TheSkySearchers

Everett and I completely disassembled this scope, flat black painted the inside of the tube, recut the focuser inlet, and mounted the GSO crayford. We very carefully cleaned the primary and secondary mirrors making sure upon reassembly to keep original orientation. We reinstalled everything and tuned up the alignments. This part took a while.
As you see it we are mounted on the original mount and tripod. In the new GSO is my Dr. 12.5 UW.
I have not looked at any stars yet, but terrestrial views are very nice.
Tonight we may have an opportunity to give it all first "star" light. :-)
Thanks for looking.
Cheers.

It looks good Mark, I hope you and Everett enjoyed the project

That really looks good Mark! I didn't know you could get a GSO focuser for the 4.5"; I'll have to look into that

I know my 11TE-5 sees a lot of use (at least when it's not cloudy). Portable, gives a good view of everything and plays well with all my lenses. Though you should really try your KK's with it for sure! I hope your scope works as well for yourself and Everett as mine does for me :-D

All the best and clear skies!

Thank you Gabby. We had fun doing the thing. Now we just need to get the thing to do its thing. :-)

Mark,
This one actually isn't made for a 4.5 inch...it is for a 5 inch...but I made it work...I hope. :-)
It didn't take much of a shim.

I think the only trouble I might have is getting star focus on all of my EP. I am noticing a wide variation on the amount of "in" travel I need to focus on distant objects in the day light. This focuser may be a bit long for this newtonian.
We shall see.
Thank you both for your encouragements !

Hi again Mark

A shim should be fine; I've had to do that for my 3" as well. Good for you! I agree with you on the focuser travel, a few of my cheaper 25mm's and my ES 24mm won't focus unless I lift them up a bit in the focuser! Maybe I need to make some shims
Still, my KK's are fine; that's about all I use in it; sometimes my ES 16mm as well.

If you have a T-ring for your Nikons and a 2X barlow, you should be able to get a decent shot of the Moon too. Everett might get a kick out of that...
The Moon picture isn't the best; but it was quite humid out at the time which didn't help. Anyways, just a thought.

Hope first light goes well!

Thefatkitty wrote: ↑Sun Jun 02, 2019 12:59 am Hi again Mark

A shim should be fine; I've had to do that for my 3" as well. Good for you! I agree with you on the focuser travel, a few of my cheaper 25mm's and my ES 24mm won't focus unless I lift them up a bit in the focuser! Maybe I need to make some shims
Still, my KK's are fine; that's about all I use in it; sometimes my ES 16mm as well.

If you have a T-ring for your Nikons and a 2X barlow, you should be able to get a decent shot of the Moon too. Everett might get a kick out of that...

Image01.pngImage02.pngImage03.pngImage05.png

The Moon picture isn't the best; but it was quite humid out at the time which didn't help. Anyways, just a thought.

Hope first light goes well!

Thank you Mark.
I am skunked on the stars tonight I think. But I was able to focus on a 1000 foot television transmission tower that is about 10 miles away. And yes the KKs are very nice in this.

And yes I have a nice rig for my dslr I am hoping to be able to use.

No matter what, overhauling this Tasco has been fun and educational. I have been wanting to do this for over a year now. :-)
It has what looks like very nice mirrors in it. I believe they are TOWA glass, as the scope has a "circle T" on the name plate.

In the middle of this my 93 mother fell in our kitchen today and shattered her left hip. If it ain't one thing it's another.

Thank you Mark.
The best to you.

Sorry to hear about your mom's hip. Elder falls are much more common than I ever realized. Hope she recovers OK.

In the meantime, curious to hear how the telescope turns out when you finally get a chance.

The Happy Parrot wrote: ↑Sun Jun 02, 2019 2:45 am Sorry to hear about your mom's hip. Elder falls are much more common than I ever realized. Hope she recovers OK.

In the meantime, curious to hear how the telescope turns out when you finally get a chance.

Thank you THP !
I will enthusiastically report back.

As to the hip. My mother is a tough old Mac! She it is held together with screws and bailing wire!
The cardio Doc has signed off on surgery in the morning.
Thank you for your good wishes.

