Grab and Go definition
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Re: Grab and Go definition
Scopes: Explore Scientific ED80CF, Skywatcher 200 Quattro Imaging Newt, SeeStar S50 for EAA.
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Re: Grab and Go definition
I'm with you, John. My grab and go is my Brandon 94 on one of my alt-az mounts. It's possible to make it in one trip, but why?John Baars wrote: ↑Sun Mar 17, 2024 9:29 am Grab and Go used to mean for me that I could pick up telescope, mount and tripod with one hand and "swing" it outside into the backyard. I needed no more than a minute or so for it. Since I am a bit older by now I prefer to do the same in two stages. Tripod and mount is stage one, telescope is stage two. It is the same setup though. I need a bit more than two minutes nowadays. The same telescope goes along to star-parties, outreaches and so on. So it must be quite transportable as well.
The weight of it all has become more and more important over the years. My 102mm F5 telescope weighs about 8.8 lbs and the mount/tripod about 13.5 lbs.
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Re: Grab and Go definition
If you take it literally though, it does imply one trip. Otherwise it would be grab and go, then come back and grab more.
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Re: Grab and Go definition
A two-grab&goOtherwise it would be grab and go, then come back and grab more.
GrabnGo on Alt/AZ : *SW Startravel 102 F/5 refractor( widefield, Sun, push-to), *OMC140 Maksutov F/14.3 ( planets, no GnG).
Most used Eyepieces: *Panoptic 24, *Morpheus 14, *Nagler 11, *Leica ASPH zoom, *Zeiss barlow, *Pentax XO5.
Commonly used bino's : *Jena 10X50 , * Canon 10X30 IS, *Swarovski Habicht 7X42, * Celestron 15X70, *Kasai 2.3X40
Rijswijk Public Observatory: * Astro-Physics Starfire 130 f/8, * 6 inch Newton, * C9.25, * Meade 14 inch LX600 ACF, *Lunt.
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Re: Grab and Go definition
So my 16 inch would be more of a grab and go and go again probably LOL. In all seriousness how many times have you drug the scope out only to realize the eyepiece is still in the house.
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Re: Grab and Go definition
Lather, rinse, repeat.
Man... That's some icky-tasting stuff!
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Re: Grab and Go definition
I have a G&G that is probably unconventional, but it weighs three pounds with the tripod, so a one-hand special. It's a 60mm at f/6.5 and costed me 35 bucks and my time to make it.
I call it "the Towatron". It's a mix of the objective from an early '70's Tasco 55VTE with a click-stop fucuser I got for $10 at a garage sale...
There were two models of these; the 55VT and the VTE. The VT only did 45X, while the VTE was an amazing 60X!
What you did was extend the drawtube until it "clicked in" at the power you wanted; 15, 30, 45, and the VTE's bonus 60X...
You can see there's lots of extra glass to make this all work. Throw in a .965 lens (and no diagonal with this), and you've got a dark drinking straw view. And the magnification varies with the lens used, so the indicators on the drawtube are essentially meaningless.
I bought a 60mm Celestron Astromaster 60mm LT at the local swap shop for $25. Nice scope; soft views. Fine focus was out of reach. But it comes with a decent 1.25 focuser and quite the drawtube length!
Hmmmm. I took the Towa objective from the Tasco, the focuser from the Celestron, and lined them up on a ruler to see if it would get focus. It did.
I cut the Celestron tube down to the measured length, made new holes for the focuser and put it together. I made sure I left enough inward travel room from cutting the tube so I could use my DSLR with it. I even blackened the doublet objective edges.
Et voilà, the Towatron was born. The dewshield is a third of the length of the whole scope...
The Japanese-made Towa objective is actually really good (it's a crapshoot with these old scopes) and it gives nice sharp views, and widefield as well. Great for the backyard for those warm casual nights with a beer or two or five
For AP, it works for nature shots and even passing aircraft:
Also great for conjunctions (max view is a bit over 4 degrees). Some of the Moon and Venus, the last one being a daytime shot:
As for ol' Luna, it's passable:
It won't win any awards, but for the price point and the ease of using it, it's a win for me
And for the record, you all have better quality grab and go's than I do!
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Re: Grab and Go definition
I have often heard, read and experienced that the old objectives in those old Christmas-present telescopes were not even that bad. This is another example. The disappointments that envelop these kind of little instruments almost always came from the "hardware" around it.Thefatkitty wrote: ↑Fri Jun 28, 2024 6:47 pm It won't win any awards, but for the price point and the ease of using it, it's a win for me
I think you've made a worthwhile upgrade out of it. With double the fun, since you did everything yourself! Well done!
I suppose the old drawtube extender was no less than a long slow barlow with a variable projection distance. Good idea to take it out!
Reminds me of several outreach parties I participated in with my little scope as well. There was always someone in the audience who commented that they didn't understand why the other participants were standing with those big guns. After all, in this little thing you could see just as well!?Thefatkitty wrote: ↑Fri Jun 28, 2024 6:47 pm And for the record, you all have better quality grab and go's than I do!
GrabnGo on Alt/AZ : *SW Startravel 102 F/5 refractor( widefield, Sun, push-to), *OMC140 Maksutov F/14.3 ( planets, no GnG).
Most used Eyepieces: *Panoptic 24, *Morpheus 14, *Nagler 11, *Leica ASPH zoom, *Zeiss barlow, *Pentax XO5.
Commonly used bino's : *Jena 10X50 , * Canon 10X30 IS, *Swarovski Habicht 7X42, * Celestron 15X70, *Kasai 2.3X40
Rijswijk Public Observatory: * Astro-Physics Starfire 130 f/8, * 6 inch Newton, * C9.25, * Meade 14 inch LX600 ACF, *Lunt.
