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New 6" F12 Refractor has arrived..

F15Rules

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F15Rules

F15Rules

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:rolleyes: At long last my new 6" F12 refractor has arrived:p..

It was supplied by John Timmins at Peak2Valley Instruments in Buxton, Derbyshire, and I recommend John if you are a Frac nut like myself. He often has nice used equipment and he took in my 4.5" AE Systems F14.4 refractor in P/Ex for this beast.

The OTA with Dewshield in place is 82" long! I have it on the moment on my CG-5 but it is not massive enough and I will be looking fairly soon for an EQ6 or HEQ6 head for it. The mount is sitting on a very heavy duty wooden tripod which I think can handle this OTA once I have a more massive mount and heavier duty dovetail.

The scope is finished in traditional white powder coating and the cell is collimatable with allen keys. The focusser is a nice Skywatcher 2" Crayford with micro adjustment. The diagonal is a Meade Enhanced Series 5000 I already had, and I will use a variety of Baader, TV, Meade and Antares EPs with the scope, in both 1.25" and 2" sizes.

The scope carries two "finders", although one is a 70mm F15 Vixen! This is a great little scope in its own right and uses a diagonal and 1.25" EPs. The second finder is a more traditional Orion Optics 9x50 straight through finder. All the tube rings are by Orion UK, and the rear set were specially made to allow the fitting of the Vixen guidescope/finder and also two 9x50 finders if required (in practice I will move the one 9x50 from side to side depending on the orientation of the tube).

Had a very brief first light on a low moon. Very sharp indeed, the slightest touch of violet at the limb, not distracting at all, and disappeared once my head was "straight on" looking through the centre of the eyepiece.

Once I have the heavier head for more stability this will be my dream Frac set up. Will post more later in the year when the darker nights come back!

Tube is 7" drawn aluminium by Beacon Hill, Barry Watts, and the Objective is by Intane Optics in the Far East. Multi coated 1/6PV and lovely purple colour to look at.

Hope you like it!

clear skies

Dave

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Dave Smith

Dave Smith

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That really looks the business Dave, no you are NOT going to give me aperture fever, you are NOT going to give me aperture fever, you are NOT going to give me aperture fever, you are NOT going to give me aperture fever, you are NOT going to give me aperture fever, you are NOT going to give me aperture fever . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. .. :rolleyes::D:D

Dave

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John

John

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Wow Dave - fantastic :rolleyes:

I'm a refractor nut and I want one !!!!

Still I've my 6" F/8 to play with until then ......

As an alt-az mount fan I think I'd be thinking about putting it on a massive fork mount I reckon :)

I'm looking forward to 1st light reports - Jupiter is going to be superb in that :)

Congratulations - I'd love to see it "in the flesh" one day :)

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F15Rules

F15Rules

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Thanks to everyone for the kind remarks of appreciation:)..

To answer a couple of the questions/remarks..

-I will store it in my garage - I'm lucky enough to have a double garage so my wife's car can still stay dry too:D

-yes, the mount is the main challenge going forward. I'm told the HEQ6 is a good mount and quite a bit beefier than the CG-5 (if anyone has first hand experience of the HEQ6 I'd welcome an opinion). The Celestron CGE gets good reports but isn't cheap:eek:

-I want to get some castors and brackets to fix onto the wooden tripod at the base of the legs...that way I could roll the scope out of the garage onto the drive where I observe from.

thanks again for your good wishes and I will post more reports as and when..

finally...and I kid you not..I have just had a double hernia diagnosed! So have to have an op in August, and won't be able to go near the scope for at least a month after that:rolleyes:..still, it makes a change from the usual "new scope curse"..

cheers

Dave

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ollypenrice

ollypenrice

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Surprized you bothered with a tube! Why not dangle the objective from a distant telegraph pole and pull it into collimation with ropes while getting a servant to hold the EP for you???

I really do like to see a touch of history in an instrument and there you have a shedload. Great stuff.

I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

I don't know if you know Rod Tippet who has a sixties 6 inch Zeiss coude in your neck of the woods? I haven't seen him for a few years but he's a man after your own heart. (Sorry, by that I mean he lives near Buxton, around Clay Cross, though you may not.)

Olly

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