A very nice project, Mark! You fellers did a nice job on this scope. The new focuser looks great!

Best wishes for your mom. I really hope all goes well in the morning!

Nice upgrade on the focuser I dont have a spare 1.25 so had to stay with the original as they are too expensive here in RSA
Let me upload a picture ,something I struggled with on another forum

Richard wrote: ↑Sun Jun 02, 2019 5:24 am Nice upgrade on the focuser I dont have a spare 1.25 so had to stay with the original as they are too expensive here in RSA
Let me upload a picture ,something I struggled with on another forum
Tasco 11TE on a dobs mount.JPG

This is gorgeous Richard !
I love the piggyback.

Don Quixote wrote: ↑Sun Jun 02, 2019 12:14 pm

Richard wrote: ↑Sun Jun 02, 2019 5:24 am Nice upgrade on the focuser I dont have a spare 1.25 so had to stay with the original as they are too expensive here in RSA
Let me upload a picture ,something I struggled with on another forum
Tasco 11TE on a dobs mount.JPG

This is gorgeous Richard !
I love the piggyback.

Thanks I gave it to my nephew the Refractor attached is a tasco 4 VTE that I cut and changed to astro to make a better finder as the original is quite bad

Well here is my update.
I had a very quick outing. The sky was bad but I could see a few stars.
The good news is that I was able to get focus on all but my TV22Pan.
The star test was not very bright with what I had to look at. But I had a relatively nice donut shaped star test. I still have some alignment to do as the donut seemed to be flat on one edge.
Thank you.

Richard wrote: ↑Sun Jun 02, 2019 3:36 pm
Thanks I gave it to my nephew the Refractor attached is a tasco 4 VTE that I cut and changed to astro to make a better finder as the original is quite bad

As someone who adapted my Tasco 4VTE back in the mid 70s to squeeze some extra power out of it, I'm very impressed with your 'finder'. The adapted telescope is a pretty good instrument, and would be a useful finder.

I wish you well in getting the reflector adjusted.

The finder is ok much better than the original but with a 25mm its around 20x bit too much and getting longer .965 eyepieces in RSA is virtually impossible

I am wondering if there would be any benefit to rigging a dovetail on some rings and mounting this 11T on my CG4, or maybe even on my SW AZ/EQ. Any thoughts or suggestions?

Don Quixote wrote: ↑Sun Jun 09, 2019 5:22 pm I am wondering if there would be any benefit to rigging a dovetail on some rings and mounting this 11T on my CG4, or maybe even on my SW AZ/EQ. Any thoughts or suggestions?

Well, it would certainly give you a more stable platform from which to use the scope. That enhances its versatility in my mind.

I have done this with my Celestron Premium 80 and C80 scopes. They have their proprietary rings that allow me to clamp them on their respective AZ3 and Vixen Polaris mounts, but also have "regular" rings and dovetail bars for both that allow me to use my Twilight mounts, or AVX and EXOS-2 EQ mounts.

A reasonably cheap thing to do and makes things more usable in my case.

Here is an update on the Hip.
Things ain't goin so well.

Her parkinsonism is mitigating against the physical recovery. We have thrice daily episodes of frantic insanity interspersed with equally sudden well focused cognitive cooperation with rehad.
I have stopped running my business to stay home with her. My wife is taking over the complete business operation and I have chosen to become Mr. Mom.
I am doing a lot of diaper changing and bathing. :-)

There are times when I am very discouraged.
There will be no improvement.
I understand this and accept it.
I went through this kind of care with my father.
I think I forgot how excruciating this process is for all involved.

But I find great catharsis on the activity we all love, astronomy. Here I am enabled.

Everett has left with his family after a 2 month stay. And the Tasco is waiting for some new flocking sheet. This may be overkill, but I want to give it a try just the same.

I have had some good times with Everett and I think he will remember fondly our excursions into the night sky.

And on top of this my friend Henry has gifted me another telescope to play with in my "spare" time. :-)

Cheers my friends.
Keep looking up !