Amateur astronomer since 1970.
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Re: Grab and Go definition
I have a Skymax 127mm Mak on an EQ3 mount, which is hard for me to carry with my bad back.
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Re: Grab and Go definition
In the early 1980's, I bought a 2nd hand 60mm Tasco for USD25 to use as a manual guide scope. I wasn't concerned about the optics since I only needed to watch an out of focus star image on crosshairs. However, i found that the scope was made up of a 60mm front glass achromat element, with a 10mm diameter stop behind it. The focuser consisted of a plastic barlow and plastic zoom eyepiece. I pulled the whole thing apart, removed the objective and trashed the rest. Then I re-tubed it and machined a 1.25" sliding drawtube focuser on the back end. To my surprise, I found that the 60mm f6.5 objective at full aperture gave a quite decent image when paired with a decent eyepiece.John Baars wrote: ↑Sun Jun 30, 2024 5:19 pmI have often heard, read and experienced that the old objectives in those old Christmas-present telescopes were not even that bad. This is another example. The disappointments that envelop these kind of little instruments almost always came from the "hardware" around it.Thefatkitty wrote: ↑Fri Jun 28, 2024 6:47 pm It won't win any awards, but for the price point and the ease of using it, it's a win for me
I think you've made a worthwhile upgrade out of it. With double the fun, since you did everything yourself! Well done!
I suppose the old drawtube extender was no less than a long slow barlow with a variable projection distance. Good idea to take it out!
Reminds me of several outreach parties I participated in with my little scope as well. There was always someone in the audience who commented that they didn't understand why the other participants were standing with those big guns. After all, in this little thing you could see just as well!?Thefatkitty wrote: ↑Fri Jun 28, 2024 6:47 pm And for the record, you all have better quality grab and go's than I do!
In 2002, I took the re-tubed scope to the Strzlecki desert in central Australia to observe a total eclipse.
.
On the way home, driving over rough corrugated roads, the lens cell rattled loose and the objective came out, trapped inside the lens hood by the lenscap it bounced round in the lens hood and chipped the lens all around the edges. For USD25 and 20 years service $1.25 per year, it didn't owe me anything and I then replaced it with an ST80 and later added an ED80 to my GnG stable.
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Re: Grab and Go definition
And this is the reason why I bought the El Cheapo Brothers as guidescopes. They are both third hand 70mm f/5.7 and 80mm f/5 fracs of modest quality. They were $10 and $50 USD respectively.
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Re: Grab and Go definition
JayTee
In March 1986, Halleys Comet was sporting a beautiful scimitar like tail about 4 degrees long. I invited friends and work colleagues out to a dark dead end country road east of the city for a 3am viewing. I had my 6" f7 and the 60mm refractor set up when they arrived. The 60mm refractor with a 40mm Kellner eyepiece was about 10x with a 4 degree field.
Everyone was very surprised that the view through the small scope and even by naked eye was better than the bigger scope. The 6" had a field slightly less than 1o at 40x and was really only looking at the coma and a bit of tail. The untrained observers couldn't appreciate the details they were seeing.
Many of them repeated their appreciation to me even years later because the appearance at that time was better than at any other time.
cheers
34 South - The Hilltops Observatory
Hilltops region, Young, New South Wales, Australia. [148E, 34S]
Amateur astronomer since 1978.....Web site :http://joe-cali.com/.....Total & Annular Eclipses Observed:18
Scopes: ATM 18" Dob, Vixen VC200L, Hand Made 6"f7, Stellarvue 102ED, Saxon ED80, WO M70 ED, Orion 102 Maksutov, Coronado PST
Binoculars: Celestron Skymaster Pro 15x70, SV Bony SV202 10x42ED
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..............Losmandy Starlapse, Vixen Polarie and Skywatcher Star Adventurer compact trackers.
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Re: Grab and Go definition
Usually this means the ST80
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Re: Grab and Go definition
I tried to get an image of myself holding the dob with one hand (mainly for @Thefatkitty but was spectacularly unsuccessful.
The synopsis is that my grab and go tolerance is hardly acceptable to most, but to get to nice skies I need to drive there - and the "go" part takes some thinking. My little city (25 years ago was only at 600k) is becoming rather large (2024 - 900k), and with it the LP becomes a bit of a problem.
Refractors: Stellarvue 70T; SW 120mm Esprit; "Mark Mk. II" - 60 mm Tasco f6; C80 doublet (1980s)
SCT: C8 Edge f10
Newtonian: 14.5" homebuilt strut dob (f4.5 ZOC mirror); Teleskop Service ONTC 8" newt f5
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Re: Grab and Go definition
Scopes: Astro Sky 17.5 f/4.5 Dob || Apertura AD12 f/5 Dob || Zhumell Z10 f/4.9 Dob ||
ES AR127 f/6.5 || ES ED80 f/6 || Apertura 6" f/5 Newtonian
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Re: Grab and Go definition
Mount: Gibraltar HD4
Eyepieces: Nagler Zoom; Delite 7mm, 9mm, 13mm; Plossl 32mm
Filter: Nebustar UHC type 2, er… that’s it!
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Re: Grab and Go definition
I have a 127mm SCT on a Celestron SLT computer mount , yes I can pick it up the same but connect power etc , so is that grab and go ? when I used a simple 90Mak on an eq mount you set it up in seconds (not 100%) and you look for say 20 minutes , the SLT mount you have to align etc and even if you good at it it takes time
I suppose "grab and go" has a lots of meanings , grab and go have a look quick,grab and go and transport easy , Grab and go and go hiking , so each off those is a different set up
Refractors None
SCT C5 on a SLT mount
Mak 150 Bosma on a EQ5
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