Behold the Mark mk. II

[Kanadalainen]

The scope is unchanged but I drilled the 76 mm rings that I had lying around, and tapped them for 1/4" x 20.

6 anodized screws at 120* orientation to locate the guide scope.

An hour later, voila, the rare Tasco guide scope Mark mk II.

Click on this to expand.

The beauty of this arrangement is that I can put the guide/finder exactly where it needs to be for FOV.


This is the little camera that will detect the tracking stars.

Thanks for reading to the bottom!

[Juno16]

Fun stuff! Really nice handiwork Ian!

Just curious, what is the fl of the Tasco?

Do you plan to use PHD2?

I enjoy watching the capture software catching images and dithering (in my case APT) with the PHD2 guiding graphics running in a split screen.

Kind of like beautiful music! Have fun!

[Bigzmey]

Nice mods Ian!

[Thefatkitty]

Wow Ian, you've done a great job there! Love the rings and the mods to them, very clever. I say that scope is better off in your hands for sure

I hope it works as well as the mods you've done; am looking forward to hearing about that. BTW, I measured it out when I had it and it's at f/7, as are my other two like it.

Passe un bon fin du semain, mon chum!

[Kanadalainen]

Fun stuff! Really nice handiwork Ian!

Just curious, what is the fl of the Tasco?

Do you plan to use PHD2?

I enjoy watching the capture software catching images and dithering (in my case APT) with the PHD2 guiding graphics running in a split screen.

Kind of like beautiful music! Have fun!

Thanks Jim!

The tasco appears to be of an fl of 360mm - thus is a fairly fast f6...nice for finding/guiding. I’ve used it a number of times for finding and it’s very good.

I have a new rig that I can run off my tablet - an ASIair pro. It’s a raspberry Pi processor and has a very PhD2 style tracking mode.

[Kanadalainen]

Nice mods Ian!

Thanks Andrey!

[Kanadalainen]

Wow Ian, you've done a great job there! Love the rings and the mods to them, very clever. I say that scope is better off in your hands for sure

I hope it works as well as the mods you've done; am looking forward to hearing about that. BTW, I measured it out when I had it and it's at f/7, as are my other two like it.

Passe un bon fin du semain, mon chum!

Salut Mark!

I’m not sure this grasshopper can catch the pebble from the hand of the master just yet!

Oh OK - an f7 - that sounds right. I know the images I get are nicely corrected with not much colour.

I’m off to Calgary for a few days with a UHaul to collect Our youngest kid ~ he’s coming home as his next semesters are all Online.

A bientot mon ami
I

[Thefatkitty]

Wow Ian, you've done a great job there! Love the rings and the mods to them, very clever. I say that scope is better off in your hands for sure

I hope it works as well as the mods you've done; am looking forward to hearing about that. BTW, I measured it out when I had it and it's at f/7, as are my other two like it.

Passe un bon fin du semain, mon chum!

Salut Mark!

I’m not sure this grasshopper can catch the pebble from the hand of the master just yet!

Oh OK - an f7 - that sounds right. I know the images I get are nicely corrected with not much colour.

I’m off to Calgary for a few days with a UHaul to collect Our youngest kid ~ he’s coming home as his next semesters are all Online.

A bientot mon ami
I

Hey again Ian,

Well, this is embarrassing... I don't know why I had it in my head it's at f/7, I just took a measurement of the one I have and you're quite right, it's really f/6 I blame my advancing senility...

That should be a nice road trip; I envy you. Hope everything goes well!

[Kanadalainen]

Thanks Mark.

The trip has been busy!! 4 years of living in Calgary yields a major collection of goodies. The van is packed and we hit the highway tomorrow.

I

[Thefatkitty]

Good for you Ian!

a major collection of goodies

Well, think of it as added traction...

Safe trip & all the best,