AP with a 76mm reflector

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Thefatkitty Canada
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AP with a 76mm reflector

#1

Post by Thefatkitty »


Hope everyone is good, and has had better weather than I :D

Clear skies here have been pretty much non-existent for the past few weeks. I've been going through stuff out of boredom, and discovered I had 3 76/700mm reflectors.

Image01.png


The Towa has a nice wooden mount, it's great for what it is. The Tasco 3T has the same visual quality; it's just a re-branded Towa, but with a wobbly mount. Hmmmm.
Towa.png
3T.png


The Skywatcher I'm not even sure when I got it, but the mirror was oxidized, and the secondary had a bent vane.

I took both the primary and secondary mirrors and mounting parts from the Tasco, cut the tube on the Skywatcher so my Canon T3 would come to focus, put the Tasco parts into the Skywatcher tube, and made a "tube ring" out of some metal brackets, a nail, bicycle cable clamp and some nuts.
Much like me :lol:

Image02.png
Image03.png
Image04.png
Image05.png


Pretty mickey-mouse, the home-made even pains me. But, solid on my CG4, and since I really didn't (and still don't) think a spherical mirror is going to work all that well, I didn't wan't to spend lots of money. All told, it probably has cost me a buck in welding wire and my time :D

Tonight was the first cold night we've had in about two months, and between the clouds it was somewhat clear. By cold, I mean below freezing, and tonight it's -13C (8F) without the wind chill. Time to throw a long sleeve shirt between the t-shirt and sweater!

So I took all this outside, and found M42 in the finderscope. However, looking through the camera viewfinder, I remembered I forgot to line the scope and viewfinder up together....!! OK, turn the Alt and Az knobs; there's some stars, is that it?

I don't have a motorized mount, so any pics I take are rough polar alignment, and manually turning the Azimuth knob, trying to keep a star in the same place in the crosshairs through the viewfinder. I took 7 exposures, but the only one that turned out was one at 6 seconds at ISO 1600. And as it turned out, it wasn't M42, but NGC 1981 that I was tracking. Ahhh, 1981. To be 16 again...

I was surprised at the output, I actually expected it to be worse. It's certainly not an astrograph, but I'm curious as to what it would do with darker skies and better tracking/exposure times.
Or maybe I should just leave that curiosity alone :lol:

001.jpg


And that was my night. I was tempted to bring out a refractor for some visual, but not tonight. Tomorrow is supposed to be better visually, plus it's Friday!

Thanks for reading and all the best,
Mark

"The Hankmeister" Celestron 8SE, orange tube Vixen made C80, CG4 & AZ-EQ5 mounts.
Too much Towa glass/mirrors.

H/A - PST stage 2 mod with a Baader 90mm ERF on a Celestron XLT 102 (thanks Mike!)
Ca-K - W/O 61mm, Antares 1.6 barlow, Baader 3.8 OD and Ca-K filters with a ZWO ASI174mm.
W/L - C80-HD with Baader 5.0 & 3.8 Solar film, Solar Continuum 7.5nm and UV/IR filters with a Canon EOS 550D.

Oh yeah, and Solar Cycle 25 :D
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Re: AP with a 76mm reflector

#2

Post by Lady Fraktor »


I always love to see the adaptions you come up with Mark, very creative :)
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Re: AP with a 76mm reflector

#3

Post by bladekeeper »


Nice! A collaboration of scopes! :D

Awesome and fun work, Mark, and a decent image as a result!

Socked in cloudy here. Supposed to rain all night and all day tomorrow. Cold and windy right now. Today the Sun marked its presence by a diffuse brighter patch behind the clouds. I pointed it out to my son and said "Look! A cloud spot!" :lol:
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Re: AP with a 76mm reflector

#4

Post by kt4hx »


I will give you your due Mark, when you are bored you don't just simply fall asleep in the recliner like I am prone to do! You actually accomplish something! :lol:

You done good buddy. Looking at your image that is indeed NGC 1981. While not the target of your choice, you were in the ballpark and it is recognizable. I applaud your creativity! :clap:
Alan

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Re: AP with a 76mm reflector

#5

Post by Bigzmey »


Fun project Mark, and AP with manual tracking! You have some steady hands. :)
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Re: AP with a 76mm reflector

#6

Post by Juno16 »


Man, that is one heck of a project!

Three 76/700mm reflectors?

A Frankenstein astrograph “its alive!”. And certainly is!

Dang, your manual tracking is excellent!

Impressive project Mark!

Jim
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Re: AP with a 76mm reflector

#7

Post by Thefatkitty »


Lady Fraktor wrote: Fri Jan 17, 2020 4:59 am I always love to see the adaptions you come up with Mark, very creative :)
Thanks Gabrielle, it was certainly a time killer (waster?) :lol:


bladekeeper wrote: Fri Jan 17, 2020 5:17 am Nice! A collaboration of scopes! :D

Awesome and fun work, Mark, and a decent image as a result!

