Strange that you recommended flocking for refractors but not newtonians. Why? I got a 10 in skywaycher flex tube and very Bad results at looking at planets I get lot of stray light. Thanks for the tips!!
If your tube is big enough (6-8" or larger) - the flocking paper can be simply rolled and inserted into the OTA. Then you can start removing the protective layer (white in the following image) from one of roll's edges, which is parallel to the tube, and stick the flocking paper (black) to the tube's surface.
Why does it sound like I am being given pointers by Eugene from the walking dead!?!! I mean no disrespect. Thanks for the help however, this was very informational.
I don’t know but you are the second person to say that. I’ve definitely got to find out who Eugene is. Glad it was useful. A viewer mentioned flocking. Make sure to check that out for a huge contrast boost. I’ll try not to be eaten by zombies.
I know quite a few extremely brilliant folks in the south who are cursed with it. It’s very funny. Enter them into a conversation with folks and immediately they lose IQ points to the perception that they’re hicks. Lol. It doesn’t matter if they’re astrophysicists. A noble prize holder would struggle more to convince an audience than his northern counterpart. It’s so true. I need to do like so many so-called musical artists and get one of those voice synthesizers. Maybe then I can escape sounding like Eugene from “Walking Dead”. I’m not the most energetic speaker either so it’s much like suffering thru the guy in the lab coat off the old Noxzema commercials. I do know my topics extremely well. I can only hope my validity confirmed by folks putting my words into practice. Many have. I’m really top notch in the honesty category, even tho I’m vocally handicap. Lol! It’s as obvious as the Moon is bright. Clear skies.
Sorry to hear that. I have arthritis and it’s getting progressively worse. Cold weather is a killer. Eventually I won’t be able to carry large scopes or manually focus.
Garnett, great video as always. Another good and easy newt performance change is flocking the tube. It can be expensive if you use the material like Protostar, but you can do it cheaper with a mix of Protostar and craft store adhesive felt sheets. I have done various ways from, just flocking behind the secondary opposite the focuser. Just using @10$USD of the good stuff. I have also just flocked from the tube opening to just past the focuser (all the way the tube) This covers about 33 percent of the tube. The last was to use the expensive flocking behind the secondary and then the rest of the tube with craft store felt. This can also benefit and sct as well. The contrast increase you get make the work worth it. An easy visual seeing helper is also a piece of light weight black cloth to cover ones head as you view. Kind of like the old photographers used. This helps seeing though an eyepiece a lot more enjoyable.
+UReasonIt Thank you! Great tips too. I wish I made it “11 ways”. I’m going to do that to mine. Contrast is especially important in light pollution. Thanks and clear skies.
Collimation Knob screw upgrade. What a great idea! I hate that Allen wrench. I'm always afraid I will drop it down the tube. Thanks for the great video.
great list, tyvm, excellent vid. would potentially add to the list a paracorr (for larger scopes), interior flocking, and rotating tube rings. no worries though. maybe that gives you a head start on "10 more ways to improve a newtonian reflector". : )
It would be very convienent to have a magnified finder scope, but if your very good at estimating, you could probably use a red dot finder. I was able to find the Crab Nebula with a red dot finder.
@@paulread1365 I tried using a Telrad, i didn't feel like it offered anything over a red dot finder and both don't show anything more than what the naked eye can see. At least with a 50mm finderscope you can actually see quite a few objects.
I love your final photo, hand and camera. Question: on a 6/ f4, attaching the dovetail bar direct to the tube, (no rings) keeping focuser in fix position. (Only for photo) I am looking for less weight.
Thank you. I’ve seen a lot of people do that. If you notice, even big scopes like the Orion 180 Maksutov are mounted that way. RC telescopes and larger SCT scopes are factory shipped that way as well. If you mount something in this manner the only concern is to make sure whatever hardware you use doesn’t obstruct the light path. I personally prefer rings because it gives me more mounting options across the top. I like to keep all the weight in a straight line opposite the counterweight. Lets say your application is to use the scope for dso. The finder bracket is typically offset to where the bottom plate is mounted. That’s fine for many applications but not when you mount a larger guide scope atop such as an Orion ST-80. Have a look at Chuck’s 8SE setup to see what I mean. At F4 it shouldn’t matter wether you use rings or not. That’s a fast setup. I dabble mostly with F10 and slower where extremely long exposures are necessary. At 1500mm + I can’t get away with mini guide scopes. It’s more practical to use an OAG or bigger top mounted guide scope. When you see folks convert to rings it’s typically due to that reason. For the way you plan to use your setup you should be just fine. Weight is definitely an issue and should be mitigated whenever and wherever possible. A mount that’s rated for 30 lbs will perform much better with 10lbs loaded than 25lbs for example. Don’t sweat the fixed focuser position. There are many adapters available that allow camera orientation. The Orion Apex I use often has a knurled ring that I can loosen to rotate the camera and tighten when my framing is right.
