no chance. By 9.30 I gave up.

The MSG did make the viewing a little cleaner and did seem to help with the CA a little.I must admit this CA is troubling me. As soon as I can find the Baader semi-apo the better. I do have a Skywatcher LP filter so I tried that as well. I have a lot of low pressure sodium lighting around me and the filter did help. When I use this filter I loose about a magnitude. I hate the white security lights my neighbours use. Why oh why do they need these damned things?

I managed to pick up M81,M82,M31. I did try M51(my nemesis)even with the filters I still couldn't manage this sometimes difficult galaxy. The double cluster was nice and sharp also NGC457. The Beehive was very nice also.

I think I've built a DSO scope rather than planetary.The work will continue to reduce CA. I must say though that I am susceptible to CA.

I did have a little trouble with the focuser last night. Well,when I was building the scope I had attached the focuser to the OTA and then stood it up,along came my wife and knocked ot over and smashed the focuser. She was so upset,God bless her. I had to do a full strip down and got it working OK. It worked fine last week. Perhaps another strip down and tweak.

[philj]

PhilJ

I have never used CAD.I've often thought of trying out one of the free programmes just to see what it was like. It would be interesting to start a thread on the refurbish of your scope. I'm Rubbish at explaining things and I've had a go

I use Turbocad, came free with a PC comic last year, thought I would give it a go. If you know drawing programmes its a simple step up from those, but its quite powerful. Ive used it for the odd drawing of bits I am making or getting made for me as well as the Ray trace.

Youve explained your project reallly well mate, this is an interesting and practical thread.

Bad luck on the focuser damage, been there done that, my ZS80 FD fell off the obs table onto the wood floor and just slightly bent the focus knob shaft, I made another haft up and alls well again.

Philj

[argonaut]

I've messed around a little with Gimp2 but I can't seem to get my head around CAD

Well,I did the focuser again this afternoon and it seems OK. Then again,this is like before. We'll see how it goes.

I may try straight through viewing next time out. I have an extension knocking about somewhere. Just want to see if anything is adding aberrations.

[Coco]

Wonderful report and comments ..

I thoroughly enjoyed all the posts...

Guy

[Beulah]

Wow, that is one mean scope! LOVE the aluminium tube, that is one monster!!

I'm cutting wood for a coopered 12" OTA, for my sins.........

[dweller25]

I just took Argonauts offer up to go have a look at this scope.

It is extremely impressive.

The manufacturing quality is really excellent and the metal finish is just a work of art.

The scope sits on the smoothest alt-az mount I have ever felt, balance is perfect.

This is a really professional job and I can only applaud Argonaut (and his wife) for all the work and pride that has gone into the scope.

Well done sir.

[Doc]

Argonut have you any plans to go to SGL5, SSP or Kelling this year as would love to have a look at this scope.

[argonaut]

Thanks for the kind words people.

Dweller25,

It was good to have a chat about proper telescopes(refractors)yesterday

It was very good of you to mention the scope in your last post. It is something I've always wanted to do. I am a little weak on the optics side,but OK with the mechanical side of things. After our little discussion about the dark side(mirror thingies) I just may have to look at the Skywatcher auto's.

Doc,

To be honest I've never attended a star party. All my astro activities have been on my lonesome,I've always observed alone. I've no excuse really,I only live about 8 miles form the amateur astronomy centre at Todmorden. Never even looked through other peoples scopes.

I've had second light last week. I concentrated on DSO's this time. It does perform very well. I know we all see CA more on lunar and planets because we are looking at a disc instead of a point of light. I did try a Baader Moon and Skyglow and it did improve the image,and not in a subtle way either.

I have just received a Baader T2 prism diagonal to try out next. So again there may be some more improvement. Still tempted to try the Baader semi-apo

[Doc]

Thanks for the kind words people.

Dweller25,

It was good to have a chat about proper telescopes(refractors)yesterday

It was very good of you to mention the scope in your last post. It is something I've always wanted to do. I am a little weak on the optics side,but OK with the mechanical side of things. After our little discussion about the dark side(mirror thingies) I just may have to look at the Skywatcher auto's.

Doc,

To be honest I've never attended a star party. All my astro activities have been on my lonesome,I've always observed alone. I've no excuse really,I only live about 8 miles form the amateur astronomy centre at Todmorden. Never even looked through other peoples scopes.

I've had second light last week. I concentrated on DSO's this time. It does perform very well. I know we all see CA more on lunar and planets because we are looking at a disc instead of a point of light. I did try a Baader Moon and Skyglow and it did improve the image,and not in a subtle way either.

I have just received a Baader T2 prism diagonal to try out next. So again there may be some more improvement. Still tempted to try the Baader semi-apo

Thats a shame.

You would really enjoy the social side of it.

[AndyH]

Argonaut - Been reading the following thread regarding Istar Optics products on Cloudy Nights ,

Telescope Reviews: I-Star optical objective lenses, what's the scoop?

Totally staggered that someone can post bile like that and not be modded. I was both angered and amazed at the same time.

I wonder if that bloke, Charles, enjoys his free time, dressing up in sheets and galloping down the streets on his horse?

Thank God for Stargazers Lounge.

Andy.

[Coco]

Argonaut - Been reading the following thread regarding Istar Optics products on Cloudy Nights ,

Telescope Reviews: I-Star optical objective lenses, what's the scoop?

