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  #81  
Old 25-02-2017, 06:50 PM
bigjoe (JOSEPH)
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Thanks Brian. Now got the thing up in the backyard...it was blue skies when I started with a promise of a clear night...and I'm not working

Ummmm its big...bigger than I thought. At least I can do straight through viewing without any trouble at all
This is the first time with the Refractor on top, I hope it works as well as before with the lighter shorter Reflector...

This is an f12 150mm refractor which is a bit over 2 metres long with Dewshield and it looks small up there....just a bit of a feeling of... oh dear what have I done!
Matt.

YOU'VE DONE WELL thats what you've done!!
Drooooooooooooool!!
Like Ive gone back in time. Long focal length refractors RULE AGAIN!!
bigjoe
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  #82  
Old 25-02-2017, 06:55 PM
bigjoe (JOSEPH)
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Hi Bo,

When not in use and it looks fine (not heavy rain that is) I cover the scope with a couple of tarps tied down and hope for the best I did manage to leave the scope out covered one night last year...so I thought...wake up in the night to hear rain falling and not worry about it as the scope was covered, but not tied down....woops. Of course wind had blown the tarp off and the mount and scope had been rained on for a few hours. No damage done to anything.... lucky me. At least the electric parts, hand controller Nexus etc was indoors. Now I tie the tarps down It takes about 10 minutes to mount the scope when its off the mount, not hard once I worked out how to do it.

One mod is to the Dec axis which was very 'rubbery' I added a 6mm plate bolted down with 11 bolts and machine screws and now it doesn't flex at all.

After a few months of stuffing around with sliding weights and adding an 8x50 Sky Watcher straight through finder, I needed a second finder, it is now complete. My solution to the East heavy problem is a 500g brass sliding weight at the focuser end...slid it down when the scope is on the East side to maintain gear mesh on the RA.

I have settled on an 80mm f7.5 achro with a TS 2" field flattener on a 2" GSO dielectric diagonal as the wide field scope, which gives 4º TFOV with a Pan 35 showing pinpoint stars to the very edge...an improvment over having the last 20% suffering Field Curvature.

The Byers gear tracks smoothly and now having found the perfect balance I can change from a TEC turret to a Pan 41 to WO Binos with the scope not moving, other than tracking.

Even though I built this scope and mount there was still a learning curve to use it.

Solid as a rock and moves like a well oiled machine

Matt
No I won't comment. .....WORDS FAIL ME!!
bigjoe.
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  #83  
Old 26-02-2017, 11:23 AM
Wavytone
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Very Steampunk, Matt !

/me is envious of the Byers drive... A big worm wheel >> the scope aperture is so solid and works wonders.
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  #84  
Old 16-03-2017, 09:27 AM
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MattT
Reflecting on Refracting

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Thanks bigjoe and Wavy...The byers gear is brilliant, as is the Mathis one too.

A new mod to the scope....from the land of smooth...a Feather Touch focuser on the 6".

This focuser has been kicking around my shed for a few years...bought it, sold it and bought it back again... what to do with it

Use it...that is the answer. The GSO is a good, but not in the same league as the FT.

I bought a round adaptor meant for Newtonian scopes that has collimation bolts. All I needed to do was cut a flange out of 6 and 12mm aluminium sheet to mount the FT on the scope....easy

Gave it a bit of 'steampunk' interest with black paint and a brass backing plate.

Uber smooth
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  #85  
Old 16-03-2017, 09:38 AM
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mental4astro (Alexander)
kids+wife+scopes=happyman

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Absolutely Fantastic, Matt!

Dead set gorgeous bit of kit you've created for yourself

Alex.
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  #86  
Old 18-03-2020, 10:58 AM
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MattT
Reflecting on Refracting

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Thread resurrection.

Three plus years on its time to wrap up the loose ends.

What’s new...a solution to east heavy which is a brass weight slid on when the Counterweights are on the east side of the mount and slid off when the the CW’s are on the west side....simple.

A year ago from the classifieds I bought a 7” Byers gear and worm. This is a perfect fit on the Dec shaft. It replaces the10” Mathis gear. Nothing wrong with the Mathis but now I have twin gold anodised Byers gears...looks and works so good.

Onto the scope. I built this in 2013 with an Istar 6” f 12 objective. Various focusers have come and gone. My final focuser is a 3” GSO linear bearing with Rigel systems stepper electric focuser control. I bought a base plate meant for GSO RC scopes and mounted that on a 6mm aluminium plate. Push pull screws on the GSO plate make collimating with the objective easy. The GSO focuser is as good as the feather touch and easily holds heavy eyepieces like the ES 17mm 92.

Everything else is the same. Argo Navis is perfect for this mount...one star alignment is all it takes, done in 30 seconds. AWR controller is flawless.

I’ll change the chrome plated dome nuts for high grade Stainless Steel at some stage as the the chnome is showing rust as are some of the other nuts on the mount...not bad considering I leave this covered with a Weber BBQ cover all year round.
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  #87  
Old 20-03-2020, 10:47 AM
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Rainmaker (Matt)
Strictly Visual......

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Looks great Matt. Like a giant Gaunt Eq.

More pictures would be nice too......

Last edited by Rainmaker; 20-03-2020 at 03:06 PM.
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  #88  
Old 20-03-2020, 01:28 PM
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MattT
Reflecting on Refracting

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Matt as you may remember I sold gave away the Gaunt not so long ago. Mark did a great job in its revival.

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...d.php?t=179235

It spent a long time gathering dust in the corner of my rear verandah. It was time to move it on. The experience of reworking that piece of history led me onto building this one.

One day I intend to re make the tube of the 6” f12 into something much lighter in weight, black, brass and rivet steampunk of course...long gone are thoughts of an 8” f15
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  #89  
Old 20-03-2020, 02:11 PM
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anj026
Plyscope

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It does look great Matt and I am sure gives much pleasure to observe with. I still have an old Parks 1.5" equatorial that needs restoration. Your thread has inspired me.
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