Weather alert

[rumples riot]

Hi all, just wanted to tell everyone in Adelaide to beware I just ordered an Orion 80mm ED refractor for the Lx200. The orion is to be mounted on the Lx200 and will be the guide scope and planetary imaging scope. No need to worry about getting collimation to the enth degree with the Lx200. Apparently this scope is a good deal and I got it from Bintel. Ordered today and will be here by 9am tomorrow guarantted. It only cost 700 and I also got a new star diagonal (mirror) to replace the Meade piece of crap that I have.

The scope is only OTA, so I will need to buy a set of mounting rings to go with it. Any suggestions? Bintel don't stock them and most of the suppliers are in the US. Does anyone know who stocks them here is Australia.

I really wanted to get get a Takahashi instead of the Orion, but could not afford $22,000.00. Especially since I am in the process of building a house on my block over at Yorks.

Anyway, did I make a good buy, don't know much about refractors, but got advice from the guys at Bintel and I trust them?

[Starkler]

Paul there are plenty of online reviews of this scope.

I've got the spending bug myself. I wonder if anyone would laugh at me if I piggybacked one onto my dob :)

[[1ponders]]

YES :cool: :cool: :cool: :D Finally some clear weather heading this way then.:cheers: :cheers: :stargaze:

[beren]

Paul ive seen a few dealers advertising scope rings.....

astronomy online http://www.astronomyonline.com.au/cache/header-63public__0-0.html?cache=no

the Space and astronomy mail order bussiness from SA

Space and electronics - the one in NSW i think that sells premium gear .

The trick is how to put this on the LX , the expensive way is with the Losmandy dovetail trak system , im not sure if you can get this in AU {Bintel dont stock it} or rig up a home made system {ive seen some good examples over the net , check out the MAPUG archives}.


PS: the Williams optic 2 inch diagonal is supposed to be pretty good , you can get 2 types one with better coatings that is comparable to the tele-vue everbrite diagonals or the normal one .Frontier optics sell them ......wish i knew before i brought the Meade UTHC 2inch diagonal .

[Exfso]

Hey Paul, what sort of Tak are you talking about for 22grand? I know the TOA150 is due out in about 3 months, that should be a very nice scope, my ota was about $10500 for the '130. So knowing Takahashi that would be about the price of the '150. Unless of course you are talking about their reflector scopes.

:eyepop: :astron:

[rumples riot]

Thanks Stuart for the tips, will follow them up.

Peter, the tak I looked at through the dealer in cleve was the 150 FS152 for 19665 ex GST. But even the 300 mewlon was near that price. The 102 FS was still over 5k for the OTA. Would love the own that sort of scope, but cannot justify it in my head. Must say that cannot wait to look through yours. And the FSQ series are even more expensive. Anyway from what I have read the Orion is supposed to be very good for the price and equivilent to the Televue in many respects. Still waiting for it to arrive at 1215 pm. So much for 9.00am guaranteed. Think I will be getting back some money on my delivery.

[beren]

Paul forgot to add that ive seen some issues with the losamandy system for a 10 inch lx200 , it seems that some mods are needed to line up the mounting holes ....strange i know but i have seen some mention of it ......astro-guy here has on his LX he might be able to give some advice .

Good luck with the Orion delivary mate imsure itll arrive soon .....i dunno about all you guys , you seem to strike it lucky with items in stock nearly everything ive got ive had to wait or cancel .....unbelivable LOL.

PS: in the local classfieds today theres a Tak f102 refractor going for 3000 bucks , if anybody is interested i can pass on a number .

[rumples riot]

Wouldn't you know it, no scope here yet at 3pm and it is bucketing down with rain and the forecast looks like rain for next five days, and on top of this I have to wait two to three weeks for the rings to come from scope stuff. I think I have upset the weather gods.

[rumples riot]

Well scope has arrive and opened the box and all appears to be well. The OTA is a lot bigger and heavier than I imagined, but will fit nicely on top of the LX200. I just did a basic see how it focuses test, and seems quite nice. The crayford focusor is really smooth and fine on getting focus just right. The lens looks great and fully multicoated, no chromatic aberration present on terrestrial images. The test will come when it is on the scope and looking at Jupiter or Saturn. The mirror star diagonal is also very good and I look forward to using it in the coming weeks.

From what I have read on the net about this scope, all seem to have the same opinion, that is is a great scope for the price and easily the match of the televue 75. So now all I have to do is wait for the rings and losmandy 2D counter balance to turn up and I will be doing some testing. Until then I will wait for this rain to abate.

[[1ponders]]

So when can we expect the rain and clouds to clear from here? ie when's your first light, 'cause its still :tasdevil: :cloudy: :windy: :tasdevil: here.

[rumples riot]

Well, Sirius Optics in sending down the rings and the mounting rail for the scope to attach to the LX200 next week. They could have sent it today, but I won't be home to receive it so I told them to delay delivery. Ron is a nice guy and told me a few tips and even advised me that a friend of his has the ED on a SCT and loves the performance of the scope. So first light will hopefully take place next week when I get back from Coober Pedy. That still leaves me the problem of a 2D counter weight system. Seems that Bintel has developed something and they are going to send out the brochure for it in the next day or so. So hopefully that will sort out dynamic balance.

As for weather you boys will just have to suffer. LOL

[Exfso]

Yeah the weather in Adelaide is absolute crud at present, blowing the crabs outa the trees as well.

:cold:

[ballaratdragons]

Geoff,

I won't laugh if you piggy-back one to your dobber. I am going to piggy-back My 2 sons scopes onto mine.

Design it so you can piggy-back it to your Dobber and take it off when you want to.

An instant inter-changeable set-up.