New Scope Arrives, Prepare for Clouds :-)

[TechnoBill]

Hi All,
The Eon 110 F/6 has arrived. Here it is with the Adaptive Optics, Flattener and QSI Camera on the back.
The second image shows how you can remove the 2" noise piece from the front of the Orion Flattener and with the right adaptor screw it straight onto the back of the Adaptive Optics. That Gets the flattener the right distance from the CCD give or take a couple of mm.

Man its a pretty heavy setup and is going on the back of my 12" Meade LX200R. I didn't realise how much heavier the 110 is compared to the ED80.
I Think It will be pushing the fork mount beyond limits. I have balanced it and it seems OK. I will slow the motors down when slewing to reduce stress and hopefully nothing goes pop or grind .

Anyway it will be cloudy for weeks because new gear has turned up

Regards
TechnoBill

[brian nordstrom (As avatar)]

Beautiful scope Bill , I have always had a soft spot for these , please mate give us a viewing report when the clouds clear .
Brian.

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Well, that should make a nice dent in everyone's photons leave us some won't ya?

Mike

[TechnoBill]

Originally Posted by brian nordstrom

Beautiful scope Bill , I have always had a soft spot for these , please mate give us a viewing report when the clouds clear .
Brian.

Thanks Brian. Yeah Just want to have a break in the clouds so I can try it. Typically its sunny all day and clouds come in at dusk. :-)

Originally Posted by strongmanmike

Well, that should make a nice dent in everyone's photons leave us some won't ya?

Mike

Spread out.... give me room :-).
I just hope it does not make a dent in my Meade fork mount. I guess if it does I could always get a new mount in next years budget and remove the Meade lx200 12" ota from the forks. The Meade OTA is excellent, its just the mount that is lacking and getting crushed under my desires

TechnoBill

[SMan (Henryk)]

Yep, forecast for weekend is rain...THANKS!
Nice scope

[graham.hobart (Graham stevens)]

Hope you have fun, I have had mine (EON 110mm) for a couple of months now and love it! I have had some cracking nights with it so far so hope the clouds go soon.
Enjoy
Graz

[TechnoBill]

Well, of course it was cloudy when I got home again but them miraculously around 9:30 PM a gap opened up in the clouds. That was all I needed to at least try the scope.
All up I had about 90 mins to play with the scope in the various configs through wispy clouds so it was not Ideal.
The scope feels nice, everything feels solid and tight.
Pointed at the moon and Jupiter and when defocused, there only seems to be the slightest Chromatic aberration although there was wispy cloud in front of Jupiter so hard to tell. I could not notice it at all when focused (but I was rushing)... so much to do so little time.

Next Test - QSI Camera with Flattener. Well that was a bit of a disappointment. The Orion flattener worked, but it is also a reducer which I was not aware of. The massively wide view on the CCD extended to fading rounded corners but evenly shown on each corner. Will play with spacers to see if that can be improved.

Final test was the only disappointment, using the A/O then the flattener then the camera is a bust for now as there is not enough in focus. Stars were Massive so I don't think a minor adjustment to spacers will help there but I will give it a try next time, or see if I can find a flattener that is not a reducer.

Event without the flattener, the few test images I did, showed only a little amount of distortion towards the corners, but I know its there as the stars in the OAG view were elongated.

That looks like it for the next week according to the forecasts (Unless another miracle window appears tonight :-) )

TechnoBill