Advice on new telescope/accessories

[kkara4 (Krishan)]

After a few rainy/cloudy days and battling the flu/some other nasty bug which pretty much confined me to bed for Friday and Saturday, finally had the strength to put the G11 together, install the losmandy dovetail on the OTA and have a little go at using the hand controller for Gemini 2. Only thing I did was enter my GPS coords and date and time.

Took the scope outside at about 6pm, 7pm put it all together on the lawn in about 5 minutes chucked the astrozap dew shield on (no heater), found Saturn as quick as I could and just watched it for about 15 minutes. This was through the stock Celestron eyepiece. No problem picking up Titan, Dione, Tethys and Rhea. The clarity was incredible. At 100x power though couldnt make out any detail in the rings/on the disc.

I really dont like the Celestron eyepiece though, I find it really awkward to look through properly, but when I do get the angle right it is a great view! Anyway all the Televue stuff is on its way, so when I get all that ill chuck the camera on there and probably sell the Celestron eyepiece .

And to top it all off, i decided to take a pic with my phone (Galaxy S2) through the eyepiece, adjusted curves slightly in photoshop, and am stoked with the result I got just with that crude method!:

http://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/...psd966758c.jpg

At about 8pm (about 1 hour after setup, 2 hours after cooldown start), the corrector started misting up, and the body started to get wet as dew started to condense on it. Even the finderscope and eyepiece started to mist by the time I had packed up. All the grass started to get wet as well. I looked up the history of dew point/air temperature and they came very close together at this time, so I suspect that even if I had a dew heater I would have been done regardless. Humidity was >90%. All the previous days rain probably didnt help the situation!

Ah well it is good to know what the extreme limit is, and im stoked that I got as long as I did with it outside. Going back inside was no problem, house was heated to >25 degrees so the mist evaporated in a matter of minutes

[Camelopardalis (Dunk)]

Nice one mate, glad to hear you're feeling better

I've had mine a few years and it came with the Axiom LX 23mm and it's a nice enough eyepiece. Not sure if it works with the same way with the Luminos (assuming that's what came with your scope!), but if you twist the black rubber band around the middle of the eyepiece, the face pushes out making it much easier to use IMO.

Regarding dew, I find with my 11" once it gets beyond mid-80s I'm on borrowed time..I need a better dew solution for that one. The 8" keeps going like a champ though...hopefully your 9.25 will prove more like the latter. Still, without a shield and heater you were lucky to get that far with that humidity

[kkara4 (Krishan)]

Originally Posted by Camelopardalis

Nice one mate, glad to hear you're feeling better

I've had mine a few years and it came with the Axiom LX 23mm and it's a nice enough eyepiece. Not sure if it works with the same way with the Luminos (assuming that's what came with your scope!), but if you twist the black rubber band around the middle of the eyepiece, the face pushes out making it much easier to use IMO.

Regarding dew, I find with my 11" once it gets beyond mid-80s I'm on borrowed time..I need a better dew solution for that one. The 8" keeps going like a champ though...hopefully your 9.25 will prove more like the latter. Still, without a shield and heater you were lucky to get that far with that humidity

Cheers Dunk, I had the shield on, so probably pretty normal considering...at least I know what the limit is now!

Yep I have the push out thingy ill try using that next viewing session...pretty sure its the Axiom you speak of (23mm) .

Will start looking into a DIY heater solution, can easily make one up. Also want to start adding some temp sensors and things to measure mirror and tube temps...hmmmm

[Camelopardalis (Dunk)]

There's a local business opportunity

[kkara4 (Krishan)]

Originally Posted by Camelopardalis

There's a local business opportunity

haha . Way too busy unfortunately with other ventures .

Great success tonight. Connected ethernet cable to hub, got all the computer controlled Gemini stuff working, then interfaced it successfully with Stellarium!

Spent a few minutes messing about moving the mount around and practicing slewing the scope to point to various things. I suppose the accuracy will be very dependent on the settings ive programmed the Gemini with in terms of time and location, and also my polar alignment.

Next thing to try will be setting up a VPN, and logging in to the network via laptop, on which Stellarium and appropriate drivers and things are installed.

Step at a time

[kkara4 (Krishan)]

well the Televue stuff arrived yesterday, such unbelievably high quality made gear. Held in the hand is like holding a great big hunk of gold .

The CWT-2070 and RAD-1074 were the right choice are my initial thoughts. I screwed them together and there is roughly 30mm between the glass element of the powermate and T ring shoulder. I havent managed to figure out the total optical path length through the everbrite or Celestron diagonals yet, but am pretty sure I wont need the Televue 3.5" extension tube, so will probably sell it after testing to make sure I dont need it. Initially I was thinking of using it in place of the diagonal for prime focus, but this will be extremely awkward, so I think I will always use a diagonal no matter what.

For now I have to use the Celestron diagonal till the Baader clicklock arrives (hopefullly this week!).

Last night seeing was poor so didnt bother taking the scope out. I dont think I can contain myself today though, I wanna see Saturn at 400x powaaaaaa. haha. then i might even try photographing it with the MK III at 200x power.