Officina Stellare RC360 Pro ... has arrived!!

[marc4darkskies (Marcus)]

A bit more heavy lifting as I extracted the scope from its crate.

Other photos and commentary on the PBase site. http://www.pbase.com/gailmarc/galler...stellare_rc360

[renormalised (Carl)]

Gail: "I'm glad you like my knick-knacks. But the one that's got pride of place is Marcus's antique electric drill. He got that from his g-g-g grandfather. It's worth quite a lot!!!"

Mormon Nuisance: "Oh"



Nice scope, Marcus

[David Fitz-Henr]

Originally Posted by marc4darkskies

Hehe ... yes, we're nearly there! I would like to get it out of the crate first though.

You're not serious Marcus??? Far too precious an item to take out of the crate; I suggest that you cut a hole in the end of the crate and screw the dovetail saddle to the crate bottom

Just looking at your pics, the one with the scope on a flimsy little table looks a little iffy - will you be using that for all your bench testing? (I don't like the look of that guy standing next to it either...)

[stevous67 (Steve M)]

The OS RC360 is a piece of art. Very nice Marcus.

Steve

[Paul Haese]

Beautiful looking scope Marcus. I am sure you will produce some amazing images from the new system. The crates and packaging looks very good. Best of luck and I look forward to the images.

[marc4darkskies (Marcus)]

Originally Posted by David Fitz-Henr

...
Just looking at your pics, the one with the scope on a flimsy little table looks a little iffy - will you be using that for all your bench testing? (I don't like the look of that guy standing next to it either...)

Don't worry David, the table's rated capacity is 20kg but we all know that small tables are rated to hold lamps, plates & cups, not telescopes, so the table's capacity spec can safely be ignored. Also, it’s only a little bit wobbly!!!

Originally Posted by Paul Haese

Beautiful looking scope Marcus. I am sure you will produce some amazing images from the new system. The crates and packaging looks very good. Best of luck and I look forward to the images.

Thanks Paul.

[gregbradley]

That is a beautifully crafted looking scope. Lots of nice touches there.

Greg.

[Phil Hart]

Exciting! That's some new toy

Phil

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Hey Marcus, I found your lost ping pong ball there too...it's next to the 8" dob

[Astromelb]

Dear Marcus,

It has been a pleasure to assist you with the system. Plus is was also a nice opportunity to meet you face to face.

I know you are going to do this system serious justice with your imaging, and look forward to the opportunity to pass your images back to Officina Stellare for them to proudly display on their webpage and Facebook page.

Officina Stellare are a very very proud supplier, and I am delighted that everything has worked out so well. I will pass your "complimenti" on to them and copy them with this thread, as they really get a lot out of customers responding to their efforts.

Now all you need is time, patience in the commissioning phase, and then finally ...... some darkness

Rgds,
Cris Ellis.
Astronomy Alive.
(Astromelb)

[Peter.M]

Originally Posted by marc4darkskies

Don't worry David, the table's rated capacity is 20kg but we all know that small tables are rated to hold lamps, plates & cups, not telescopes, so the table's capacity spec can safely be ignored. Also, it’s only a little bit wobbly!!!

Yes but is that 20kg for imaging? "Consider these as guidelines since some telescopes are physically long for their weight or have very long effective focal lengths and may require a larger table."

Seriously cool piece of gear!

[issdaol (Phil)]

Impressive kit there Marcus. If you don't have dark enough skies you are welcome to park it on my new property permanently :-) he he he

[lazjen (Chris)]

That is a very nice looking piece of gear. Very cool.

[marc4darkskies (Marcus)]

Work tends to get in the way of playing with new toys so this is just a minor progress report - no new pics yet. But in the spirit of sharing the journey ...

So far I've sat and stared, enjoyed the new scope smell and played with the pretty laser! There is no manual yet so it's a process of discovery. Thankfully, OS tells me that a manual is forthcoming soon and they've been very responsive to my email queries, responding overnight.

