My new Refractor setup

[russ]

For years now i've been trying to retire my kids Skylux 70 from active duty. It has been my white light solar scope since 2003 and seen off disappointing challenges from a WO 66SD and M72, and also the Celestron C80-ED. All failed to surpass the Skylux in a meaningful way considering their extra cost. Which was massively disappointing.

So enter the Celestron Astromaster 90 OTA. Bought for peanuts which meant it was already on a level playing field with the Skylux, so any performance gain would be good. Also jumped in quick for an Orion VersaGo that came up on UKB&S for an eyepopping price.

Bought a new Astrozap solar filter from FLO and some cheap eyepieces from SnS. Setup complete!

There are some minor quibbles:

A/ The centre of balance for the OTA is hopelessly front heavy

B/ The focuser is only adequate

C/ Silly design on the dew shield means the solar filter won't stay on

Already fixed C with some Velcro tape. Nice cheap and easy fix. Fixing A and B won't be cheap but by replacing the focuser with a much heavier GSO Dual speed crayford, i should kill two birds with one stone. Especially if i replace the lightweight 1.25" plastic diagonal with a heavy 2" diagonal.

So far i have used the setup approx a dozen times and i'm so impressed. I would love to pitch it side by side with a Megrez 90 or ED100. Pretty sure it would give them a good run for their money on the visuals. Saturn, Mars and the Moon have all been astonishing. Saturn shows no false colour at all, regardless of the power used. Their is a tiny bit with the moon but it doesn't interfere at all.

Great bargain scope for anyone on a budget.

[John]

Thats a nice looking scope for a nice price Russ

What's the focal ratio ? - looks like at least F/10.

It's a great kick to squeeze decent performance out of stuff that costs not a lot !

Sorry you did not get to SGL5 BTW - it would be great to meet up sometime

[russ]

Hi John,

It's f11.11, a few short of the magical f15 but still a mighty impressive scope.

Hopefully we'll get the chance to meet soon.