Socked in cloudy here. Supposed to rain all night and all day tomorrow. Cold and windy right now. Today the Sun marked its presence by a diffuse brighter patch behind the clouds. I pointed it out to my son and said "Look! A cloud spot!" :lol:
:lol: A cloud spot... Your weather is much like mine. Today I has a nice alert on my phone about the snow we're supposed to get in a few hours. Last night, today was supposed to be clear..?!! Why are our lives like this....


Bigzmey wrote: Fri Jan 17, 2020 10:33 pm Fun project Mark, and AP with manual tracking! You have some steady hands. :)

Thanks Andrey, it was something I've wanted to do for a bit. I'm surprised even one shot came out; I was standing while doing it, and this was the first time I used the whole mess... I will attribute it to the fact that I've seriously cut down on my coffee intake!


Juno16 wrote: Sat Jan 18, 2020 2:05 am Man, that is one heck of a project!

Three 76/700mm reflectors?

A Frankenstein astrograph “its alive!”. And certainly is!

Dang, your manual tracking is excellent!

Impressive project Mark!

Jim

Thanks Jim, yeah, a Frankenstein for sure :lol: I know a spherical mirror isn't the best, but the quick result was so far much better than my purple-star achro's... :D


kt4hx wrote: Fri Jan 17, 2020 3:55 pm I will give you your due Mark, when you are bored you don't just simply fall asleep in the recliner like I am prone to do! You actually accomplish something! :lol:

You done good buddy. Looking at your image that is indeed NGC 1981. While not the target of your choice, you were in the ballpark and it is recognizable. I applaud your creativity! :clap:

Alan, nice to hear from you :D I had to use astrometry.net to figure it out, it was one of those "oh look its sort of clear, lets try this" moments :lol:

As for falling asleep, believe me I have my moments; and I'm ten years your junior. I give you your due for your persistence and knowledge, not to mention your help over the years :D

All the best,
Mark

"The Hankmeister" Celestron 8SE, orange tube Vixen made C80, CG4 & AZ-EQ5 mounts.
Too much Towa glass/mirrors.

H/A - PST stage 2 mod with a Baader 90mm ERF on a Celestron XLT 102 (thanks Mike!)
Ca-K - W/O 61mm, Antares 1.6 barlow, Baader 3.8 OD and Ca-K filters with a ZWO ASI174mm.
W/L - C80-HD with Baader 5.0 & 3.8 Solar film, Solar Continuum 7.5nm and UV/IR filters with a Canon EOS 550D.

Oh yeah, and Solar Cycle 25 :D
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Re: AP with a 76mm reflector

#8

Post by terrynak »


Fascinating work on the 76mm Newt, Mark! I have two 76mm F/9.2 Newtonian scopes (red Tasco 3T and dark blue Celestron Astromaster).

Kinda sad to see the Tasco dismembered, but an AP 76mm OTA came out of the parts.

I believe that Skywatcher America got rid of all its lower end models around 2010/2011; first time I've seen anyone having a SW 76mm...
Scopes: Reflectors, refractors, and 1 catadioptric. Ranging in aperture from 50mm to 150mm.
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Re: AP with a 76mm reflector

#9

Post by Thefatkitty »


terrynak wrote: Mon Jan 20, 2020 12:27 am Fascinating work on the 76mm Newt, Mark! I have two 76mm F/9.2 Newtonian scopes (red Tasco 3T and dark blue Celestron Astromaster).

Kinda sad to see the Tasco dismembered, but an AP 76mm OTA came out of the parts.

I believe that Skywatcher America got rid of all its lower end models around 2010/2011; first time I've seen anyone having a SW 76mm...
Thanks Terry, I agree, it is a bit sad about the Tasco, but the nice thing is I still have all the parts and it can easily go back to original; that's why I cut the tube on the SW instead. Yeah, I've seen a few SW blue 'fracs, but never one of these though. I though the lowest sized newt they made was their 5" for AP.

Hope all's good,
Mark

"The Hankmeister" Celestron 8SE, orange tube Vixen made C80, CG4 & AZ-EQ5 mounts.
Too much Towa glass/mirrors.

H/A - PST stage 2 mod with a Baader 90mm ERF on a Celestron XLT 102 (thanks Mike!)
Ca-K - W/O 61mm, Antares 1.6 barlow, Baader 3.8 OD and Ca-K filters with a ZWO ASI174mm.
W/L - C80-HD with Baader 5.0 & 3.8 Solar film, Solar Continuum 7.5nm and UV/IR filters with a Canon EOS 550D.

Oh yeah, and Solar Cycle 25 :D
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Re: AP with a 76mm reflector

#10

Post by prowler75 »


Awesome example of ingenuity and DIY, Mark! Plus that looked like a really fun project.
Craig
Telescopes: Zhumell Z12, Orion XT8, Explore Scientific FL-AR127/1200, Celestron Omni XLT AZ 102, Tasco 8v
Eyepieces: GSO 30mm, Explore Scientific 70° 25mm, 82° 18mm, 11mm, 8.8mm, 6.5mm. KK Orthos 12mm and 9mm
Binoculars: Oberwerk 15x70
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