[richandfleur]

Have long wanted a cheap telescope, but cheap and quality don’t often go together 😂

[Kiwi645hauler]

Have long wanted a cheap telescope, but cheap and quality don’t often go together 😂

You would be very surprised Rich, We have some very nice instruments that retail under $400 for a 70mm refractor, but not a lot more will get you into a 6" Dobsonian reflector, which better than doubles the aperture, and really easy to use.

[pixelsaurus]

Nice, What 12" do you have?
I am currently shopping for a new power pack for my 6" Ritchey Chretien & GOTO EQ mount, want to have it sorted before the planets line up next week, and the Mars close approach at the end of July

GSO 300mm f/5. Black base. QHY5P-IIC camera. 2.5x Barlow,32mm CPL eyepiece, GSO coma corrector. I have a selection of extension tubes and adapters.

Guan Sheng Optical

---------- Post added 29th Jun 2018 at 06:28 PM ----------

Have long wanted a cheap telescope, but cheap and quality don’t often go together ��

Depends on what you mean by cheap. I looked at my scope, when I was buying, and thought "I can't make it for that" and gladly paid the money. I'd sooner spend the money these days to order online, have a couple of boxes delivered and be up and running in a couple of hours.
Back in my youth, we had to grind and polish our own optics due to them being unavailable in NZ. Construction could typically take years for a comparatively small scope, and I'm just not that keen anymore. I do have a 14" mirror in the garage that needs some work, and a telescope to put around it, but there is no hurry. The 12" suits my immediate needs and the 14" is now a sideshow. I may never finish it but that is ok.
Today it is all about "bangs for your buck".

[Kiwi645hauler]

GSO 300mm f/5. Black base. QHY5P-IIC camera. 2.5x Barlow,32mm CPL eyepiece, GSO coma corrector. I have a selection of extension tubes and adapters.

Guan Sheng Optical

---------- Post added 29th Jun 2018 at 06:28 PM ----------



Depends on what you mean by cheap. I looked at my scope, when I was buying, and thought "I can't make it for that" and gladly paid the money. I'd sooner spend the money these days to order online, have a couple of boxes delivered and be up and running in a couple of hours.
Back in my youth, we had to grind and polish our own optics due to them being unavailable in NZ. Construction could typically take years for a comparatively small scope, and I'm just not that keen anymore. I do have a 14" mirror in the garage that needs some work, and a telescope to put around it, but there is no hurry. The 12" suits my immediate needs and the 14" is now a sideshow. I may never finish it but that is ok.
Today it is all about "bangs for your buck".

Very nice, i have the GSO 6" RC paired with the iOptron CEM25
We sell the GSO scopes here in the store, they are really nice and provide that great Bang for buck.
An old owner of the store used to make his own scopes, he built a 14" that last we heard was residing in Te Anau and needed a 6x4 trailer to transport it. I actually have one of the homebuilt eyepieces for it and its very very cool

[richandfleur]

Anyone worked out what the NZ times for the site K-1 raffles are?

[MarkJerling]

GSO 300mm f/5. Black base. QHY5P-IIC camera. 2.5x Barlow,32mm CPL eyepiece, GSO coma corrector. I have a selection of extension tubes and adapters.

Guan Sheng Optical

---------- Post added 29th Jun 2018 at 06:28 PM ----------



Depends on what you mean by cheap. I looked at my scope, when I was buying, and thought "I can't make it for that" and gladly paid the money. I'd sooner spend the money these days to order online, have a couple of boxes delivered and be up and running in a couple of hours.
Back in my youth, we had to grind and polish our own optics due to them being unavailable in NZ. Construction could typically take years for a comparatively small scope, and I'm just not that keen anymore. I do have a 14" mirror in the garage that needs some work, and a telescope to put around it, but there is no hurry. The 12" suits my immediate needs and the 14" is now a sideshow. I may never finish it but that is ok.
Today it is all about "bangs for your buck".

Excuse my ignorance - but what is the fan for? (In the telescope you posted a link to)

[pixelsaurus]

Excuse my ignorance - but what is the fan for? (In the telescope you posted a link to)

The 300mm diameter mirror is a 39mm thick circular slab of glass that has a precision concave (paraboloid) surface ground and polished on the front surface. As the mirror cools down at night, it's optical figure changes resulting in image degradation. The fan helps to bring the primary mirror down to ambient temperature fairly rapidly, stabilising image quality. The fan also helps to prevent dew formation on the primary mirror.

[MarkJerling]

The 300mm diameter mirror is a 39mm thick circular slab of glass that has a precision concave (paraboloid) surface ground and polished on the front surface. As the mirror cools down at night, it's optical figure changes resulting in image degradation. The fan helps to bring the primary mirror down to ambient temperature fairly rapidly, stabilising image quality. The fan also helps to prevent dew formation on the primary mirror.

Aha! Thank you for explaining.

[Transit]

Anyone worked out what the NZ times for the site K-1 raffles are?

K-1's are being raffled ?
jeeze I knew Pentax was doomed but heck

[richandfleur]

K-1's are being raffled ?
jeeze I knew Pentax was doomed but heck

K-1 Raffle: Entry thread 2, 11pm UTC, June 30, 2018 - PentaxForums.com

Good luck in 10 mins or so 😉👍🏻

[Kiwi645hauler]

K-1 Raffle: Entry thread 2, 11pm UTC, June 30, 2018 - PentaxForums.com

Good luck in 10 mins or so 😉👍🏻

Just tried to enter and 6 minutes past 11am, closed already!

[MarkJerling]

The competition accepted the maximum number of entries in seconds. I tried to get in with the first one and had no luck. Second one my entry was disallowed because I did not realise the thread was not open yet.

With this type of competition, there's very little time to enter with more than 2000 members online at the time.

[Transit]

Streuth

[Kiwizinho]

Have long wanted a cheap telescope, but cheap and quality don’t often go together 😂

I've long wanted to go the other way, a decent quality microscope I could attach to my camera.

Years ago at uni I got to observe some pretty cool stuff, and I'd love to take macro photography to the exreme.

I think one of my favourites had to be Euglena

Is it a plant, is it an animal, or what? They're single celled photosynthetic organisms that swim around and have an 'eye' spot that helps them sense light.

[Transit]

Have long wanted a cheap telescope, but cheap and quality don’t often go together ��

even my free 60mm refractors are better than nothing,
I planned to make an impressive binocular with them at one stage

---------- Post added 1st Jul 2018 at 02:24 PM ----------

I've long wanted to go the other way, a decent quality microscope I could attach to my camera.

Years ago at uni I got to observe some pretty cool stuff, and I'd love to take macro photography to the exreme.

I think one of my favourites had to be Euglena

Is it a plant, is it an animal, or what? They're single celled photosynthetic organisms that swim around and have an 'eye' spot that helps them sense light.

I spose lighting the subject will be crucial
any paramecium I peered at were having exposure problems