New toy

[spiezzy]

hi all
just picked up my new GSO (Bintel) 10" Truss Newtonian Astrograph and wow what a beauty .
this scope is the only 10" I know of in OZ they have 2 12" versions that they got in to have a look at the OTA I picked up yesterday is very impressive and well built cant wait to pop it on the G11 and give it a run it has a 10" quartz mirror with aluminium coatings and is F4 and a Hugh secondary .
I would like to say a big thanks to Don , Michael and David from Bintel very pleasant do deal with and Michael sat down with me and went threw the scope with me and gave me a big run down on the history and development of it .
at $2399 a well worth investment for such a big scope and well suited to large format CCD and DSLRs and very easy to collimate to boot .
I will follow up with a first light report as soon as this Gale force winds go away
cheers Pete

[MortonH]

Surely the wind blows right through the truss and doesn't affect it?

[spiezzy]

yep but I think 70klm gusts will thou but hopefully it will die down tonight and I can give it ago .
going down to the POD and going to sit it on the G11 now and get it ready
im like a little kid at Xmas at the moment

[LightningNZ (Cam)]

Choice! Any chance of photos?
-Cam

[MortonH]

Without pictures it doesn't exist!

[spiezzy]

As requested here is my new baby

[MortonH]

Very nice!!!

[spiezzy]

thanks MortonH cant wait to see the images it will produce .
cheers Pete

[Atmos (Colin)]

Looks like you may want to get some Bobs Knobs
What is the stock focuser like?

[Barnacle (Bill)]

It's a masterpiece!

Pete, must be the long overdue Xmas in July pressie for you!

Every Congrats! Hope you get to deploy it and see first light soon soon.

Kind regards,

Bill

[StuTodd]

These scopes are very impressive to look at, good price too!
As Colin said, a set of "Bobs knobs" would go a treat on there.

[spiezzy]

hi Guys
I do agree with Colin a set of Bobs Knobs would be great and will get some further down the track .
I managed to sneak out for an hour tonight and did some quick imaging tests and was quite impressed I have a Baader MPCC installed for coma correction but still noticed some coma in the corners should the MPCC correct it right to the edge ?
anyway a bit of cropping did the trick I guess at f4 I can't expect miracles with coma .
the scope holds collimation well I had to install a extension tube to get focus but once I did this it snapped into focus and it has a very big FOV nice not to used a focal reducer .
with the Sbig STF8300C there is no viginetting at all .
I guess the only thing that bothered me was the coma even with the MPCC
as soon as I get more time and have a proper session I will post some proper images .
cheers Pete

[spiezzy]

Well solved the coma problem it was the spacing between the MPCC and the chip just needed a 25mm and 14mm spacer to make up the 55mm spacing for the MPCC on the Sbig STF8300C thanks Michael from Bintel .
now I should have perfect stars across the field
as soon as it is all going again I will post some images but got to say I love this scope even with the coma the image in the centre was very crisp and sharp .
and the G11 handles the weight very easily and a big bonus is I use a William Optics mini guider and the guiding on PHD2 is superb compared to the LX200 SCT at one instance on my test I got a 10min exposure guided and the stars are perfectly round .
one other thing I will get is a light shroud stray light can be a issue with such long exposures .
the wind was blowing at around 35klm to 40klm last night and even thou I am in a POD observatory it did no affect it imaging as it used to with the SCT
more to follow
cheers Pete

[AEAJR (Ed)]

What is the difference between a telescope and an Astrograph?

[Ghen (Ed)]

Astrographs are designed specifically for photography, so will have ample back focus, and are generally quite fast, i.e. a lower F ratio than a similar aperture visual scope

[Hisanori (Hisanori)]

Hi Pete! Thanks for the trade another day! It was very nice meeting you! I decided to get NEQ6 from Bintel (I haven't told them yet ha ha). As recommended Bintel seems the place I should get my new mount Your observatory was impressive! And such a nice dark location. Looking forward seeing you new photos from your Astrograph.
Cheers, Hisanori

[spiezzy]

Hi all I have been able to get out Last Night it was a bit windy but I got a chance to do a quick couple of images for a test this is with the new Baader MPCC 111 .
a couple of things I need a light shroud to stop scattered light hitting the mirror and I need Light Box for flats (these images do not have flats subtracted )
and a motor focuser which is coming as with the light shroud .
but all in all I was quite happy with the results a lot more data would have been better but time didn't allow .
still getting this working properly but this scope was well worth the money
Comet 53P Van Biesbroeck is a 14th Mag comet and 5 or 10 min subs would have been great Plus I think focus was a bit out .
cheers Pete

ps M16 was 10 x 3 min
comet was 10 x 2 min

[Rac (Raymond)]

Nice scope!

One thing I can notice from looking a your test shots is what the MPCC mk3 is doing. Some will think its a collimation thing but even with it collimated perfectly you will still find the same thing with the stars. You will notice a bloated look and they are not as small and round as they should be.

With my 10" f4 I struggled for months before finding the problem and it was with the MPCC, I had both the mk2 and mk3 and both had the same problem. When I changed to a Televue Paracorr type 2 everything became perfect and it is way less sensitive to tilt.

Here's an example from my scope between the MPCC and Paracorr. The Paracorr 1 works great too if you could find one used. Even things other than stars look heaps better.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/463028...posted-public/

[spiezzy]

thank you for the advice Raymond much appreciated I will look into that
nice images you have well done
cheers Pete

[spiezzy]

hi Hisanori hope all is good with your new mount and SCT it was great meeting you as well stay in touch
cheers Pete