Well I have had this scope for a few weeks now and I have to say, the weather gods have been shining all kinds of their glory on me
I have had it out a few times but as of yet haven't really set it through its paces. At this stage, it has almost had more use by others than myself! A bit over a week ago I had it out at Eltham College when I was running the "Far" side of their "Near and Far" topic for science week. Had this set up along side my 10" LX200 for night time viewing. Got the LX200 aligned and running, pointed it at Saturn, started on the Sky Rover and didn't even get the first star in view before throngs of parents and kids came out! Pointed it at the moon and was surprised at how close my "by eye" polar alignment was. I digress however.
Only bought a diagonal (WO 2" Dielectric) for it a few days ago so tonight was my first half decent view with my Televue's (cloud came over the moment I sat it on the mount!!!) but that was mostly just moving from one side of the sky to the other trying to get glimpses of ANYTHING through the cloud holes hehe
Over the course of 15 minutes I did manage to catch about a dozen star clusters with my 35mm Panoptic (~26x magnification), Jewelbox, Wishing Well and a bunch around Sagittarius.
I have briefly dabbled with some astrophotography between the clouds yet again *sigh* with my new QHY9. Have determined that with my current spacer and the 0.8x flattener reducer I get ~17-20% vignetting from a KAF-8300 sensor (ran a flat field through CCD Inspector) BUT... Let me iterate, this is with 45% field curvature! My spacing is 11mm too far back. I have a feeling that this will drop considerably once I get my spacing correct (two weeks maybe?). Without the flattener I get a very low 3-4% vignetting. Considering putting my D700 on there tonight and seeing what I get with a full APS sensor.
Now that I have done a fair bit of rambling I should probably get into some of the very few insights that I do have.
Focuser:
Comes standard with a custom made 4" focuser build by United Optics. From my playing around, it feels very solid. Has a 100mm draw tube, pretty sure it is a 10:1 micro focuser, capable of rotating both the entire focusing assembly AND just the rear cell area. I am yet to get any slippage, haven't found a need to tighten the "slip bolt" as of yet although I cannot say that my QHY9+CFW2 is the heaviest of units an the flattener/reducer are overly heavy (~1.8kg).
The ONLY issue(?) that I have found so far is that when the draw tube is extended past 70-80mm while being pointed at zenith with 1kg+ on it, it doesn't pull it back in without a bit of external pressure (helping it up). I guess the only time that this may be an issue for myself could be when I put my Nikon DSLR on the back without the flattener. That is still a maybe, not sure how much back focus it requires yet.
All in all, I am happy with the focuser. I am getting ~10% tilt at the moment but I am not sure whether there is a bolt that I need to tighten on the focuser that I haven't or whether something needs to be tightened on the QHY9+CFW. More testing is required when I actually get some clear nights.
Tube and such:
The tube and the like are made by United Optics and from what I can tell, very well constructed. Has a retractable dew shield, seems to work well, haven't had any issues yet. Although it hasn't had much use mind you. The CNC tube rings are very solid, the whole lot is very rigid in fact. Appears to be very high build quality. Not sure what else to say about it!
Optics
This is where I'll probably have to get someone else to do some real testing! I know my eye sight isn't the best and that I have some colour blindness. So, looking for testing volunteers?
What I can say... Last week I had the best views of the moon I ever had! Had a 12mm Meade Series 5000 EP in when I was out at Eltham College, was a reasonably clear but windy night. Feels like it slaughters the best views I've had of the moon through my 10" SCT. I guess this stands to reason with the ~40% central obstruction that it houses.
The very brief views I had of some star clusters tonight were good, just had the clutches unlocked on my EQ6 and roving about he sky
with my Panoptic. Stars were pin point and pretty good out through to the corners although I felt I could see some distortion. To me it looked a little bit like coma so I am assuming that that is just the lens curvature, what I get for visual with a low powered EP without a flattener
All in all, from my VERY limited observational time with it, very happy with the sharpness of the optics, especially when going on the moon and even on a windy night.
Conclusion:
So far I am really happy with it, even if I haven't really had much of a chance to use it yet! Should have something arriving from Precise Parts within the next fortnight which will get rid of the 45% curvature and, to my understanding, should reduce the 20% vignetting down a bit as well. I could be wrong but it my mind it should
After checking the weather all day today and looking forward to some clear skies (cleared up at 5, clouded over by 6:30
) I was planning on seeing how much curvature I get without the flattener, was not to be though. Maybe Tuesday night!
In the not too distance future I think I'll need another pair of eyes to do some real optical testing, I don't think mine are really up to the task hehe When I get my spacers and stuff worked out I'll be able to do some "first light" stuff!
Great scopes these Sky Rovers , how about giving Melbourne's resident 'refractorholic' , MattT a PM ? , you will find him in the ATM section under 'Gaunt gets a RA' , pretty sure he will jump at the chance to check your new scope out , as I jumped at testing Brian3's 115mm Sky Rover out a while ago , yes these are very good APO;s in all ways .
