#361  
Old 16-02-2008, 05:49 PM
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Kal (Andrew)
1¼" ñì®våñá

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lol Fahim, that 4th pic of your two borg refractors is a very sneaky pic!!! I immediately thought you had 3 refractors there
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  #362  
Old 16-02-2008, 05:58 PM
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netwolf
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Andrew, yes the illusion is nice but short lived. It would make a nice binoscope.
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  #363  
Old 24-02-2008, 12:11 AM
bloodhound31
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update on my equipment

As I cant get far enough back to take one photo of the entire inside of the obs, I have to take a few and stitch them together....
here goes..
http://i27.tinypic.com/2cnv8nq.jpg
and
http://i31.tinypic.com/2qkttn4.jpg
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  #364  
Old 07-03-2008, 06:52 PM
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Escortitis
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Show us your equipment!.....OK!

Wanted to show you all my gear. It's been a while in the making but I've finally got my setup to a point where I might start enjoying what we do rather than running into problem after problem. I spent a lot of time trying to make several different types of dob platforms but none where up to the job of imaging, quite obvious now..................but I am a newbie and the learning curve is steep! (vertical in some cases!)

Anyway, I've ended up with a modded 12" lightbridge on a G-11. The lightbridge is probably not the best imaging scope but once aperture fever takes hold.........I also like the idea of imaging straight onto the chip, no glass to go through seemed like a good thing. I've had to move the mirror up the tube about 30mm and use a motorized low profile focuser. This leaves me with about 8mm of in focus to spare. The plate for attaching the dovetail was my little creation, it's ultra solid and so far has shown no flex as it moves around the sky. The trusses have been tweaked to make sure they stay put, again they seem to be doing just that. The most important thing I found I had to do was upgrade the collimation locking screws to make sure the mirror didn't shift under it's own weight.

Guiding with the little 80 on Losmandys' side-by-side setup seems good, and that's my 900spc inside a bit of 50mm alli tube sticking out the back of it. I'm yet to test out long guides with this setup, but it should be OK.

Now all I have to do is learn the finer art of imaging! Keep posting everyone, I find it amazing the amount of knowledge you can find in one spot.
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  #365  
Old 07-03-2008, 07:00 PM
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iceman (Mike)
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Wow, first time I've seen that!
Nicely done!
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  #366  
Old 07-03-2008, 08:21 PM
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h0ughy (David)
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mmm wonder how a 16" lightbridge would go?
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  #367  
Old 07-03-2008, 09:50 PM
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Escortitis
George

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Give me a Titan, I'll 'ave crack at it!
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  #368  
Old 07-03-2008, 10:15 PM
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Ric
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Very nice setup.

Cheers
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  #369  
Old 30-03-2008, 09:21 PM
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Maverick
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Here's my GOTO.Nice and easy.
Cheers
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  #370  
Old 13-04-2008, 10:32 AM
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anthony.tony
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Canowindra Ed 80mm piggybacksetup.

This is one setup Ed80mm -Canon 350D sigma 100-300 zoom -Mogg lens adapter.
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  #371  
Old 17-04-2008, 05:19 PM
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Omaroo (Chris Malikoff)
Let there be night...

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Yay! I finally have a polar mount I can image with. I'm so over not being in a position to be able to guide. My particular EQ5 was junk, the worms were terrible and it didn't have any electronics. Basic motor-driven EQ5 with 60 arc-sec PE - the imagers dream!

Anyhoo - picked up this brand new non-Gemini guy from BinTel today. Thanks Don, Mike & Michael!

Coming soon is an Argo Navis - push-to appeals to me.

Should be great with the C8 and little Tak guiding it. On occasion I'll put the Megrez 80 on and use it to guide, and image through the Tak - or vice-versa. If I put on the Megrez to guide the C8 as standard configuration, I can still use the Tak on the SkyPatrol-II mount at the same time. Can't wait.....

This and the new (2nd hand) 350D I bought this week (off to Hong Kong soon for some mods) will get the astrophotography juices flowing again.... or I give up!
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Last edited by Omaroo; 29-04-2008 at 10:58 PM.
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  #372  
Old 19-04-2008, 12:14 PM
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Dave47tuc (David)
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Time for a update. After just a few scopes one more for the road.

