Monday, Monday...

[Thefatkitty]

Yup, another Monday; hope you're well

Yesterday it snowed all day. Cold, damp; just two days before that I saw quite a few people on motorcycles. Amazing how it can so suddenly change.

Going to work this morning I first had to scrape the ice off the windows on the truck. By noon I was going through huge puddles. I got in at 1:30, shoveled the backyard from the wet snow, and after dinner stepped outside. Damp but somewhat clear.

I took out my orange C80, popped in a KK 25mm and had a look. The Moon was up at about a waxing quarter, and very "wavery" through the eyepiece. I turned my attention to the Pleiades, and found that view to be better even though they were lower on the horizon.

Well, I'm going to try something here. I have a 3" (76mm) newt that I made from a Skywatcher that had an oxidized primary; I swapped it all out with the primary and secondary mirror from a Tasco 3T. I cut down the tube so it would come to focus with my DSLR. Why, you ask? Why not... I realize it's got a spherical mirror, but I was just curious as to what it could really do. My time, my hacksaw...

I bought the Tasco 3T for $40 and it had the worst mount ever, but very good mirrors.

I was going to make it into a dob, but then I came across a Towa 3" for $60. Solid mount, great views, and looks good to boot, so why fix up the Tasco?

That's when I decided to see what I could make with the mirrors from the Tasco and the Skywatcher tube. Plus some mounting/welding to make a bracket to mount to my CG4.

BTW, the Tasco and the Towa are identical scopes. The Tasco is just a rebranded version of the original manufacturer, Towa. And both the primary mirrors now have collimation circles, and at f/9.2 that job is pretty easy...

I took a few pics of the Moon tonight through the Skywatcher/Tasco; a stack of 15 shots at ISO 800 and 1/400th sec exposure.

Then I focused as best I could on the Pleiades. Kind of soupy on the horizon whereas the Moon was clear overhead. I used the RA knob for tacking on my CG4 after doing a quick "polar alignment" through the gaping hole where the polar scope is supposed to be

I have a finderscope on a homemade mount bolted to where the RA motor is supposed to go... What I do is keep a star locked on the crosshairs. A bit of a challenge to do manually. Don't breathe too hard.

I took 15 exposures ranging from 5 to 15 seconds. Surprisingly, this one at 13 seconds was the best of the bunch. Still some trailing, but it does hold promise. I might have some luck with better skies, a more awake me, more focus...

I was also noticing today on spaceweather.com that the Sun now has three active spots. Time to start bringing my white light solar rig with me in the truck

Alrighty, thanks for reading. This has got to be the most bland post ever; I just feel like I'm trying to make the most out of the least conditions and coming up totally flat

You all have a good night/day, and all my best to you!

[notFritzArgelander]

It sounds enjoyable! Your time, your hacksaw, your fun pastime.

[messier 111]

nice pics , thx

[Juno16]

Not a bland post at all Mark!

Pretty darn interesting in fact!

Your M45 image is really nice and sharp. How much did you cut off the tube?

I really enjoy your posts involving cutting, welding, hacking, and bolting things. In fact, it is most of them!

Nice work and take care buddy!

[John Donne]

Well done, Sir !
You have a fine post with images and interesting DIY activity.
Thank you.

[Ylem]

Sounds like a fun Monday
I love messing around with things, especially scopes

[Solsearcher]

Tools are wonderful inventions and I enjoy reading and seeing how you put them to use , great results Mark !

[Lady Fraktor]

Really good images Mark.
I love your adapted telescopes

[Butterfly Maiden]

That's a very good report Mark.

Don't be so hard on yourself :smile:

[Graeme1858]

Excellent engineering skills!

And an interesting read.

Regards

Graeme

[John Baars]

Tracking manually, like in the old days...brings back memories. Great fun to do, even greater when you get some results! :Clap:

[Shabadoo]

Coolio!

[Makuser]

Hi Mark. I really enjoyed this report and the photos. You have great lunar and Pleiades images for your efforts. Wow, you make telescopes AND bbq grills from leftover spare parts. How fantastic is that. Thanks for your fun read report Mark, and the best of wishes for many clear skies.

