Saxon ED 80mm

[janoskiss (Steve H)]

Edit: This scope is great!

I got home, unwrapped my present. First problem NOW SOLVED!! Thanks Beren, John & Geoff.:

http://members.optusnet.com.au/~jano...eld-misfit.jpg

The scope came with one of those utterly useless deep space "maps" that you see with cheap scopes on ebay. It didn't come with a manual though. I downloaded Orion's manual but it says nothing about fitting the dew shield. It's on tight I tried to slide or twist it gently, but it doesn't budge. I'm scared of being too forceful with it. Is it meant to screw on or slide on?

[beren]

Steve its supposed to be slipped on , dont worry mines like that as well , just taking the dustcap off makes it move , with the cap on apply pressure with your hand covering the cap and end of the sheild it should slid down no worries . If its real tight when taking off {thats if you want to take the cap off} be aware that you may screw the objective cell housing off {see the black ring in your pic where the sheild ends].Hope you can use it tonite

[asimov (John)]

quote
'The dew shield is plastic, and slides on and off a machined lens cell; it is a good snug fit. There is a plastic lens cap that fits on the end of the dew shield with a smaller cap that fits a smaller reduced diameter mask. This is the same arrangement as a C102 that I owned previously.'unquote

[frogman (Anthony Lord)]

it looks like its "cross threaded" but i cant see a thread !

[Striker (Tony)]

Its useless...I will give you $50 for it......Steve you pay postage...lol

[Starkler (Geoff)]

As the others have said its a snug press fit. Carefully work it to get the gap level then press it on straight.
On the inside are a few very thin strips of some material that can eventually wear and make a sloppy fit if you take the dewshield on and off too often, so hold on to it when removing the dust cap.

[Robby]

Let us know how it works visually (once you sort the sheild).
I'm looking for an ED80, and maybe this would fir the bill.
Cheers.
Hmm... This is my 500th post.. What a geek

[janoskiss (Steve H)]

Thanks guys! It snapped on like you said it would. Just quite a bit more force than I was willing to apply without knowing what I'm doing.
BTW. The dewshield is metal. Threaded on the inside.

I only got about 5 minutes between the clouds. Caught Jupiter low in the sky (23 degrees); too low to really impress, but looked good at highest magnification I can get, 133x; some false colour probably because of atmospheric aberrations. Then I checked out some bright stars, with unbarlowed 15mm and 9mm Ploessls (40x & 67x). Crisp, sharp, very nice; not like the ugly fuzzballs I see in my GS 8" Dob.

GS Superview 30mm performs well too with this scope except that I need to have the focuser all the way in with the 2" mirror diagonal.

I do need to organise a mount for it now. I was using a camera tripod, which would be fine for birdwatching, but won't be much good for astronomy, unless perhaps I can get the altitude motion well balanced.

Like the silky smooth Crayford focuser. Though, unlike the advertising hype would have you believe, there is significant backlash with the tensioner on; which needs to be on when viewing much above horizon, because otherwise the focuser just slides out under the weight of the diagonal.

[janoskiss (Steve H)]

Wow this scope is great!

Had some more lengthy though intermittent breaks in the clouds. I spent over an hour looking at Airy disks at 133x (9mm GS PL in Orion shorty+ 2x barlow). I couldn't believe my eyes. Just textbook perfect! I don't think I'm going to have to hassle anyone about advice on collimating this scope. It looks to be spot on. Never seen anything remotely like it in the Dob (even though I've collimated and collimated, my god, how I've collimated!).

No false colour on any brighter stars I managed to get a look at. Alpha centauri is two beautiful Airy disks with perfect circular symmetry. Interestingly, there is colour (purples, blues and greens) in the diffraction rings when the star images are defocused, but when they are in focus all the colours merge, the image just snaps into focus beautifully. I am absolutely rapt with this purchase.

I need to work on a mount though:

http://members.optusnet.com.au/~jano...c/ed-on-eq.jpg

How do you like my tube rings?

I bought this primarily as a grab-and-go scope, so not sure if I want an EQ at this stage. I know many of you are going to laugh (or maybe even cry), but I might just make a little Dob mount for it for now.

BTW. How good are the EQ5s for visual? (like the one Mark is selling ). Even if you overlook the lack of stability and sloppy motion and vibrations, the crappy EQ you see in the picture is still terribly awkward to use because the slow motion controls keep getting in the way, so you often just physically can't aim the scope where you want without pulling bits off it, rotating the scope 180, and so on.

PS: Dew shield is not threaded on the inside. I have imagined it. I guess my brain's been conditioned to see threads whenever I see that greyish mat black paint they use on eyepiece barrels.

[Robby]

great shot... Ok, you've almost got me convinced this is the way to go. Now I just have to find my wallet... I think Kath has stolen it so I don't spend any more money
Cheers

[Starkler (Geoff)]

Originally Posted by janoskiss

Wow this scope is great!

No false colour on any brighter stars I managed to get a look at. Alpha centauri is two beautiful Airy disks with perfect circular symmetry. Interestingly, there is colour (purples, blues and greens) in the diffraction rings when the star images are defocused, but when they are in focus all the colours merge, the image just snaps into focus beautifully. I am absolutely rapt with this purchase.

Exactly the same as my experience with this scope. Looks like you got a good one

I bought this primarily as a grab-and-go scope, so not sure if I want an EQ at this stage.

I put mine on an eq3 I had and found it cumbersome to use. You'll use it mostly at low powers and an alt-az is just so much nicer not to mention lighter. Putting such a scope on a heavy eq mount takes away much of the "grab and go factor". Check what I did to convert my eq3 to an alt-az in this thread

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...ead.php?t=2916

[janoskiss (Steve H)]

Thanks Geoff! Can you explain what you mean by "removing the pin". How is your EQ-to-AZ conversion different from "polar" aligning to zenith?

[Starkler (Geoff)]

Originally Posted by janoskiss

Thanks Geoff! Can you explain what you mean by "removing the pin". How is your EQ-to-AZ conversion different from "polar" aligning to zenith?

Its no different to making zenith the pole in terms of orientation.
With an eq mount there are normally two screws to push against a fixed pin on the base to fine adjust the polar alignment in a horizontal direction. I removed this pin and made a new bearing so that the whole base can rotate . I can now lock the old RA axis which allows positioning the scope to put its weight close to the centre of the base, and the azimuth bearing is now the new bearing and not the old RA axis. Dump the counterweight and bar and you now have a lightweight alt-az mount

[asimov (John)]

To answer your question Steve about the EQ5 mount. I really like mine, although with my 6" F/8 refractor sitting on it, for visual use it's only just sufficiently big enough. An EQ6 would be ideal. For your 80 ED the EQ5 would be great IMHO. It seems people have trouble with the operation of an EQ ie: not being able to position it in the right spot/having to rotate the tube etc. It take's time to master the 'quirks'. I don't seem to have this trouble. Maybe cos' I grew up with one, & that's all I know?..I have quite a time getting the object in the FOV at the south celestial pole, or close to it though. As far as tube rotation for a refractor, I just rotate the diagonal to where I want it, I don't much care where the focuser knobs end up. The other problem with that is sometimes its damned hard to get to the finder without straining your neck at zenith. A diagonal on the finder would be VERY handy here!

After saying all that, You either love the EQ mount or you hate them. Comes down to Individual choice really.