New Member

[Retrograde (Pete)]

Hi all,

I'm new to IIS although not that new to amateur astronomy. I haven't done much at all in recent years so am decidedly rusty when it comes to modern equipment and methods.

I have a few assorted pieces of equipment lying around:

Cheap 80mm f/10 Mak
Vixen SP mount
Homemade 6" Newt
A Televue Plossl & a TV Nagler EP (the latter being kindly looked after for me by IIS member and long-time friend Zardos123 )
Assorted Camera equipment & other bits & pieces.

Looking to pick up an Apo soon and then maybe a 12-14" Dob sometime down the track. Unfortunately I'm somewhat hamstrung by living just a few kms from the center of Sydney so dark skies are a rarity for me these days but I'm looking forward to doing some observing and imaging again soon.

Cheers,

Pete

[Allan_L (Allan)]

Hi Pete,

Welcome to IIS.
Good to have you aboard.

Depending on which part of Sydney you are from, if its dark skies close to home you seek, then you are more than welcome to join us up at "The Mangrove Mountain Pony Club".

We meet there at least one Saturday a month (usually closest to New Moon).
The atmosphere is relaxed and informal and we get a roll up of between ten to thirty some times.
so there will be plenty of scopes to look through to help you make your purchasing decisions.
Best of all its free. (You can bring a packet of Tim Tams to share (or such) if you insist.

There is directions and a map in the sticky section at the top of the Star Parties forum.
That forum is also used to notify when we will be going etc..

Hope to see you up there soon.

Allan

[Saturn%5 (Graeme)]

Pete.

[Ric]

Hi Pete and welcome to IIS, hope you have a great time here.

[Retrograde (Pete)]

Thanks for the warm welcome guys and the kind invitation Allan.

I do hope to make it up to IISAC as long as i'm not on standby for work that weekend.

Cheers,

Pete

[Mliss (Mel)]

Pete. nice to hear you're back on the horse

what, wrong forum? oh

[brian nordstrom (As avatar)]

Welcome Pete , what size APO will you be looking to buy?
There are lots to choose from and the prices are really good , eg. Andrews has a Long Pen 110mm f6 for $1400 at the moment , thats a good price .! I am considering one ? Hmmmm..

Brian.

[Retrograde (Pete)]

Originally Posted by brian nordstrom

what size APO will you be looking to buy?

Hi Brian - I'm looking at around 100mm. Hopefully an OTA that would be light enough to be accommodated by my SP mount (for a while at least).

Looking to spend between $1000 & $1500 ideally. That Long Perng sounds nice - I'm a bit biased towards triplets as there were no apo doublets back when I was first active in amateur astronomy but that's probably more about me than the scope
Ooh carbon-fibre too I see.

Pete

[brian nordstrom (As avatar)]

Tasty .
Brian.

Originally Posted by Retrograde

Hi Brian - I'm looking at around 100mm. Hopefully an OTA that would be light enough to be accommodated by my SP mount (for a while at least).

Looking to spend between $1000 & $1500 ideally. That Long Perng sounds nice - I'm a bit biased towards triplets as there were no apo doublets back when I was first active in amateur astronomy but that's probably more about me than the scope
Ooh carbon-fibre too I see.

Pete

[Retrograde (Pete)]

Decided on a North Group 102mm F7 triplet. Not exactly a brand-name but should offer good bang-for-buck performance I hope.


It has arrived but is up with Zardos123 so I now need to sort out time to go up and pick it up - will probably have to wait till next weekend (but that's full moon ).


Pete

[brian nordstrom (As avatar)]

Looking forward to photos , there Pete , are these black or white? never heard of the brand .
But gotta be nice mmm a 102mm triplet ,
Brian

[Retrograde (Pete)]

Hi Brian,

it should be a white tube with red trim.

As I understand it The North Group manufacture the Meade 5000 series APO's and (I think) the Explore Scientific line. Mine should be the same as the Meade 102mm F7 triplet but without the branding (home brand haha - search for the name "Gilman" in the IIS forums. )

At this stage I will pick it up on the last quarter moon weekend and try it out under a dark sky at the same time - weather permitting.

[brian nordstrom (As avatar)]

Ahrem ?, to you to , hows it ?
Brian.

[brian nordstrom (As avatar)]

Sorry Jan , forgot to push the 'Quote' button . that last message was for you

Sorry, but not you 'Retrograde'
cool ?
102 triplet , nice.
Brian.

Originally Posted by adiposestem

Hello....


Nice to see you here.......

[Retrograde (Pete)]

First light tonight hopefully.

[Riley86 (Adam)]

Im in the inner city too, I go out most clear nights with my 10 inch dob on geroge heights oval in mosman theres a good spot where the east and north are somewhat clear from the light pollution due to the ocean, and the spot is away from all forms of near by light, drop me a msg if you wanna head out with me

Adam

[Retrograde (Pete)]

Hi Adam thanks for the invitation.

I'm still working a few minor bugs out with the 102 APO.

So far I'm very happy with the optical performance of the North Group apo. In spite of few clear sky opportunities recently I managed to look at jupiter a couple of times and there is no noticeable colour and was able to see some good detail. Also resolved 47 tuc easily but the sky wasn't properly dark/transparent for some reason that night.
It arguably outperformed my friend's 103mm Vixen apo in a side-by-side test (although his is more designed for imaging & he's still working on collimation etc).

I can't achieve focus with one of my eyepieces (although the 9mm Nagler is fine ) possibly because the diagonal won't sit all the way in. It seems to be OK on my old SP mount but I've not yet had the chance to do a proper polar alignment & make sure the drive is still working properly after all these years.

Cheers,

Peter