I might be crazy - new scope: a mak newt!

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We'll...haven't been stargazing for a few months, but I took stock and decided to replace my c8 and 90mm refractor - with a 7.5 inch skywatcher mak Newtonian. :)

Heads up, I will be putting a c8 and a mergez 90, with field flattener on the forsale board soon! :D

[Shiraz]

nothing crazy about that Tim - really good choice I think.

[Astroman]

I agree, Mak-Newts are nice scopes, wish I could afford one. Look forward to your results.

[brian nordstrom]

:)Tim , have always had a thing for these Mak/Newts ever since they come out years ago and have always got great reviews , refractor like sharpness and views , good choice and I hope we get a first light report :thumbsup: .
Brian.

[LightningNZ]

A great choice I think. If there's a scope that could lay claim to being a good "general purpose" scope it may be the Mak-Newt. I've always been pretty tempted by them.

Hope it works out well,
Cam

[Ken]

Great choice I have a Orion version for many years, for imaging it is a bargain with its flat field and pinpoint stars with no coma corrector in sight :)
Clear skies Ken.

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So far it's just sitting in the corner - it's been crummy weather in Melbourne. I'm also waiting for a laser collimator, although I suspect it's pretty close.

My only concern is how I'm going to rotate it in the tube rings, because it's not à lightweight, and it tends to slip when I loosen it. The cgem seems well able to carry it though.

[LightningNZ]

Do you mean it slips out of the rings and potentially onto the ground or when stopped the focuser banging into the rings?

If so just place another ring with a smooth edge around the scope and don't attach it to anything else. I think they are referred to as Wilcox rings after Eric Wilcox who has popularised them. A very simple idea and very effective. The contact with the main rings also acts as a useful brake to keep the rotation smooth.

Cheers,
Cam

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No, it's not going to slip out of the rings, but it will slide downward as I turn it. It's not a problem for AP - (I won't even bother to rotate it) but for visual, I can see some frustrations as I accidentally move the mount out of alignment.

I guess I could attach a second ring on the ota to stop that.

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Had some time under the stars last night with the scope - I can't really make a fair comment on the optical performance - I've got no way to collimate it at the moment, since I'm still waiting for Bintel to send me a laser Collimator which I ordered last monday. :sadeyes:

A star test showed that it is actually pretty close, and will only require some minor tweaks I hope.

I really should have just spend the evening looking at globular clusters, but I wanted to see how it would go with guiding on the CGEM - I had really good results a few weeks ago with my little refractor, and I been going on a software spending spree with BackyardEOS, Nebulosity, and SkySafari pro (I have a skyfi and an ipad)

After some rookie mistakes with balancing the OTA (a quick visit to 'the astronomy shed' youtube channel fixed that) and some cabling mishaps I finally did some runs with my 7D - terrible results :( Not sure what I was doing - PHD showed that it was locked on for the whole time, but every frame had stars in odd zig-zag patterns - not drift, but possibly tube vibrations, or wind? Anyway, the 7D ran out of batteries, so I switched to my Nikon D600 and got much better results with a cable release, so Im not sure what happened. :shrug:

The other issue was my Orion 'All-in-one' 'video finder' that I purchased from Bintel. Have to say this is a real bummer - not so much the camera itself, but the crummy software 'astro-cap'. Around 50% of the time it just crashed - the other 50% was me frustratingly trying to get an exposure that worked. I tried using 'sharpcap' but it didn't work at all with the Orion. I tested this thing during the day, and it all seemed to work reasonably well, but under the stars it was a different story. I might just use a telrad from now one :lol:

I got the camera as more of a one shot planetary cam so Im not really that upset, but for once it would be nice to find something that actually works :lol:

Looks like it could be fine tonight, so I might have another crack with the 7D. I'm using a little 50mm finder guider, so perhaps my PHD settings need changing.

[Kunama]

To stop it sliding downhill get a third tube ring glue some felt to one edge and clamp that ring above the ring nearest the finder so that the felt is between the 2 rings, then you can loosen your tube rings and rotate the tube without any worry about it sliding out of balance.