Quote:
Originally Posted by Amunous
you can buy large magnets that weigh up to a kilo if you glue felt to the outside of it you can use it as a counter weight when using heavier eyepieces. just slap it on at the back somewhere (not the bottom where the mirror is lol) but on the side somewhere and that will solve the problem of the nosedive
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Thanks, I've seen these for sale in the US but not sure who would sell them in OZ. Anyway my nose diving issues have been addressed simply by raising the tension knob plates another 3 - 4 mm. So all good balance wise. Still have a few more things to do to the scope to improve its performance. After reading some threads about problems with maintaining collimation I did a little experiment last night. I collimated as usual before moving the scope around, up and down and checking the collimation once more and yep, the primary shifted a little. All indications are that the primary mirror springs aren't stiff enough in the GSOs so I will have to replace them.
As for last nights endeavors they were similar to the weeks before with similar conditions of lots of smoke on the horizon leaving the sky above the best viewing. At least I had company last night.
I found Garradd comet again and knocked off another 8 - 10 Messier objects which now accounts for almost a third of the catalog.
I'm finding that the 24 Pan and the new 10 Delos are the 2 eye pieces I'm using the most. Nothing wrong with the 13 Nag just that I use the 24 to find the object and change to the Delos if I want more detail.
I spent the last 30 minutes of the evening (midnight) looking at Jupiter with the Delos. The conditions were good enough and the planet high enough that the viewing was spectacular with that EP. I even saw a moon shadow (Io) cast onto one of Jupiter's orange bands.
Got home and 3 hours later it rained. I think my season is now over apart from moon watching from home on select nights.
Thanks everyone for taking an interest in the ravings of a newbie. I'll post again should anything significant happen re the modifications or any new observations I've made.