Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul Haese
Nice piece of kit Aidan. I have been umming and ahhing regarding getting a Gemini R&F for the last 6 months. I am sure it will be a beast.
Some thoughts on collimation. I have never had a folded OTA arrive on site that did not need some collimation. So it might well be out of collimation.
Secondly, I would not have thought a laser collimator would have been the best piece of kit to do collimation on that scope. I have attempted this myself several times on the RC12" (just out of interest) and found the results inconclusive. Do you own a Tak Collimation scope? If so, use that to check collimation. If not I would urge you to buy one. This sort of kit you want working at optimum performance and a Tak scope is going to get you so close you will only need to do a star collimation to tweak the secondary at most.
The Gemini would not have any slop so you can rule that out.
How are you going to go with weight on the PMX? I am currently around 37kgs all up on my MX and wonder if you will be close to the line with cables etc on board?
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Thanks Paul , the Gemini is a really good package, given my small fov and the use of an oag I definitely need a rotator and the fact that it comes together with the focuser means 1 less element in the imaging train. It feels and looks really solid, I am looking forward to putting it through its paces.
I do have a TAK collimating scope which I was planning to use for the primary adjustments. I don't have a central dot on the secondary to help with its alignment.
The weight is actually okay. The images I took were with the extension pole in and no camera attached. Once I got all the cables on and the camera and fw I did have to move the weights down a bit but there is plenty of room to go. I will see how it will handle with the tracking next weekend when I get first light but it doesn't appear to be struggling with the weight. However, I wouldn't want to put a bigger scope on that mount.