On top of basic familiarisation, I've only figured out my cabling & peak power requirements at this point and roughly how to laser collimate (in theory at least)

Cabling:

• OTA: Cat 5 serial plus 12V supply - cables supplied
• Pyxis rotator: RJ12 serial port and no cable supplied (this is deliberate on the part of the manufacturer ) plus 12V supply
• Atlas focusser: USB plus 12V supply - cables supplied

Peak Power.

• The OTA - 2 heaters, 3 fans, a control unit (ATC-02) and a secondary focusser - 5 Amps
• Pyxis - 1A
• Atlas – 1A
• Camera – 3A

I'll have to upgrade power through the mount to a RigRunner (fused 12V power distribution board). A 12AWG cable should be enough I think. I've already got USB and serial through the mount.

I also found out that the imaging train adaptor has a push pull setup to be able to correct for non-orthogonality (if required) later on. Nice touch. (see picture of the back of the scope – 3 sets of 2 screws on the flange of the adaptor)

The fun stuff will start this weekend:

• Laser collimate
• Install ATC software
• Power up the OTA and establish PC to OTA comms
• Make the Pyxis serial cable
• Install rotator and focusser software
• Install the optical train
• Establish comms with the rotator and focusser

Doubt I'll get all this done but I'll make a start. Fingers crossed not too many hiccups! The trick with all of this is to take your time to understand what you have to do before you try to do it - slow and steady!

Cheers, Marcus

[allan gould]

Enjoy every moment of the journey. A beautiful scope indeed Marcus.

[UniPol]

How much has this outfit cost you Marcus as I am thinking of purchasing one as well ? I see OPT are selling OS and the shipping costs seem pretty reasonable.

[marc4darkskies (Marcus)]

Originally Posted by allan gould

Enjoy every moment of the journey. A beautiful scope indeed Marcus.

Cheers Allan!

Originally Posted by UniPol

How much has this outfit cost you Marcus as I am thinking of purchasing one as well ? I see OPT are selling OS and the shipping costs seem pretty reasonable.

Frankly, I wouldn't even dream of buying from Opt. Cris at Astronomy Alive treated me very well and has an excellent relationship with Gino at OS. I'd suggest you give him a call before you consider importing yourself. I got the bells and whistles version and it's safe to say it was significantly cheaper than an equivalent RCOS + extras would have been (had they not gone out of business)

[marc4darkskies (Marcus)]

Did a collimation check this morning. Out of the box it looks like no adjustment is needed - see attached (and commentary under the PBase version). I find this astonishing and a testament to the quality of crating and packaging.

A few new images also on PBase:
http://www.pbase.com/gailmarc/galler...stellare_rc360

[gregbradley]

That is very good. My CDK did not need adjustment either. That's a pretty cool laser tool you have there. Who makes that? Does it only work on RC designs?

How is the baffling on the scope? It looks really well made. My only criticism of the CDK17 is the baffling was not well done and they fixed it on a rolling basis for free which was good. In fact Rock sent me a new baffle for the primary mirror just a few weeks ago after I discussed it with him at AAIC. Good service.

Does OS sell a reducer for this scope? Chances are your Tak super reducer would work with your STL11. I used a 2.7 inch Tak .75X reducer on an RCOS 12.5 and it mostly worked (corners were not 100%).

Greg.

[marc4darkskies (Marcus)]

Originally Posted by gregbradley

That is very good. My CDK did not need adjustment either. That's a pretty cool laser tool you have there. Who makes that? Does it only work on RC designs?

It looks like a Howie Glatter - see attached pic. It would work on any scope I think.

Originally Posted by gregbradley

How is the baffling on the scope? It looks really well made. ....

The primary baffle has 4 internal baffles

Originally Posted by gregbradley

Does OS sell a reducer for this scope? Chances are your Tak super reducer would work with your STL11. I used a 2.7 inch Tak .75X reducer on an RCOS 12.5 and it mostly worked (corners were not 100%).

Greg.

I don't think they do sell a reducer - I might ask. I'm not really interested right now anyway.