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Post by ChrisV on Feb 13, 2018 8:22:40 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Feb 13, 2018 9:12:28 GMT
That's a beauty!!!
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Post by Dragon Man on Feb 13, 2018 11:48:21 GMT
Wow!!! That's a great price Chris!!! Some shops charge $499 just for the tube rings and dovetail rail! and there's that Green again It's on the dovetail rail this time!
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Post by ChrisV on Feb 13, 2018 11:56:32 GMT
Ahhhhhhhhhh. Even your snake is green. Yes it's a great price. I still can't figure how light it is. That's 1/6th the weight of the ed80. Surely something's gotta give ?
Interesting
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Post by howie1 on Feb 13, 2018 22:50:42 GMT
Wow! Great find or discovery Chris. I'll tell a guy I know who's just discovering the star adventurer and wondering about a ota to suit it.
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Post by davy on Feb 13, 2018 23:13:15 GMT
£269 in UK,, not to bad a price,, different lens from ed80,
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Post by ChrisV on Feb 14, 2018 0:27:55 GMT
Yes Howie, saw it on IIS. I was wondering if it was light enough for the star adventurer. That would be totally grab'n'go
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Post by howie1 on Feb 14, 2018 0:51:52 GMT
Certainly is Chris!
It will match the small icx224 and similar small sensor cams nicely and make the FOV nicer without reduction.
I ran a ST80 on a SA with my old VSS Mallincam and then with the 224 I had. Worked fine. Those SA can handle quite a bit provided you do balance nicely. The ST80 alone weighed 1.8kg (stock focuser it was 1.4kg but I put a heavier GSO two speed focuser on the ST80). It worked fine. Brian from our astro club told me he used to run the SA with a Skywatcher ED80 f/7.5 + 2" diag on it without problem! The specs on that OTA alone are 2.5kg! He put a guide cam down on the counterweight bar to act as a counterweight ... and of course also do guiding. I thought that was a rather neat tip! Never done it but it sounded a neat tip. LOL
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Post by Dragon Man on Feb 14, 2018 12:08:31 GMT
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Post by davy on Feb 18, 2018 21:06:40 GMT
Very nice looking scope,, had to seriously think how big a comparison it would be to the skywatcher ed80 black diamond series, the new scope won't take the ed80 focal reducer/flatner,, so is it a better scope than my ed80 with matched 0.85 focal reducer,, jury still out on that one. The new scope if you haven't got a ed80 with focal reducer/flatner is one I would jump at. The new coatings are interesting,, metallic. Skywatcher says 99.5 % ... Found this write up en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_coating
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Post by howie1 on Feb 18, 2018 22:15:58 GMT
davy, OPT shows that evostar 72 ED fov with canon dslr as well as asi1600 so looks like it will accept it (but I haven't been able to find anything stating exactly what the sensor illumination diameter is for that new OTA). IE OPT may have simply run the 72ED's specs through a FOV simulator without actually seeing if focus can be reached with it, and without checking the sensor illumination. Anyhow, that aside, when I was reading the OPT specs down at the bottom it showed other items which would be of interest and in there was a reducer for f/5 to f/6 refractors which gets goods reviews ... and very reasonably priced ... www.firstlightoptics.com/reducersflatteners/ovl-field-flattener.htmlcheers
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Post by howie1 on Feb 18, 2018 22:48:27 GMT
Darn, just when I quiet down on the purchases front ... !!!
The more I look at that little (and lightweight and cheap) 72ED Apo scope, the more I think about it with the Lodestar or Infinity (think they both use the same sensor) stuck in it and setup on a good quality goto AltAz mount. I've still got my Star Adventurer. I made a DEC circle for it along with figuring out how to use the things 12 month polar scope setup ring on the back as a RA circle. That helps find stuff easily with low focal lengths. But the 72ED's 420mm focus length, even with a big sensored DSLR is enough magnification to still be tough to find stuff on the Star Aventurer even with manual DEC and RA pointing (IMHO). Hence my statement about running that 72ED on a good quality goto alt az mount. That would be my preference.
The appeal is ala "MegaBob" on NSN who has used a celestron evo mount for his small fracs and Infinity for quite a long time. Light enough to leave it all setup. He leaves it all setup in his garage ... OTA + camera + mount. He just picks it up and takes it outside and plonks it all down - alt az so no need to level nor find North. NiCad battery pack is velcro'd to the tripod tray so he just plonks it all down and turns it on. The StarSense he has attached immediately scans the sky and aligns itself. In the 3 minutes it is doing that he carries out his table, chair and laptop and by the time he's placed that in position and started the laptop it's all good to go .... He just slews to target after target and views on the Infinity software. Simples! Not cheap ... but simples!
It's very appealing. Last night we finally had no arvo thunderstorm but boy was it windy! I thought several times about carting out the HEQ5, its counterweights, the battery, the 200p newt, then the box with camera and other kit, then leveling, then aligning, doing the PA and following with the second alignment and so on and so forth ... just in case the 20km/hr av winds died down enough to enable me to do some EAA. In the end the thought of doing all that (about an hour to cart it all out and setup) for it just to bounce the scope around like a sail in a stiff breeze and then have to take it all down again ... well I didn't go out! But something like Bob's quick alt az setup ... I reckon I'd have been out there in a flash.
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Post by davy on Feb 18, 2018 23:56:03 GMT
Know what you mean Howie, my skywatcher az gti was the Same planned route ,, az mount with wifi and built in battery .. just switch on and very quick alignment ,, but when I stick a scope and camera on ,,, it all goes pear shaped for one reason or another... Think I'm cursed with bad luck and bad weather just now,, sitting back watching another season drifting by.
But hopefully the new computer box mounted on the ed80 will change this,, the lighter 72 ed appeals to me,, nice price and a decent scope,, really have my eye on the skywatcher ed finder guider to me this is what I've been waiting for,, think the views from the ed80 finder scope are great and have cruised around the night sky just using it and been totally engrossed,, just the focus side let's it down as a total winner for me... Maybe the 72 is as good as I will get 😀
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Post by davy on Feb 19, 2018 22:28:11 GMT
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Post by ChrisV on Feb 20, 2018 9:37:27 GMT
Astro Pete's up in Qld have it for $425 with case !!!!!
Love to see a review of it Howie
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Post by Dragon Man on Feb 20, 2018 11:03:29 GMT
Interesting!!! It gets a FOV of 1 degree WITHOUT a focal reducer! NIIIIIIIIIIIIIICE!!! I have to use Focal reducers on all my scopes to get 1 degree, which is my favourite FOV. So that tells me theoretically with a 0.5x FR it will show approx 2 degree FOV
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Post by Dragon Man on Feb 20, 2018 11:08:48 GMT
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Post by howie1 on Feb 20, 2018 12:37:29 GMT
The weather's bad enough up here as it is ... for the next 7 days 70-80% chance of rain and the lightest wind is Thursday at 10km/hr in the morning and 20km/hr in the evening ... can you imagine just how bad its going to get if I bought that scope from Peter at AstroAnarchy's .... Ha ha!
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Post by howie1 on Feb 20, 2018 12:40:25 GMT
Interesting!!! It gets a FOV of 1 degree WITHOUT a focal reducer! NIIIIIIIIIIIIIICE!!! I have to use Focal reducers on all my scopes to get 1 degree, which is my favourite FOV. So that tells me theoretically with a 0.5x FR it will show approx 2 degree FOV ............. And f/2.9!
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Post by howie1 on Feb 20, 2018 12:43:31 GMT
If it doesn't vignette my Canon gets over 3 degrees FOV
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