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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Newtonian scopes (1 Viewer)

Ah, the famous oil spots! Bummer.... I see you are using a straight legged secondary spider.;)
The full frame takes FOR EVER to load. Maybe resize it?
 
A few donuts in the foreground but not too bad. Those and the straight legged spider could be easily edited out.

Shame about all the specks. Can your camera let you do a calibration image so that they will automatically be removed?

Paul.
 
Paul,
The spots are a Nikon D600 thing. Some of the shutters splattered tiny drops of oil on the sensor. Nikon has been good about servicing for it, but it shouldn't have happened.
 
My old Canon 450D used to let you do a calibration image for any sensor spots that couldn't be removed by the built in dust removal. You would use a lens set on a really high f number to show up the spots, photograph a plain white background and the camera would map out where all the spots were. Then it would automatically remove them from subsequent photos. Just wondered if the D600 could do something similar.

Paul.
 
The Olys do that too, (pixel mapping) but I think the oil spot problem doesn't work so well because they are big and semi-transparent, unlike dust specks or dead pixels.
 
My guess is it is the same as the SkyWatcher 80/600ED that a number of us use or have used. No doubt made by Suzhou Synta. Has one element out of Ohira FPL-53 glass. The SW costs here about the same. I can't see why it should be more. $439 seems pretty good.
 
Thanks, Dan. I haven't been able to find the skywatcher for less than 700 here in America, guess it's just different marketing. thanks.
 
Have a look
http://www.cloudynights.com/item.php?item_id=928
Also, it does not seem to have the mounting rings, which I never used anyway. It does have the direct mount plate, but it is in the wrong place for mounting a camera, if that is what you want to do. It is balanced for an eyepiece. It should be as far back as you can mount it. Means drilling two holes in the tube, though. Not hard to do, but...
Or... you can make a simple mount like this:
http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=194800&page=17
post #423 etc.
You might even be able to use the plate that comes with it. That way you wouldn't have to drill any holes, if you don't want to "damage" the tube.
I would go that route anyway because it gives you the option of mounting it right, left, or on top of the mount, whatever suits your tripod. You can't rotate the focuser without drilling more holes in the end of the tube, so as is, you are limited to top mounting. Rings for that scope wouldn't cost much, but why spend the money and add weight where you don't need to?
 
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Thanks a lot, Dan. I am much more encouraged to get a refractor now that I have found this little beast at a nice price. And after all, this would make one hell of a spotter scope for my dob.

And a bit of an update: I tested it today at strehl .97. Unfortunately, the error is a sunken ring about 8 inches out from center. If only it was a ridge : / Looks like I got too aggressive with the 3 inch pitch lap. Oh well, back to figuring.
 
Orion 80ED, Skywatcher 80ED and Celestron 80ED are all the same scope, same glass in all three. Different names depending on which part of the world they were sold in. Many years ago Orion tended to be America/Canada while Skywatcher was Europe and Celestron was all over the world but at a premium price. The Celestron version was also marketed more as a spotting scope as it came with an erecting prism and slightly fancier looking fittings so that they could charge more for it, see here http://www.celestron.com/astronomy/celestron-80ed-refractor.html


Paul.
 
Paul Corfield said:
Orion 80ED, Skywatcher 80ED and Celestron 80ED are all the same scope, same glass in all three. Different names depending on which part of the world they were sold in. Many years ago Orion tended to be America/Canada while Skywatcher was Europe and Celestron was all over the world but at a premium price. The Celestron version was also marketed more as a spotting scope as it came with an erecting prism and slightly fancier looking fittings so that they could charge more for it, see here http://www.celestron.com/astronomy/celestron-80ed-refractor.html


Paul.
Click to expand...

SkyWatcher products are available here in Canada. The 80ED seems to be available only as the Black Magic OTA model which has the dual speed focuser. Price 699$.
 
JGobeil said:
SkyWatcher products are available here in Canada. The 80ED seems to be available only as the Black Magic OTA model which has the dual speed focuser. Price 699$.
Click to expand...

Going back a few years now the brands were much more dependent on the country. Recently, mainly since the Black Diamond rebrand, Skywatcher has gone much more global. Orion have shifted more over to their premium ED refractors. Their old Orion 80ED is still available and never went through the rebranding that the Skywatcher one did when it went from gold/white to the modern black/white color scheme. The Celestron 80ED spotting scope version was discontinued.

Paul.
 
Skywatcher seems pretty available in the states aswell, but for $750. I see no reason to spend 300 dollars more for it to be white instead of black and have skywatcher written on it instead of orion
 
White does have a big advantage in the day. Quite a bit of heat that will make blurring air currents in the tube are reflected away. Of course a can of paint is much cheaper that $300. A competitive price for skywatcher is at allstar telescope north of Calgary.
 
Terrible update:
The shed I was storing/figuring my mirror in collapsed during a violent storm. The table supporting my precious baby mirror tipped over. The mirror fell to it's doom on the concrete slab and is now in 2 pieces.
This was a good learning experience, and I now know that I can make a pretty nice mirror, however I don't have the time/will to start another one any time soon, and I'm starting to think I would rather spend my money on a lens in cell or just a completed OTA instead of another quartz blank. I'm sure I will build another mirror someday, and I look forward to posting the results here when I do.
Thanks for all your advice and comments.
-Richard
Edit: Correction for post #52 I got it to .95 strehl, not .97 (I wish!)
 
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