Got this one of Lars. Sort a second hand EQ5 then re greased the mount it moves very smooth and drives well.
Notice the tripod! enginered from 25mm square section!

Scope is a Takahashi MT 160 Newtonian. Not many of these around.
Aperture 160mm F6. Has a F4.8 reducer and I have a F8 corrector on the way.

Scope is very well built and you can see its a Tak scope. Focuser is super smooth. No its not a huge scope but is big enough for me these days.
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  #373  
Old 23-04-2008, 10:03 AM
robgreaves
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Hi everyone

You may or may not know I recently moved to Australia from the UK. I'm a keen imager, and was influential in the Campaign for Dark Skies (CfDS) in the UK, as a Local Officer for Cambridgeshire.

I've had loads of different astro gear over the years, various Astro Physics and Bisque Paramount ME mounts, loads of OTAs, more CCD cameras than I can shake a stick at, adaptive optic units etc.

My current imaging rig that I've settled on is my Astro Physics AP1200GTO (best mount out there in my opinion - and I've tried the lot), Takahashi TOA150 (best refractor I've ever used) and SBIG STL1100M camera.

I also use the STL for wide field with a Zeiss 75mm SLR lens, and a Canon 300mm f/4 L series lens, and also a Pentax 75 SDHF - the worlds best astro imaging secret!

I'm also nearing completion of an 18" f/4.4 Dobsonian with a Mark Suchting optic.

Future plans are a major CNC engineering project to design and build a custom truss RC for those smaller DSO imaging tasks, and to build another observatory. I really miss the one I had in the UK!

Regards,
Rob.
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  #374  
Old 23-04-2008, 10:22 AM
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Ric
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Lovely bit of gear you have there Rob.

Thanks for showing us the picture

Cheers
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  #375  
Old 24-04-2008, 05:52 PM
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g__day (Matthew)
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Well I have the Lumicon off-axis guider in here - but they sent a 16" SCT attachment rather than a 2" extender for the 1.25" DSI - sigh. Still gear is starting to shape up!
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  #376  
Old 25-04-2008, 06:43 AM
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lknowlen
lknowlen

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Ghlo

(1.) 6" F/10 refracting telescope housing vintage Jaegers objective lens. Observatory facility in background. (Mountaingate, CA.)
(2.) George Lutz with his large aperture refractor.
(3.) 10"F/12 Zeiss refractor (Norway)
(4.) 10"F/12 Zeiss objective lens. (Norway)
(5.) 12"& 9" Zeiss refractors (Griffith Observatory, Los Angeles, CA.)
(6.) 10"F/15 refractor housing vintage Zeiss objective lens. (Los Angeles, CA.)
(J.Pons, telescope owner. Photo by Clintstars.com)
(7.) !0" Reflector designed and built by Alberto Montalvo in 1990 for lunar planetary work. (Burbank, CA.)
(8.) Set of Brandon oculars by Vernonscope&CO
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  #377  
Old 01-05-2008, 02:17 PM
TrevorW
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Hi All,

I've had this Astronomy bug for most of my life and have spent over the last 30 years probably several thousand dollars on the hobby and been through three scopes even built my own scope and mount in the early years.

One thing I've noticed is that as a group we all appear to be equipment freaks.

Attached is a photo of my latest scope and even now I'm dreaming of another scope and mount for those retirement years.

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  #378  
Old 12-05-2008, 03:10 PM
spikeface (Peter)
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new scope!

sound the trumpets!

after lots of helpful advice from fellow forum people, i have finally got my meade lightbridge 12"!!!!!

so many, many thanks to those who helped out with my selection... it's first light tonight, and i must say, the sky at the moment looks crystal clear!

hoooooorrrraaayyyy!!!
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  #379  
Old 12-05-2008, 08:59 PM
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Ric
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Congrats Spikeface, hope you have a lot of rewarding nights with your new scope and hope it stays clear tonight.

Cheers
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  #380  
Old 13-05-2008, 12:19 AM
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Tandum (Robin)
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Here is my current rig.

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