[Thefatkitty]

Hi everyone, thanks for the comments! It was something to do at least. I made the scope almost a year ago, but the weather and my time has not worked well together to really give it a whirl. As I type this, I can hear the water dripping outside from the roof; all the melting snow. The humidity feels like a wet wool blanket...

@Juno16 Jim, this was actually a two-step process with the tube... What I did was see the distance between the top of the focuser on the scope to where the camera came to focus. I measured that, and cut the same amount off the back of the tube. Problem was, I had measured the difference on it with the focuser racked out, so it was extended all the way out with the weight of the camera on it. Not good. So I cut some more off it... The first cut was "2 9/16 (65mm), the second was "9/16 (14mm). I used a large hose clamp tightened around the tube with some painters tape for a guide to a straight cut. The focuser comes to focus just a little under half-way extended with the camera.

@John Baars Thanks John, and I'd like to hear how you did this for yourself; I bet that would be a good read!
You know, I could get an RA motor for this mount still, but I choose not to. Why? I've been treading the full-fledged rabbit hole for a number of years now. If I buy even just one electronic tracking type part, it's game over for me. I know it. I'll spend my time away from home, my wife will leave me, my daughter will forget who I am... So I just made a mount for my finderscope and ironically bolted it to where the RA motor mounts up. I even made a wingnut to tighten up the finderscope. Oh look, the wingnut made a wingnut...

So I leave it to that. I will never get the images a lot of you folks do, but there is a satisfaction in trying to see just what I can get. Yup, my time, my hacksaw... This might be a new motto for me

Again thanks, and have a great night/day!

[Greenman]

Great report Mark, you enthusiasm is in every line, so it is certainly not bland. I wish I had some of your engineering skills and resourcefulness.

Keep hacksawing!

[Bigzmey]

Fun report and nice shots Mark!

[John Baars]

Thanks John, and I'd like to hear how you did this for yourself; I bet that would be a good read!

Not much of a read.
I used my analog camera (50-200mm full frame) piggy back on my 60/900 refractor and used the refractor as a guiding scope. I made a nylon crosswire in an old 9 mm orthoscopic eyepiece, drilled a hole in the side for weak red illumination.

002IMGP4631 - kopie.JPG (48.96 KiB) Viewed 6295 times

The 9 mm eyepiece

A big problem was to find a suitable guiding star without losing the object in the camera. Another problem was making the ra-axis turn evenly. Soon I found out that handling the control between my fingers was more accurate than handling it by turning my whole hand. This limited exposure time to several minutes. That was more than enough since the background had turned orange by that time. Very soon I stopped taking photographs from the city ( even with a motordrive) and turned to visual observations again.

I became workshopleader photography at my local observatory, but even with the more sophisticated instruments we used there, we still had the same problems: reciprocity-failure of the film (Schwarzschild-effect), colorization of the background, failures in tracking, problems with temperature in the photo-dark-room, problems with changing focus due to temperature etc, etc. We tried the whole range from the cold camera to gas-treated Kodak 2415 Technical Pan film.

Me off axis tracking at the C14, cold camera.


In the late 90-ties an enthusiastic visitor held his digital camera behind the eyepiece of the observatory telescope, a C14. I remember thinking: "this is not going to work". Enthusiastically he showed the pictures of the Moon he just made. I was stunned. And realized that the analogue film era had ended. I was happy for them, but I didn't feel like learning the whole process of digital imaging from scratch again, and so turned to visual from that time on.( I already had my misgivings about spending a whole night on technical problems, while the beauty of the universe was just an eyepiece away.)

And he happily lived with his visual telescope thereafter....

One of the young boys in those days went further and became a prominent astro-photographer in the Netherlands. He even won some international contests. In any case, the astrophotography-torch was passed on.
https://www.mauricetoet.nl/

[Thefatkitty]

John, that was a really good read; thank you! Quite like what you did for the crosshair, that is certainly some skill there!

I'm amazed at what you've done and I can understand the whole "visual" thing. I wouldn't have had the patience in the time-frame when you did all this, and even now I just more play around with it all.

As fun as modest AP can be, I still prefer to sit out with a well made scope and lenses

Thanks for the post and you have a great day/night!

[helicon]

Thanks for the great report Mark! You're ingenious.

[helicon]

Hi Mark. Your topic receives the VROD for the day. Nice Observation from last November. I'm hoping more folks check out the Pleiades this season!