Thoughts on telecopic birding (1 Viewer)

So I have been with my telescope for a while now, primarily shooting at 25-35celsius, in a hot tropic climate... I hope to take it out here in Denmark over winter though.

A few thoughts/annoyances has risen:

1. extension tube... I wish, there was just a longer focuser, or a telescopic extension that could hide inside the focusser. Sometimes birds show up too far, and the extension have to come off, sometimes they are too close and extension has to go on again. Many shots have been lost this way

2. The need to use remote for the cam, not a biggie, but still something I am still not used to.

3. Want the small wheel of the focuser by my left hand, so camera controls can easily be operated with my right hand. I tried turning everything upside down, but then the focuser hunts....

4. Flocking, which I think I need to do next...am scared to take out the glass from the tube... how is it even done (any online tutorial?)

5. Possibly want to paint the tube when its taken apart for flocking, I know some of you have done this - how does a layer of paint work out along with the retractable dewshield???

6. My jobu Design gimbal think its called Junior mrkII, does not seem to hold ud proberly when extension is on and focusser is all out. Wonder if a horizontal mount arm would change this...hmmm

Just a few issues I have noticed in my short time with the scope... feel free to write comments , post links...aso

Pic of my first Bornean Osprey, rough estimate is that it was about 1,5km ,little less than (1mile) away. taken with 2x kenko converter uncropped. This area was really warming up and the bird just appeared as a blob of blurr on the camera screen We could not tell if it was indeed an Osprey through our 8x and 10x binoculars.... The picture revealed the ID

I shall give my thoughts.

1. Extension tube - there are options for this. I mainly use an empty GSO 2" barlow as my extension tube. The big barlow element unscrews. The chrome barrel is quite long and it allows me to go from 50mm to 80mm extension all with the one tube. I think there are helical extension tubes on the market but having never used one I can't comment further on how suitable they are.

2. I very rarely use a remote, always happy to shoot straight from the camera.

3. One way to overcome this is to mount a larger diameter wheel over or on the wheel of the left side. This mimics the fine rotation of the micro focuser. Sometimes it's possible to strip the focuser down and just swap the micro focuser over to the left side.

4. You shouldn't need to flock the actual telescope tube, if there are baffles of any type inside it then flocking will probably make no noticeable difference. Flocking everything back from the focuser should be all that's required.

5. Camo tape works well if you don't like the colour of the scope. A good quality tape will stay on for years and still be removable without leaving any glue behind.

6. I use a regular 3 way tripod head so can't comment on the gimbal.

Paul.

Example of helical extension tube which can go from 67mm to 100mm

http://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/language/en/info/p4340_TS-2--Rotating-Helical-Focuser-with-M48-Connection-AND-variable-extender.html

Paul.

I have stripped the scope down, there is one barlow in there. I also bought some weapon paint Camo time hehe.

I am going to order flocking material for the whole tube right away... might aswell overdo it hehe.

I have had a few focus mishabs lately, turns out to be one of the ball bearings in the focusser that was broken... and dont seem to be able to find that size here... 3-8-4. I have written the company I got the scope from.

Paul, I seem to remember you writing about baffling the extension tube or something like that... So would it be wise of me to put in a baffle in my 2" cam to scope adapter? If yes, any recommendations on how to go about it. materials aso? I want to make it close to right straight away

ps: send me your telenegatives haha... I am using a kenko dgx 2x teleplus pro300 for cannon atm, I think it is fine for now...

If the scope has internal baffles then flocking it will be a waste of time. I did some tests with my scope. I took photos with baffles only, with no baffles, no baffles but tube fully flocked, baffles with tube fully flocked. There was no difference in the contrast with a fully flocked/baffled tube to just the plain black tube with no baffles of flocking. The only time I get improvement is when I flock/baffle the extension tubes as they tend to have shiny black surfaces. As I strip down a lot of lenses I use internal parts to make my baffle rings. All you really need is a piece of flat thin metal plate. Make the external diameter to fit somewhere inside the cam to scope adapter. Then cut a hole in the middle of the piece of metal plate and make it just big enough so that you don't notice the corners of the photo getting dark. You can make a practice one out of cardboard to see what sort of size hole will work best. Colour it with a black marker pen to see the best effect. For the metal plate you can spray it matte black. Use the thinnest plate possible as a near knife edge to the hole works best at stopping stray light.

The Teleplus Pro is very good, you wouldn't notice any difference with e telenegative. A telenegative is a good inexpensive route to go if you don't already have a good teleconverter.

Paul.

kurakura said:

I have stripped the scope down, there is one barlow in there. I also bought some weapon paint Camo time hehe.

I am going to order flocking material for the whole tube right away... might aswell overdo it hehe.

I have had a few focus mishabs lately, turns out to be one of the ball bearings in the focusser that was broken... and dont seem to be able to find that size here... 3-8-4. I have written the company I got the scope from.

Paul, I seem to remember you writing about baffling the extension tube or something like that... So would it be wise of me to put in a baffle in my 2" cam to scope adapter? If yes, any recommendations on how to go about it. materials aso? I want to make it close to right straight away

ps: send me your telenegatives haha... I am using a kenko dgx 2x teleplus pro300 for cannon atm, I think it is fine for now...

Click to expand...

Here is some info.

I feel like Paul, don't bother flocking the scope itself, concentrate on the extension and the focuser.

I use extensible camo tape that doesn't stick to the scope, only to itself. It works great. It's called Camo Form Self Cling Camouflage Wrap.

I also broke a bearing on my Skywatcher 80ED and it was an easy replacement. The most difficult part is adjusting the focuser. I purchased the bearing locally from a company called General Bearing; this is an international corporation and they may have a store close to you. Just bring one bearing and let them do the measurement. They didn't have it locally but it took only 1 week to get it. I also got new O-Rings from them for the focuser.

Here is the info for the parts if you have a SW80ED:
O-rings: DMR O-Rings 006PK
Bearings: PhotoPRECISION Inc. - CPN: SM-830W30ZZ G7 - MFG: SMR83ZZ - SPEC: P6MC3LY121P

I also reversed the focusing assembly to make it left handed. It works great. Again, the difficult part is to adjust it correctly. It is lots of trial and error. See these:
http://www.astronomyshed.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=4932&hilit=focuser+adjustment+solution
http://www.teleskop-austria.at/info.../pdf/Crayford_adjustment_Synta_microfoc-1.pdf

Good luck !
Jules

Hey Jules,

I think my problem here is that the bearings are not metric (inch), so it is not standard. The shop I got the scope from is going to contact me about it monday.

I have used camotape on my canon 300mm f4, it is not for me... I need to be able to retract dewshield without having to take off the tape first...Great thing with the tape is that it leaves no residue, my experience is that it leaves the lens sticky with no visible residue... I could also feel this stick on my hands after using the lens with the tape on.


I might take on reversing the focussing assembly at some point... My focusser is slightly different from the one on the link... The tensionplate is just a small round saddle, that curves around the focussing rod. so no side adjustments... I feel that your focusser is better in this respect...

I painted the whole telescope with some weaponpaint today... The shop had no brown, so had to go with, desert, green, black... looks pretty good if you ask me

Here is the tubes and the focuser for the scope, now I just need that flockpaper and a bearing