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[Guest]

Hi all,

thought I'd give you a quick update on first (and following 12) light experiences with my 114 EQ I bought of this board....

First of all, I took the entire mount apart and fixed what I thought could do with some fixing and tweaking. Tightened every bolt, nut and screw I could find, replaced a spring, greased it all up so it became smooth and was happy to find it all moved like a charm.

Since it was pretty clouded for a few days I went ahead and made myself a 30 dollar laser collimator that works suprisingly well. Got the scope collimated first, then tried the laser and needed to made minimum adjustments.

Bought a Celestron eyepiece set of Ebay which arrived promptly and for only S$180 in total

Also made myself a T-ring adaptar for my Casio Exilim camera which now fits perfectly over the lens on one side and to any 1.25" eyepiece on the other. So far the moon has given some very nice shots.

If anyone is interested I will write a manual on how I made my laser collimator..just pm me or something....

Anyway, the last few days have been very nice, except of course this nighttime sun with the craters on is lighting up the sky...

I live on a pretty dark hill and managed to bribe the security guard with a bottle of Black Label into given me keys to access the roof so viewing conditions are pretty sweet!

Yesterday I spend about 6 hours on top of the roof on a first real viewing session with the scope. The optics of this little scope are suprisingly good. Great views of Saturn, Jupiter with it's clear moons, Mars was radiant and even some DSO came out pretty consistant...Overall a very nice night...

The scope will be up for sale soon though as I really wish to go for something bigger and electronic. I bought the scope purely to spark my interest again after so many years and must be honest but I already got bored with it after only 6 hours...4.5 just doesn't do it for me and am to lazy to calcute every objects position....

Anyway's, for now, a very happy camper!

Thanks for reading!

Coach

[Grievous]

Now, thats easy! A Black Label and u got exclusive access! I still need to saw(and still trying to do so) my own way up to my rooftop! So what will be your next purchase? Something of an 8"er?

Charlie
PS: Home-made adapters, collimator...now thats ingenious!

[stevenpoon]

hi there, need some help on making the T-ring adaptar for my Casio Exilim Z3 camera. what do i need? i'm using the 1.25" eyepiece as well. please help thanks.

[acc]

Stevenpoon, pls repost your question under Astrophotography.