Post by Dragon Man on Mar 9, 2015 5:27:34 GMT
I tested a Meade SN10 Astrograph for use with Video Astronomy.
This is one of the first SN10's Meade released. It has the thick steel tube which makes it a very heavy telescope.
Newer models have a lighter thinner steel Tube.
The previous owner is an accomplished Astrophotographer and has modified this SN10 with improvements that Meade should do.
He replaced the terrible floppy focuser with a good quality Crayford Focuser, reinforced the Tube on the inside so the Focuser cannot move under load of cameras, machined up a better Mirror Cell out of Aluminium with very accurate double lock Collimation adjusters, and an improved mirror mounting system.
The telescope is a Schmidt-Newtonian with a native focal ratio of f/4 and a Focal length of 1016mm
It has Ultra High Transmission Coatings (UHTC).
The camera used is a mallincam Xtreme with a Standard (not Ex-View) Class 0 sensor.
I was using a Mallincam MFR-5 2 part Focal Reducer which reduced the Focal length 0.5x
The FOV on objects was very small and focus was only reach witht he focuser wound completely in leaving no more travel for fine focusing. The objects were very dull and stars were still large blobs.
I removed the small section from the MFR-5 which gave me a focal reduction of approx 0.65x which allowed me focus travel in both directions but unfrotunately the image itself was still poor.
Collimation was slightly out so I spent the next hour attempting collimation but then got fogged out.
So far I am not really impressed with this scope for Video Astronomy work. It does work great for full frame Astrophotography.
This is one of the first SN10's Meade released. It has the thick steel tube which makes it a very heavy telescope.
Newer models have a lighter thinner steel Tube.
The previous owner is an accomplished Astrophotographer and has modified this SN10 with improvements that Meade should do.
He replaced the terrible floppy focuser with a good quality Crayford Focuser, reinforced the Tube on the inside so the Focuser cannot move under load of cameras, machined up a better Mirror Cell out of Aluminium with very accurate double lock Collimation adjusters, and an improved mirror mounting system.
The telescope is a Schmidt-Newtonian with a native focal ratio of f/4 and a Focal length of 1016mm
It has Ultra High Transmission Coatings (UHTC).
The camera used is a mallincam Xtreme with a Standard (not Ex-View) Class 0 sensor.
I was using a Mallincam MFR-5 2 part Focal Reducer which reduced the Focal length 0.5x
The FOV on objects was very small and focus was only reach witht he focuser wound completely in leaving no more travel for fine focusing. The objects were very dull and stars were still large blobs.
I removed the small section from the MFR-5 which gave me a focal reduction of approx 0.65x which allowed me focus travel in both directions but unfrotunately the image itself was still poor.
Collimation was slightly out so I spent the next hour attempting collimation but then got fogged out.
So far I am not really impressed with this scope for Video Astronomy work. It does work great for full frame Astrophotography.