I can't claim any credit for building it. It was built some years ago by Clive Milne (pic).
It had fallen into disuse and Clive couldn't take it with him when he moved so I answered his ad here on IIS and managed to get it back up and running. Still some work to do, light baffles around mirrors, light shielding for uta, mirrors need recoating, no biggies. It would nice to have goto eventually.
I had it out at my dark sky site for the first time for a trial run. You haven't seen 47 Tuc until you see it in a binodob.
I like the end caps. Shame they moved away from that design.
I have BOTH for my FSQ-106. While the "manhole" is aesthetically beautiful, the pressed steel modern variant is more practical and doesn't hurt when you drop it on your toes
I keep the manhole cover wrapped in bubble wrap in a drawer and a new pressed variant on the scope
Picked up a pre loved Pm-1 mount a couple of weeks ago thanks to the ice classifieds, a perfect match for my Fsq
A very versatile mount, can be used in equatorial, planet fork or alt/az mode. So I added an ex demo planet fork set from Hutech, now no counterweights req!
Loving it so far!
Going to give it a go spraying the clamshell to match over the Christmas break.
Spoke to a few guys at work about matching the Tak texture finish, hopefully all goes well
Hi guys and girls (can’t just say guys in this world anymore, apparently?!),
A couple of coupled options on an AZ-EQ6GT...
Tec MC200 f15.5 riding alongside Tak FS128... both previous scopes of Matt (Kunama) at differing times and both absolutely beautiful scopes.
And for when the widest 5” refractor view I can muster is on the menu, combined with high power planetary/lunar, the same Tec MC200 combined with the Televue NP127.
Imagine if I actually got the chance to use them....
