Tuesday night Moon with a 60mm

[Thefatkitty]

Hi all, hope things are good

Today was once again cold and rainy for the most part. However, in coming home from work just after 6PM, I noticed the Moon rising in the east between the clouds. After dinner, I checked the weather and it was supposed to be fairly clear around 10PM.

I thought to try my Sears 60mm f/11.6 again, seeing as how the other night I had decent results considering the weather. I hooked my Canon T3 to the focuser and put the scope outside at 9PM. Still cloudy, though the humidity was lower than it has been in a few weeks. Plus the wind and racing clouds gave me hope. The temp was a cool 4C (40F), so I put the scope between the shed and fence to let it cool and not get blown over.
The scope and mount weigh 11lbs (5kg), the camera might add another pound... One big gust is all it would take...

Sears_6331.png

At about 10:15, I went out and saw that, even though there were still clouds racing across the sky, there was enough time in between them to take some shots. It was certainly clearer than the other night, even with the cloud dodging

After spending 10 minutes or so with that, I could see a horizon-wide cloud front creeping in from the west. Well, the forecast did mention something about clouds around 11PM...

I was once again hoping to get some visual with this thing, but as I write this, it's been clouds since I came in almost two hours ago. Just as well; morning comes early....

Alrighty, so this is 62 stacked shots with my Sears 60mm 6331 and Canon T3 at ISO 1600 and 1/200th second exposure time; processed with PIPP, AS2, ImPPG, and contrast in Registax 6

200_2_AP-24.png

And a picture of my high tech imaging system... Why am I like this??

DSCF7149 (2).JPG

Supposed to rain here tomorrow, again. I hope you all fare better, and thanks for looking!

All the best,

[bladekeeper]

Man, I'm just impressed with the image quality from this scope, Mark! Awesome!

[Michael131313]

Very nice. What mount do you have that on?

[Thefatkitty]

Man, I'm just impressed with the image quality from this scope, Mark! Awesome!

Thanks Bryan, actually, so am I... or is surprised the word I'm looking for...??
I have 8 scopes with Towa objectives/mirrors (including the Sears). Some people wouldn't touch anything with a circle-T mark, but so far I guess I've just been lucky...

Thanks again; hope your skies clear!

Very nice. What mount do you have that on?

Hi Michael, thanks! As for the mount, I believe it's the equivalent of an EQ2. It originally came with a Tasco 4.5" on it; between the scope and counterweight I'm amazed the mount didn't collapse...

01.JPG

60mm_F11.jpg

The 4.5" was made into a dob, and since the original crappy mount for the Sears was broken, I thought to mount the Sears on the Tasco 4.5" mount. I had to make a clamshell for the scope, and I used the counterweight from an old EQ1-style mount. Recently I removed the clock drive, and put the RA slo-mo cable on the left. I replaced the wooden legs with ones from an SLT102 mount, which also was broken. All these spare parts....

Thanks again and have a great day!

[Michael131313]

So it is not "stock".

[Thefatkitty]

So it is not "stock".

Not even close, just google Sears 6331 for a "stock" picture. As with a lot of these old scopes, great glass; just inadequate mounts...