Posts Made By: Slawomir Bucki

I hope somebody with an AZ3 alt-az mount can help me.

I need the exact spacing between the 4 holes in the top mounting plate of this mount.

Looking from the top, the plate has four 6mm (1/4") holes to connect adapter plates, mounting rings, etc. Representing each hole with an "O", and the distance between the holes with "X" and "Y", respectively, they are arranged as shown below.

O <-X-> O <--------Y--------> O <-X-> O

I need the X and Y dimensions. I measured the plate at the shop and I remember that 2*X + Y = 147mm (5 3/4"), but I can't recall the individual dimensions X and Y.

Regards.

S. Bucki

:S
I am looking at upgrading my equipment and buying a new OTA. My preferred option would be an 8" SCT (Orion or Celestron). My concern is how this OTA would fit on my mount - a 10 years old Vixen Great Polaris. Accordingly to Vixen, the GP can carry 15 lb. and both Celestron and Orion web sites quote the OTA as being 12.5 lb. Based on this numbers it should be OK to put this OTA on the mount, but I'm concerned that by getting so close to the limit of the mount's capacity I will compromise stability and tracking. I use this mount for astrophotography and I love how accurately it tracks during even long exposure times, with no or minimal need for manual guiding help. Does anybody have experience with a similar set-up?

S. Bucki

I am warming up to buy an 8" OTA, and I have (almost) nailed down my selection to two options:
- Vixen VMC200L
- Celestron 8" SCT (w/XLT coatings)

Which is better? Has anybody had a chance to compare these scope side-by-side?

S. Bucki

As far as I understand, Orion's SkyView mount is, more or less, a clone of the Vixen's Great Polaris. Does this mean that one could install Orion's SkyView GoTo drives + controller on a Vixen mount and use them instead of the Vixen's SkySensor? Has anybody tried this combination?

S. Bucki

I have a problem with a relatively new Celestron C6 SCT (with XLT coatings). I bought it 6 months ago. When I used the C6 for the first time, it seemed to have a collimation issue. "Not big deal" I thought at that time. I put is aside and didn't use if for a while. Finally, a couple of weeks ago I decided to give it another try and collimate it. I read Celestron's instructions as well as several other from the Internet. This is not the first time I am collimating a telescope (I had a Newtonian reflector for a while). So I tried to collimate if the best I could and found that if the collimation appear good with the focus in, it looks bad with the focus out. And if I correct it with the focus out, then it gets bad with the focus in. When I look at bright objects, the difraction rings are always skewed to one side, and no matter how I try to adjust the collimation, they only seem to shift from one place to another, but never get smaller or centered. I have contacted Celestron to have the scope checked and repaired if necessary (this should still be covered by the two year warranty). But I am curious if anybody else have experimented a similar problem and what was the solution.
Regards.
S. Bucki

I have an old Meade DSI and want to upgrade to a new imager. I would appreciate
your hardware + software recommendations. Here are my specs/requirements:

- Must be compatible with Windows 7 64-bit architecture
- Preferably monochrome
- Preferably 1/2" sensor or bigger
- Exposure time from 1/1000 to at least 10-15 min
- Capable of producing "fits" files
- At least some basic image processing capability (stacking, alignment,
brightness, contrast, gamma, etc.)
- Cheap (wishful thinking ....)

Your input based on hands-on experience will be greatly appreciated.

S. Bucki

I am in the process of buying a C8 SCT OTA that I am planning to put on a motorized Vixen Great Polaris (older model) mount. However, I am concerned that the C8 might be a bit too heavy for the GP mount. Currently I am using the mount with a C6 OTA, and this combination works great, with very precise tracking. I calculated the total weight of the C8 OTA + finderscope + diagonal + eyepiece, and it adds up exactly 15 lbs, which the max. load capacity of my mount.

Does anybody here have experience with using the Vixen GP mount carrying an 8 inch SCT OTA (C8 or similar)? Any issues? Any problems with the mount's longevity?

Regards.

S. Bucki

I found the culprit of my problem. It's not the scope (good news). The problem was the diagonal I was using. I noticed that whenever I was using this particular diagonal, I had to re-adjust the finderscope. Nothing seemed loose inside the scope, and the problem persisted with several eyepieces. I disassembled the diagonal and I found the mirror to be loose. I collimated the scope with another diagonal, as well as putting the eyepiece directly in the visual back (w/o diagonal) and now it seems to be fine.
S. Bucki