Love your videos man, thank you!! Problem: I have a 10” Newtonian f/8 I made many years ago using a 12” piece of schedule 40 PVC. Works great with home made mount, but I have no tracking capability. I cannot find a heavy duty mount with tracking. Like the one in this video. Could you help me out on that…? Thx!
As for the Crab nebula I can hardly see it with a 6in newt much less than a 50mm finder. Also, it appears that you cut that tube likely for astrophotography.
There is likely nothing wrong with your telescopes, mods are just that, mods, they are not needed but like your home, you may change a couple of things to fit your needs/wants. On a Newt the only thing that i would absolutely change if they don't already have M4 screws, are the grub screws on the secondary mirror to make collimation easier so you don't need an Allen key.
Lol, Meant NightSkiesNetwork its a platform for amateur astronomers to broadcast for FREE!. At any given time there can be people from all the over the world broadcasting either Solar, Lunar, Planetary or DSO'S. Its a really great way to get ahead in the game since their is always a couple seasoned amateur astronomers ready to lend a hand in a problem or questions you might have concerning EAA. You should check it out, it gets pretty good on friday saturday and sunday as soon as the sun goes down the broadcasters go into their observatories. I am not a helluva speaker but given that platform makes me want to learn more. I usually do alot of Solar system objects havent really reached into the dso categories yet. Well best of luck to ya, Have a good one and Clear Skies.
+Kenneth Cantu I never heard of it. Thanks for taking the time to tell me about it. I do a lot of public outreach stuff and teach home school kids whenever I’m asked. You should go up there if that’s what you want to do. Not everyone is a good public speaker but everyone can offer something. I’ve been with the Planetary Society since 96. It’s great to be a part of things bigger than ourselves. Solar observation is actually my favorite. One of these days I will setup for K filters and H-a of the Sun. May just get a Lunt or Coronado. I actually spend more time planetary than anything. I still draw pictures from the eyepiece. I’m a bit old fashioned I guess. That was the reason for my eyepiece projection video is that it seems a forgotten art. On RU-vid anyway. The planets are mostly early rising with the Sun lately so it’s been a bit quiet for me. I will be concentrating on a good Jupiter video soon as I can with my 10”. Mostly folks are interested in deep sky imaging it seems. I will continue to keep that conventional and doubtfully you will ever see me autoguiding anything. Two minutes is easily achieved on a German Equatorial and in light pollution I don’t see much use for longer exposures unless you are heavily filtering. I’d like to see some of your planetary work if it’s available. Thanks again for the info. I just realized I got off on a rant. Lol. Clear skies to you as well.
Thats a link to my flicker pics theres a couple of moon, Jupiter, Saturn and Mars pics. I have a couple more in astrobin under my name. Plus the Observatory im building, should have it up and running by February, fingers crossed.
Great question. I placed a 2” crayford off of an Orion on mine and discovered a problem. The base overlapped the spider mount. I searched around for quite some time and eventually came to the conclusion that I’d have to machine my own. If you find one with a narrow enough profile please repost and I’ll spotlight it here for everyone else.
Where did you get the rings and dovetail for your Lightbridge 130mm? I've got the same OTA and want to do the same. And what size EQ mount would be sturdy enough?
The rings came off of a Celestron Powerseeker 127. I got the dovetail from Agena Astro. You need a minimum of around 14”. I found, with the weight of the camera, a Celestron CG4 mount worked fine. I’d put it on anything rated to hold 25lbs or more max capacity. To get the exact same rings I’d contact Celestron and see if they had spare parts. I’ve purchased all kinds of parts this way. Clear skies.
Too bad my focuser is an 1.25 rack and pinion caise not only limiting euepieces due to size and weight and camera weight, but also coma correctors! They need to remake 1.25 coma correctors again! Also replacing the focuser means replacing the secondary if too small or if the focuser doesn't fit into the previously drilled holes in the scope from the old one.
I agree 100%. The drive for 2” due to large sensors makes the 1.25” market undesirable… even tho most are probably using that format. I also saw this as an issue.
Thank you. He’s growing on me too. After watching a few scenes I realized how well made the show was. I didn’t expect a zombie series to be good. Actors are fantastic too. I’m pleasantly surprised. I should do fiction more often.
Amateur telescopes have spherical mirrors, which cause the distortion you talk about in the video. Parabolic mirrors are way more difficult to make, therefore uncommon and much more expensive. Parabolic mirrors don't need coma correctors.