Totally staggered that someone can post bile like that and not be modded. I was both angered and amazed at the same time.

I wonder if that bloke, Charles, enjoys his free time, dressing up in sheets and galloping down the streets on his horse?

Thank God for Stargazers Lounge.

Andy.

heheh... He's the The wizard of oz.....

Guy...

[AndyH]

hehehe.

You know. That film scared the hell out of me when I was young. Wonder if that's why I don't like to watch it, still?

Andy.

[argonaut]

I am very surprised that the mods over there did not step in on this one. Shameful behaviour really.

Well,while my lens was being built with Istar(8 weeks) I received 12 e-mails from Ales on it's progress.

Since ordering my D&G 5" f/15 from Barry over 5 months ago I have had ZERO e-mails.

[Merlin66]

A very nice looking scope!

Are you going to laquer the polished allie??

I'm sure a weak yellow filter would improve the visual CA.

How did you go about collimating the objective?? Laser beam and Cheshire eyepiece???? Just interested.

I built a modified double pass Ha scope from a Surplus Shed 90mm objective last year and found issues in getting good collimation ( the lens cell didn't have any push pull screws so I ended up with shims:()

Ken

[AndyH]

They're(CN mods) quick enough to jump in normally. I'm the worlds most laid back bloke, but that thread had me both enraged and disgusted. I couldn't trust myself to leave a polite reply in that thread.

Istar are a company to look out for in 2010 I reckon.

Lots of interesting projects on the go.

He comes over as a nice guy.

Cheers,

Andy.

[argonaut]

Hi Ken,

I'm going to just leave the OTA polished. The Solvol Autosol I used does leave a thin protection layer on the aluminium. I'm have tried a Yellow filter,yuk I didn't like it. The cast looked terrible.

To be honest I've collimated under the stars. The Airy disc looks fine to me.I don't think I'm too far off. Now the tilt of the objective is another matter. I have considered a holographic laser to do this. A little pricey.

Hi Andy,

Yes, it's really upset me,and I'm known to have a thick skin. You do get people on all forums who can't see past their own ego.

[Merlin66]

You can quickly check the alignment of the focuser to the objective by placing a circular paper mask with a central spot over the objective and use a "collimated" (!!) laser collimator in the focuser.

If everything lines up, the beam should be smack on the central dot; if not, slightly tilt the focuser to correct.

EDIT: The tilt of the objective can be checked just using a cheshire eyepiece and a bright light... the reflections from the various lens surfaces should appear as concentric circles. Drop me a PM if you want more detail.

Ken

[argonaut]

Yes Ken I know,I'm just lazy When everything looked pretty good I left it.

Plenty more tests to do. I just wish it would warm up a bit,the old bones are not what they used to be

[argonaut]

Just read through my post again. Very sorry if I came across wrong.

Thank you for the suggestions you made I'm still wound up from last night.

Clear Skies.

[AndyH]

Hi Ken,

I'm going to just leave the OTA polished. The Solvol Autosol I used does leave a thin protection layer on the aluminium. I'm have tried a Yellow filter,yuk I didn't like it. The cast looked terrible.

To be honest I've collimated under the stars. The Airy disc looks fine to me.I don't think I'm too far off. Now the tilt of the objective is another matter. I have considered a holographic laser to do this. A little pricey.

Hi Andy,

Yes, it's really upset me,and I'm known to have a thick skin. You do get people on all forums who can't see past their own ego.

I've got a Helix mfg holographic laser. I take it you're not near Paisley, or going to the Kielder star party?

I've recently got a 60mm FL1000 Carton lens and tube(more details in the Vintage and Classics social groups). The collimation of the lens, tube and the new focuser was very slightly off. I use a Tal collimatable 1.25" mirror diagonal on it. Slight tweeks of the mirror have brought the scopes collimation bang on. They(Tal) have recently brought a 2" collimatable one to the market. We'll never see it over here cause the importers of Tal items seem to have zero interest in their stuff......fools. Cost is roughly £44. But you'd have to order direct from Novosibirsk(actually relatively simple).

A collimatable diagonal of some make, may be the way to go?

Cheers,

Andy.

[argonaut]

Hi Andy,

No,I'm near Rochdale in Lancashire.I've never attended a star party.

Thanks for the info. It always gives me pleasure when I see people taking their time to post hints and tips. The DIY forum is a pretty good place to post them.

[beamish]

Having seen those pictures I can't believe there aren't more polished metal scopes around. That thing's gorgeous! Well done, sir.

I was just thinking the same thing-Uber cool

Can't wait to see a pic of the entire scope, just fantastic, needless to say you're well chuffed !

[TopHouse]

That is a very beautiful job so far argonaut, I hope you're suitably proud of it, shown the pics to my wife and she said she never thought a telescope could look 'sexy' but that one does! Well done. I'm only up the road at the top end of Oldham. I have a very good friend who owns an engineering company, they work mostly in stainless so if you need anything of that sort gimme a shout.

[hunterknox]

Argonaut - Been reading the following thread regarding Istar Optics products on Cloudy Nights ,

Telescope Reviews: I-Star optical objective lenses, what's the scoop?

Totally staggered that someone can post bile like that and not be modded.

Unbelievable. Ignorant and a little bit racist too. Thankfully SGL has higher standards.

Argonaut: I would pay it no mind. If you ever want to sell that scope I can collect it from Rochdale no problem .