What a treat and wow !

[beamish]

Just a short paragraph to say that I took the 715D Mak out last night for a VERY short spell whilst the skies were clear and I had 1/2 hr The newly re-mirrored HiLux Mak primary was aimed at the moon with an 8mm TV plossl and blew my socks off !!! The collimation still needs a tweak but decided against doing it last night owing to being knackered and having lots to do today but..... the terminator was something very special. I've promised myself that the next clear evening will be devoted to creaming the collimation, come hell or high water, cos I saw Jupiter coming into view to my East. Sometime next week I ought to be able to get to see if the cash I've spent was worth it

[Psychobilly]

Glad you got to use the new kit... I am sure Jupiter willbe amazing and once your up and running with the lumera the images will be well worth it...

Peter...

[Talitha]

Sounds fantastic Karlo, I bet the views were razor-sharp.

BTW, i hope your feet stayed warm enough without socks.

[beamish]

Cheers Carol

I had two pairs !

Brief update :-

I re-collimated from scratch this evening using methods I had gleaned from a variety of sources and which over the wk-end ( F1 permitting ) I hope to document for any other poor soul out there

Any way, I left the scope near the basement door then put it on the mount and had the fan running for about 1/2 hr, seems reasonable, had a butcher's hook at Altair,

-Primary (intra focal) looked great but there was a little variation re the 2ndry ( Extra-focal) . Hee Hee, two little twists and HEY HO !!!

Mission accomplished - collimation "creamed" then those dastardly clouds that were NOT forecast crept across and trashed my plans for Jupiter later.

Sooo, all packed up, cameras etc away, ready for another day (night obviously)

PS Carol, even without the perfect collimation the views yesterday were OUTSTANDING ! What a gem, and so pleased I had the mirror re-coated, worth every penny.

[Talitha]

Well done, sounds like you did a perfect job! Hopefully you'll get a look at Jupiter soon.