Parabolic have off axis aberrations and not the spherical aberration the cheaper ones exhibit. Parabola suffer from coma and require correctors. This is probably less noticeable at the eyepiece. It’s very obvious photographically when using a fast mirror to collect light on a flat sensor.
you can buy any telescope its not the scope that costs you its the stand and the equipment. you can make a telescope but no camera or filter s no pictures my filters cost me £400 twice the price of my telescope so go figure :P
that is just my filters they are all 2 inch the smaller ones 1/inch are just as expensive i have 11 or 12 filters so just them alone need an Armour transport and security guard lmao :P
I would add Blackening the back and edge of the Secondary mirror. I used a sharpie on my 10" Skywatcher Classic and did half at a time to see if it made any difference and it did. Went straight ahead and finished the job without even thinking to take comparison images! I did the Secondary collimation thumb screw upgrade using M4x30mm pack of 5 from eBay (£1.85) - vs Bobs at $20.95! Great video thanks.
Awesome tips especially avoiding overpriced Bobs Knobs. I fully agree with a darkened secondary. Too many people have pointed that out for it not to be effective. Thank you for sharing.
Upgrade #11 - mirrors. The stock mirrors of most newtonians are made of BK7 or K9 glass and feature aluminium coating with SiO2 protective layer (reflectivity is around 91%) and surface accuracy of 1/6 - 1/8 lambda. You can replace it with quartz or sitall mirrors for better thermal stability and therefore a better control of astigmatism, with dielectric or silver coating (96-99% reflectivity) and better surface accuracy up to 1/20 lambda, depending on your budget. Upgrade #12 - Telrad and Oculum Reiseatlas. This combination makes any goto system obsolete. And it's cheap. Upgrade #13 - counterweights. May be necessary for a dobsonian telescope if you are using huge and heavy EPs like TV Nagler 31, TV Ethos, Panoptic 41mm, you know what I mean.
A laser pointer is a great upgrade. A green laser that is. I have a refractor where it is impossible to see objects straight up because I can't look through the finder scope. I just point a laser beam at the object and there it is in the eyepiece. Whoops, sorry my comment was on a refractor and not a Newtonian.
alphaphotoandvideo to get similar results like a newtonian out of a refractor, get ready to drop some serious money. You’d want a triplet apo refractor for imaging unless you want chromatic aberration. And trust me, collimation is pretty easy, especially with a laser
Totally agree with your assessment. A cheap fast refractor can work wonders in monochrome with a ccd but overall a Newt will destroy it. Unless you got the $$$ for a high quality fluorite refractor. An 8” Newt is likely the most popular overall for price and performance. Astrographs are reasonably priced in this range and not too awfully demanding on a mount. Galactic Hunter uses that setup. They do remarkable work. If you haven’t seen the channel please check them out. Real nice and highly responsive folks.
My understanding is that coma is mainly an issue of f-stop 4 or lower, that are spherical mirrors, not parabolic to achieve that f-stop. Low f-stops are to get at shorter tubes to mount.
I’m not sure I understand your statement. There’s spherical aberration and coma that are present across most reflectors. Fast parabolic mirrors typically exhibit more coma because of the depth of the mirror curve. Think of the edge being rolled. You have a lot more error to correct in spherical mirrors but the precision required is much less. With Maksutovs, for example, only a corrector plate is required. The same is true of SCT’s, Bird Jones, etc. A spherical mirror can be designed in a system to be optically flat so to speak to the camera sensor. A parabolic Newtonian will never be unless a corrective element is added. A higher F ratio exhibits less coma because of the shape of the parabola. The concept is to reflect the light to a single point but it does so by rounding the edges up.
@@GarnettLeary Since light bounced up from a primary mirror is interfering with incoming light, aberrations occur that has nothing to do with the lens shape. In an SCT you have two interference points at the primary and secondary mirror where light is both going in and out simultaneously. In Newtonians you have the primary and a small arc of the secondary in one side aimed at the eyepiece crossing the incoming light. So I don't see how SCT's are better. But, as you go to short f-stops, they go to spherical mirrors (under f/5) and therefore require coma correctors. Other Newtonians don't have to have this. The higher the f/stop, from what I see, over f/6 it is a minor issue. SCT's at f/11 gather so much less light, they require a whole host of other adjustments such as stable mounts and long tracking to make up for the light loss.
Got the 6" Newt on the same mount (the OTA was practically free for the total cost). Great optics. Then I bought the 8" Edge. The AVX is a great mount and extremely accurate. Use 3 or more calibration stars, do a polar align, turn it off and calibrate again. Center of eyepiece every time.
I got it oversized and pulled it tight around the tube. Secured it with an elastic band I cut out of jogging pants. Probably not the best but it was snug. The less lazy approach I considered was to create a band from heavy card stock. Glue it. And put felt on the inside of the ring for a tight fit.
@@GarnettLeary thanks for replying. How quickly do you go through it? I’d imagine you replace it when it gets dirty. Also any harm to thermal equilibrium or dew formation?
