Finally... I have a scope!!

[rocketandroll]

Well, after two months here on the forums I have finally made my desisions and all my gear is now either bought, on it's way, or being collected this week.

Although I have taken the advice of everyone on here and got myself a SW 80ED DS Pro to do some initial DSO imaging with... I also wanted a scope to do some observing with in the short term that would also be useful for imaging smaller DSO's etc later on when I have my guider set up. With that in mind I couldn't resist buying the 2nd hand Meade 5000 127mm Apo off the forums here (thanks Matt!) Picked it up yesterday... Wow, what a lovely piece of kit!!

Of course the weather forecast are now showing the inevitable return to cloudy and wet weather this week... but hey-ho!

Will put up some pics in the equipment gallery once the mount/s are here later this week.

Ben... Very excited now!

[Starjumper]

Hi Ben,

Glad to hear you got sorted, I will look forward to seeing all at Kelling.

John

[nightfisher]

nice one, looks like your getting sorted

[keef_uk]

congrats Ben on your new 'toy' - hope you can get out and soon with it

[RogerTheDodger]

Ah, so you're the one who jinxed the weather...

Hope you get to use it soon

[red dwalf]

some serious toys there, i`m very envyous,

enjoy the views.

Rob

[rocketandroll]

Cheers all!

Just picked up the HEQ5 (thanks Steve!) have also ordered a WO diagonal and a couple of nice eyepieces today.

Can't wait to get it all set up and get first light on both scopes!

Hoping for this weekend, weather isn't looking good though, sorry, as you say, probably my fault!

Ben

[Parallax]

The weather is going to be ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT here, until I get a new mount

Steve

[rocketandroll]

...yeah, sorry Steve :-)

I did offer to let you keep it till next week ;-)

If the weathers going to be THAT good, I'll come up and use it at yours :-)

Pic now up on the gallery... with the Meade mounted on it.

Trying to read manuals and get used to as much as possible before I get a clear night and waste it twiddling with things :-)

Received my WO Dialectric diagonal (sexy as hell, lovely shiny carbon panels on the side...mmmm) and two eyepieces today too... a SkyWatcher 32mm Panaview and a Baader Hyperion 8mm. Looking forward to actually seeing something through this seeming endless list of costly things :-)

Ben

[JamesM]

Congratulations Ben on finally getting all these lovely toys together - I can appreciate your anticipated excitement! You've got some nice kit there and you did very well on the Meade refractor (...was a bit tempted myself).

Wishing you clear skies soon and look forward to your first night write up!

James

[rocketandroll]

Well, got to use the scope tonight!!

Not for any proper imaging as my power pack which I got this afternoon was still charging so I had to move the scope around by hand with the clutches undone.

Report is up on the lounge so won't bore you here :-)

One wierd thing I noticed which I'm hoping someone can help with...

Whilst viewing through the Meade with the 8mm eyepiece in, I tried focusing on a bright star. No matter what I did, it always seemed to have a red blur on the top edge and a blue blur on the bottom edge. I went in and out of focus several times with the fine adjustment wheel and this never went away?

Is this something silly I'm doing wrong or an artefact of the combination of optics I'm using?

Would be good to know... Hope it's something simple and fixable :-)

Ben

[Gregski]

Hi Ben,

I'm sure all your lovely kit will reward you many times over. Is the Meade Apochromatic a Achromatic as one will give more colouring to the view.

Still saving up for a long overdue upgrade.

All the best, Greg

[rocketandroll]

@Greg...

The Meade is a triplet apo... I thought one of the key benefits of these was that they brought the full spectrum to focus at the same point?

It wasn't the presence of colour that was the issue... It was the fact the colours were out of alignment no matter what I did?

Ben

[Gregski]

How is it with other eyepieces? Have to say my experience is more with reflectors. If you're worried you may wish to post the question in Equipment.

Regards, Greg

[Ags]

I have seen this color fringing with planets; it is caused by atmospheric refraction - the air acts like a giant prism. Planetary imagers realign the R G and B frames to correct for this.

[Neilius]

Congrats on your new kit, Ben!

[john10001]

The weather is going to be ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT here, until I get a new mount

Steve

That's always the way! I really like it though when I switch the weather on and its got black clouds over Ireland and Scotland but England and Wales are somehow magically all fine with clear skies

John