A clear night... first light... dare I?

[Omaroo]

Time for first light! It's been hiding in its box for the past few days for all the rain we've had. Tonight looks clear-ish, so out it comes.

The new Mewlon 210. :D

Can't wait to see what this little sucker can do for my lunar photography. Long focal length again - oh joy! :lol:

71501

[leinad]

Mmmm that's a lovely DK :D

[Omaroo]

DK.... yep - and it's first collimation tonight. Wish me luck! LOL!

It's basic collimation is pretty reasonable, I just used the old "concentric rings when standing in front of it at 6 diameters" SCT trick to get it at least showing detail. Transport knocked it for six. Star-tests a-plenty tonight me thinks. :)

[jjjnettie]

:) Good luck Chris.
I'm sure she'll perform flawlessly.

[Omaroo]

Thanks Nettie :) We can go through the same trials and tribulations together.... :lol:

[Dennis]

Hi Chris

The M210 looks quite handsome atop the G-11. How did you fit the Losmandy plate to the OTA – just the x2 M5 socket head cap screws?

Do you have the Tak standard eyepiece outlet or is there a motorised focuser fitted yet?

I’m sure you’ll have a grand night out with a lovely companion, gazing at the Moon!:)

Cheers

Dennis

[astronut]

Bring it with you to Stargard Chris?:)

[Omaroo]

Hi Dennis :)

Yes, I just removed the standard Vixen-style dovetail and attached a Losmandy Universal D-Series plate to it using the existing screws. The Losmandy plate is a trifle thinner at the points the bolts go through, so there is more purchase into the foot threads on the OTA.

I've left the back standard tonight, just to get it working in basic trim. When it's collimated I'll get the new FeatherTouch attached and then motorise it. I have it all planned! :)

The moon is probably up a little late for me tonight (work tomorrow), but at least I'll hopefully have stars pinpoint. Maybe I'll set the alarm... :lol:

[DavidU]

Awesome Chris:thumbsup: You risk some serious weather anomalies with that thing:lol:

[Omaroo]

Not tonight John - it's been a long day. I have to pack tomorrow night, so that probably knocks that out too. We'll see if I can pack and have it finished tomorrow. :thumbsup:

[Omaroo]

Thanks David :) How's your setup going?

[DavidU]

Good thanks Chris, the replacement 6" refractor is collimated etc.
Saving up for the camera next.

[Omaroo]

LOL! Aren't we all! :) It's all on-going...

[spacezebra]

Beautiful rig there Chris

Cheers Petra d.

[Omaroo]

Thanks Petra :)

OK - first light has occurred...

I've tweaked collimation so that I get a concentric disk at centre. It's amazing how this is lost as soon as you start going off-axis. The concentricity is quite critical.

And.... diffraction spikes on bright stars. Weird!!! :lol: For a refractor guy, this is very strange. I'll let it get darker outside and see if I can see clusters as dots or cross-hatch fields...

[jjjnettie]

I like diffraction spikes.

[DavidTrap]

Looks good Chris,

Hope that all goes well with collimation.

Still haven't had any favourable weather to try out the FS-102 though...

David T

[Omaroo]

So Brisbane's clouded out David? Have you tried it on a distant terrestrial subject?

[h0ughy]

mmm your fault......nice scope Chris

[DavidTrap]

Yeah, I have, but it's not the same.

:(

DT

[Omaroo]

Sorry David :(

Wow, wow, wow. I've just tweaked collimation to within a sploofteenth of a skoggin, whacked the FeatherTouch BRC2020 on, and the Jewel Box through a Tak LE24 EP is truly spectacular. I've never seen so many colours in there. Clarity is brilliant. Seeing is actually quite good. M42 was unbelievable too - all six in the Trap just jump out, and with an OIII on the nebulosity is well-defined and, well, nebulous.

Very happy chappy. :thumbsup:

[jjjnettie]

Wonderful news!!

[Tandum]

Jezz, Chris has a shinny new scope as well. Sort of takes the gloss off my little stellarvue 60mm finder that arrived today :) What's the focal lenght on that Chris, they are around 2 kilometers aren't they :)

[Omaroo]

LOL! Go the StellarVue Robin! :)

Here are the specs, and yes, F/L is darn long for an 8.5 inch scope:

[toryglen-boy]

thats a lovely piece of equipment Chris, i should have known you would get some high-end gear, cant wait to see your moon shots, like the one from last year, that was epic

congrats

:thumbsup:

[Satchmo]

Its refreshing after all these threads on RC vs. Newtonian to see people cooing over a simple Dall-Kirkham Cassegrain with an ellipsoid primary and spherical secondary mirror and twice the coma of an equivalent Newtonian . People are getting far too anal about relative merits of optical designs if you ask me :)

[TrevorW]

Couldn't agree more,

Chris its a lovely looking scope (can I say that or isn't it manly enough) or should I say struth mate thats one bonza scope, personally if you like it thats all that really matters ATEOTD

:thumbsup:

[AlexN]

Chris - Congrats on the Mewlon! Done any imaging with it as yet?

I got something on the way to quench my thirst for long focal length work! :) should be a stunner... :)

Cant wait to see some lunar photography with the Mewlon mate!!

[Grahame]

I bet that focuser is a real smooth piece of work ;) cant wait to see some shots from your scope.

cheers,

Grahame.

[slippo74]

Hey Chris... congratulations for the Mewlon.
That is a dream scope!

[Omaroo]

Thanks everyone :) :thumbsup:

I've had the M210 out last night at our society's local field "Stargard" in S/W Sydney. I love it. One of our guys, Moh, loaned me his 100 deg FOV 14mm Explore Scientific 2" EP for the evening, and the 2450mm-odd focal length gave me about 178x mag - and fantastic views of the common bright DSOs. They were very, very enjoyable, and you could swin around in the porthole view. Truly wonderful clarity on-axis, and the contrast in surrounding nebulosity was stupendous. The faves - M42, NGC2070, 47-Tuc, Omega Cen, Homunculus in Carinae and a couple of other delights such as the Jewell Box were all different to any other scope I've looked through before. They were all ideal targets for this machine. Seeing was very average, but when I did have periods of steady air it was just fabbo. Love it, love it, love it! :D

[Octane]

I read that as Humayun in Carinae.

lol.

H

[Omaroo]

Humuncayun... Humayunculus... LOL!

[AlexN]

Nothing like a taste of aperture to whet the appetite for visual astronomy.. The M210 is a stunning way to do it...

Did you get a chance to have a peep at Jupiter or Saturn at high-ish mag? 220x~300x? I suppose in poor seeing it might not have shown its true colours, but we are talking about a DK optical system... high power planetary/lunar work is what this thing was made for! :)