I believe that price of $2900 includes the Moonlite focuser instead of standard factory one
HTH
Cheers
Bill
Quote:
Originally Posted by sejanus
I've been trying to buy one of these - well at least make contact as I ponder way too many scopes to buy. No luck - no reply on either the shopping website or his email address. Any secrets? Or is there anywhere local that is reselling them at an ok price? I found 1 certain shop that was selling it under the prostar brand but for $2900.
North Group may have stopped making/shipping those parts due to the need to re-design to address the backfocus issue. If you want the advanced focuser the quote I had was this ...
2" Dual Speed Crayford Focuser for ED APO152, 127, 102, 80,USD145,
postage is about USD25,
paypal charge is USD10,
total is USD180,
If you cannot get the part from North Group and do not want to go all the way up to a Moonlite or Feathertouch then I will let it go for AU$100 plus postage.
If you cannot get the part from North Group and do not want to go all the way up to a Moonlite or Feathertouch then I will let it go for AU$100 plus postage.
Here are some rough pics, all not focused correctly to boot.
The 1st is a clip from Ptolemy Cluster. I definitely didn't get the focus right. I just focused on live view...didn't zoom in for focus. Anyway it shows quite a bit of purple flaring. I suspect this is just focusing though as the below results were better.
The 2nd is a clip from M20. I refocused using live view zoom then slewed to M20. I should have tried re-focus at the target! There is substantially less flare but the stars are un-focused! Sigh!
The last is just 4 x 180s exposures of M20 (ISO400)...then in came the clouds. DSS stacking didn't like the un-focused stars and has left some artefact's on the image of them.. somewhat.
There is some field curvature...all in the same direction. Maybe some focuser droop or camera not square?
So ATM I need to do some more pretty pics to really test this out before judging. I like the light gathering of the 5" though!
Edit:
Forgot to say...it was awfully cold and the M20 unfocused stars do look a bit like dew. It's a possibility.
Last edited by wasyoungonce; 15-06-2010 at 11:30 AM.
I don't know why..it descended into anarchy real quick for no real reason.
Meh...people have a right to know where their scopes are made. For years everyone knew where their scopes came from now days it's not so clear.
The China manufacturers & their inter-relationships is very interesting and exists for some reason that escapes me ATM. Suffice to say they are producing ever increasing level of good products.
Last edited by wasyoungonce; 16-06-2010 at 09:55 AM.
Well I've given up on our mate Gilman. He either doesn't reply full stop, or takes 5+ days to and then ignores half your message. I'm not sure if it's a english comprehension problem or not but it's out for me.
A bit of a shame as a few pics david sent me looked great, anyway bugger it I'm going to punish the credit card and get a Tak or televue. Most likely a Tak.
Ok...continuing my post previously about some chromatic aberration I am getting with my scope.
I appear to be getting some violet "hue" with my 127ED. This hue is always on bright stars and elongates away in an elliptical manner from bright stars. Always in the same direction!
I'm suspecting there is a misalignment in my optical path causing this. I can understand a "hue" concentric with a bright star but not always trailing away in one direction!
These pictures tell the story.
So all you NG refractor guys what do you think or recommend I should try.
Are you using a Bahtinov Mask to reach focus? Are you focusing on a blue star? I had this problem on blue stars. I found if I focused on a yellow star, focus was still acceptable, but, it almost completely got rid of the halos.
I did try inside & outside defocused star test (the 1st time I used it...around 15th Jul) and the rings were concentric...from what I can remember. I didn't see any off axis hue doing this and at the time thought all was honky. I haven't used it since due to Melbourne weather.
Maybe I should try an inside/outside focus test again & this time take pics.
I should have also rotated the OTA in relation to the camera & tried some more pics to see if the off axis hue moved in relation.
Are you using a Bahtinov Mask to reach focus? Are you focusing on a blue star? I had this problem on blue stars. I found if I focused on a yellow star, focus was still acceptable, but, it almost completely got rid of the halos.
H
Hi H,
The stars are from M8 lagoon nebula. I actually focused on Antares, nice red bright star nearby. I didn't use a mask, just live view (magnified 10X)
I found you need to be just **slightly** out of focus to mininise the blue halos. It's easy with Liveview. Have a look at the youtube video half way down this page. http://deepspaceplace.com/ed127.php
James
Yep, I'm with James. I think I've mentioned this before.
Focusing on a yellow star is great, but, if focusing on a blue star, a very minor slight teensy weensy minute small tiny nudge out of focus will all but remove the pesky halos.
You're doing the right thing with Live View at x10.
Or is there anywhere local that is reselling them at an ok price? I found 1 certain shop that was selling it under the prostar brand but for $2900.
