upgrades and the venus transit

[rustigsmed (Russell)]

G’day,

I thought I'd share some experiences and ask a question or two

I picked up a SW12” goto dob before easter and have been loving it. Although the Melbourne clouds have been dominating the night skies!

The process of ‘accessorising’ the scope, is a slowish and kind of a expensive process - but I’m getting there.

Thus far:
Glatter Barlowed laser collimator
Bob’s knobs for the secondary
Canon 600 eos (arrived yesterday!!! Excited to test it out)
32gig c10 memory card for the camera
A4 baader film - solar
A4 R-G film – solar

On the list:
Power tank (any recommendations? was wondering about powering more than one device eg scope and dew shield?) – priority is fairly high
Some kind of dew treatment heater
Light shroud to surround the truss – astrozap? – priority high and i severly lack sewing skills!
Maybe a different focuser (I noticed other countries have a different focuser 2x speed on the SW dob).

I won’t be able to source a light shroud before the transit (and I am kind of assuming that stray daylight will ruin any picture??). Should I just make the filters to fit my old very very shonky 6” reflector or if I put the SW in the ‘shade’ will I get an ok image? This question kind of intrigues me as in theory the ‘scope will be pointed directly at the sun… hmmm

Cheers,

Rusty