You need a scope for every occasion I should probably trim the collection, but I'll probably still find some excuse to keep buying more lol
now, the 12" is the main workhorse, then theres the 10" which is great for those 1am wakeups when I feel like going deep but cant be stuffed taking the 12" out; and it's also a back up for the 12", the skywatcher RFT is the grab n go widefield rig, the M500 is the grab n go planetary, and the Meade 4.5" is a general purpose grab n go, or for those times when all else fails, but it needs a new mount....
And then the Stellarvue F60 will soon be joining the clan which will be the super grab n go for those occasions when I can't be stuffed taking out the other grab n go....
Is this niche filling getting out of hand....no never
everything plugs through the lappy, mount controlled by EQMOD/Starry Night Pro, the Tak has motofocus then the lappy gets controlled from this pc via remote desktop.
Hey SAB, what are the optics like on that Skywatcher 120 refractor? They seem like a pretty good buy.
Now that I've used it I can answer this question. For low magnification wide field, it's excellent. Nice crisp stars and bright views of starfields and nebulae thanks to the large aperture. I've used mags upto 75x with the image holding its clarity, but at 120x things are noticably fuzzier and less crisp due to chromatic abberation. I'd estimate around 100x is the maximum useful mag for this scope.
So in short, if you want something for low power Milky Way sweeps without burning a hole in your wallet, you can't go wrong with this.
I don't recommed it for planetary observing however as it can't support high powers and chromatic abberation does become a problem.
Here's what a 10" newt looks like on an EQ6. 4 counter weights there. This one has a stellarvue 60 finder and qhy5 on top as a guider and an sbig 8300M + QHY wheel plugged into a moonlight focuser as the imager. Darker skys would be nice
After being annoyed by the standard finderscope supplied by Celestron with their CPC series of scopes, I decided to splash out on one of those cheapie Bosma 80mm x 500mm f6.3 refractor scopes. It comes with a few bits and pieces (not overly useful for me) such as a camera tripod, a couple of EPs, a moon filter, a solar film filter and a carry bag.
I spent a good deal of this afternoon and early night with it in the courtyard checking out the moon and a few of the brighter stars that poked through the gaps between the roofs. The scope is pretty decent, there's a bit of colour aberration towards the edges with the provided plossls (10 & 25mm) but the 12.5mm illuminated reticle I have was acceptable and the Televue plossls (8, 11, 15 & 32mm) and Meade super widefield EPs (18 & 24.5mm) I have improved the scope a goodly amount, not award winning but decent.
I tried some of my 2" Ba'ader EPs using a 2" SCT diagonal but I was unable to get focus as the size of the diagonal was making the light path too long. I guess some sort of stubby diagonal might solve that but I'm not worried as I'm not going to be putting any 2" EPs in it.
I thought about trying my f6.3 reducer corrector in it as a laugh but common sense prevailed
Next I spent a good hour and a half sorting out and attaching it to my C925. I had to diddle with the mounting rings a bit and it's not a perfect job but it seems strong and rigid and there is lots of adjustment in the rings for alignment purposes. The C925 is able to drive the scope and extra weight with seemingly no problems.
I have yet to try the whole system out in a session but will give it a go over the next few days, weather permitting, even if all I do is a basic alignment of refractor and C925 and some motor drive checks.
Here are some piccies...
Cheers,
Simon
Last edited by kustard; 21-05-2010 at 08:47 PM.
Reason: Spelling
Now that I've used it I can answer this question. For low magnification wide field, it's excellent. Nice crisp stars and bright views of starfields and nebulae thanks to the large aperture. I've used mags upto 75x with the image holding its clarity, but at 120x things are noticably fuzzier and less crisp due to chromatic abberation. I'd estimate around 100x is the maximum useful mag for this scope.
So in short, if you want something for low power Milky Way sweeps without burning a hole in your wallet, you can't go wrong with this.
I don't recommed it for planetary observing however as it can't support high powers and chromatic abberation does become a problem.
cheers
It won't completely get rid of it, but grab yourself a minus violet filter. You will lose a little bit of light but you'll get rid of a lot of the CA at higher powers.
It won't completely get rid of it, but grab yourself a minus violet filter. You will lose a little bit of light but you'll get rid of a lot of the CA at higher powers.
Sounds like a plan and have considered it, but as I use this scope purely for low power wide field, I decided against it. My 4.5" newt does a decent job on planets so that'll be my planetary grab n go.
I bought this scope from a chap in the US and, after about 2 months of building pedestals, customising trailers and figuring out crane logistics, she finally saw her first glimpse of the Southern hemisphere skies.
Swan nebula, Eta Carina, Omega Centauri, Tarantula nebula amongst others were all simply awesome.
Thanks Ric! The views match its good looks I can say, that with the sdm structure, objects appear more vivid and sharper than with the old version. The trifid is fantastic in this scope, the dark lanes are sharp and clear, while with the old one I was always using averted vision to get faint poorly defined gaps in the nebulosity. Note that these are the exact same optics as in the old scope. And it goes deeper. Stars are virtually as crisp at 300x as they are at 50x. Oh yes, she's also fully capable of 1000x in perfect seeing ! As I found out last weekend.. the Saturn Nebula was most pleasant at 953x, with the central star easily visible as a pinpoint while at any lower mag it was harder
Last edited by pgc hunter; 29-05-2010 at 07:41 AM.
I should probably trim the collection, but I'll probably still find some excuse to keep buying more lol
I can say, that with the sdm structure, objects appear more vivid and sharper than with the old version. The trifid is fantastic in this scope, the dark lanes are sharp and clear, while with the old one I was always using averted vision to get faint poorly defined gaps in the nebulosity. Note that these are the exact same optics as in the old scope. And it goes deeper. Stars are virtually as crisp at 300x as they are at 50x. Oh yes, she's also fully capable of 1000x in perfect seeing ! As I found out last weekend.. the Saturn Nebula was most pleasant at 953x, with the central star easily visible as a pinpoint while at any lower mag it was harder 
