686 replies to this topic

[kruzmisl]

My 10" LX200GPS has been like Old Faithful.
John Shwope

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[Hawkeye]

Thanks Peter. Yes, the end of a busy day for Gemma; rolling in something that smelled really agricultural, moving the sheep out of the shearing shed, having a few dips in the creek with the platypus and tortoises, and growling at the electric fence that bit her on the nose.

Saw the Trifid and Swan nebulae, a host of GCs and OCs and 'found' the Tarantula nebula after trawling the LMC.

The dew shield is a glued up piece of grey sleeping roll.

[imjeffp]

Good night, John! Could you hang anything else off of there? And where's the wedge?

[kruzmisl]

Jeff;
This is not my normal observing mode. Not using the wedge right now, only time for visual. Actually my visual optical path is shorter than it was. The Van Slyke focuser is incredible and it also houses my .63 FR inside and adds zero to the length. I use the piggyback 85 every time I view to get an excellent wfov to help me learn the sky. I find it hard to see where thing fit into place when I can only see the object. I also use the 85 as a grab and go on it's own tripod. Right now I'm just starting using the 10D for Solar. I'm anxiously waiting for my new Siebert Elite binoviewer that uses 2" eyepieces. With 36 mm eyepieces and ability to use a focal reducer also, I'm looking forward to some nice WA two eyed viewing.
John

[rumples riot]

Nice setups people, lots of money spent on some of the those scopes.

Hawk, I just bought a block of land at Parsons Beach on York Peninsula, so anytime you want to come to SA for a really dark sky site and beach views just let me know. Takes about two hours to get there from Adelaide, can't wait till summer.

I'll take a shot of my setup soon with all the gear on it.

Paul

[Hawkeye]

Well done! I was in that part of the country years ago, looking at the limestone jetty on the other side of the peninsula. I reckon you would throw a shadow from the milky way, over there. I'll let you know if I'm heading back to SA. Likewise, let me know if you're heading over to Melbourne.

[JerryWise]

Here's my scope. 14" LX200 GPS. Had a 10 LX200 in there in the late 90s up to this year. It's up about 4 stories on top of a small warehouse at my business. Needed a warehouse to store medical CDs. Kinda overdid it. Here in the deep south you can sit in the observatory or out on the little balcony most of the year. Some light pollution from a city 20 miles away but mostly good skies. Lake has 700+ miles of shoreline and provides some good atmosphere.

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[NJ Night Sky]

Wow now we're talking.

[Astrodave]

Ahh man meddyn, you are living my life with that setup! Wow what i'd give for that setup! Now if i can only convince my significant other to move to a nice darker area like that to support my hobby....yeah, and im a chinese jet pilot

[JerryWise]

Well, to tell the truth.... the warehouse and observatory are bigger than my house. My wife is convinced a small house and nice observatory are the way to go (that took some doing).

I heard her talking to a friend the other day. She said "..he is so obsessed with that thing since he got that Canon camera. I left him two months ago and he didn't even miss me until last week." I think she was joking but can't be sure. I really don't remember missing her last week, the skys were clear.

[Jefferson1964]

Meddyn, now thats a nice setup...im jealous, :-)

John, WOW...now thats a lot of stuff on there...Like Old Faithful...Now ive always wanted to take my scope to yellowstone as i go every year and its gets DARK....

[Grizz]

Nice setups!

Lets try and keep the image size down to about 100k and 640x480 for folks using dial-up connections. I have edited some of the pics to a smaller size.

Thanks.

[LivingNDixie]

Nice observatory!

[kruzmisl]

Grizz;
Thanks for taking care of mine. The instructions said 200k, and it was trial and error to get it there.
John Shwope

[rumples riot]

Well here it is Hawkeye.

Equipment:
10" Lx200 GPS UHTC
Field derotator
Off axis guider
LPI imager
reticular illuminated ep
26mm super plossel
20mm super plossel
12.5mm super plossel
40mm maxiview ep
2 x barlow
tube counter weight set
Nikon D70 DSLR
Waeco 12volt rechargable gel battery
Dew shield
JMI hard transport case

Phew spent a lot of cash :o. Anyway I love it.

Paul

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[ProfLemoi]

Nice scope! I can't wait for mine to get here! say, what kind of luck have you had with your LPI? Do you have any pics you can show us?

[Hawkeye]

Very tidy.
And, it looks as though you have even given it a silk scarf!
Very nice setup, Paul - and in Aussie Dollars too. That, ladies and gentlemen is commitment!
I bet the weeks can't pass quickly enough for you to scoot down to the peninsula for some serious dark sky!

[rumples riot]

Dark skies, yeah, yeah, yeah (think of muttly doing his little dog laugh).

Paul

[ProfLemoi]

John,

Great sticker! I went to the site and ordered the Planet hunter and the clear skies stickers... still waiting for those to arrive.

Kevin

[Festus]

This interesting picture is a combination of pics taken by my toshiba web cam, it was -6C notice the blue dew shield white with icy frost. I am still trying to figure out why I can't autoguide with the lpi you see stuck on the back, along with the digital rebel. On the bottom is a meade 12"lx200gps with a starmax 127 mounted on top. It has the special york iron 3d weight system I found in my garage.

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[Grizz]

Festus I don't think you have the LPI in the correct position. When I use the LPI inserted in my ETX90 to guide my LX200GPS the USB cable has to be facing forward in order for the LPI to guide correctly. For your setup I'm not sure if the USB cable should be facing front or back but I'm pretty sure facing sideways will not work.

[Festus]

Thanks Grizz, it is hard to tell from this picture because it is a composite of several. It is pointed ahead and stuck into a off axis guider. I have tried installing it in the starmax 127 mounted on top of the 12" with the cable pointing down (no diagonal) and the focal length adjusted in the software. It seems to track for a couple of seconds then guides the object right off the screen. It behave this way for both setups. If I leave the scope alone without guiding it does well for about 10 minutes (mind you the object tends to slide out of view).

[Grizz]

Ah I see...well not really.

Couple of things come to mind. Firmware version? Have you tried checking and unchecking the Diag Mirr box and doing a reset cal after each attempt? I have had very good results using the LPI for guiding. I'm sure you will also.