Win a Pentax Limited Lens: Raffle Now Live!

A wee bit excited, so have to share the news: I purchased my first scope for imaging, used from a seller on Astromart. It is an Orion ED80T CF (Carbon Fiber tube) and comes with the Orion Field Flattener. This will be put on the SkyView Pro german equatorial mount that I purchased from our own Bob Runyon over the winter. (Thanks for the shove down the slippery slope, Bob! Your work is an inspiration.) The OTA only weighs 5.5 lbs, so it should work well with a DSLR on the SVP which has a 20 lb capacity. I plan on mating it with my Pentax K-01 APS-C digital camera. Not a DSLR, but it has Focus Peaking which should be very handy for focusing in astrophotography. That much was demonstrated in the UNK Planetarium with our first astrophotography class tonight.

I also purchased a new-in-the-box Orion StarShoot Solar System Imager IV from Astromart (earlier). It is a CMOS video imager for doing lunar, solar, and planetary work. With my imaging scope it will need to be used in conjunction with a barlow. I only have a Celestron Ultima 2x, so I may need to acquire a more powerful Powermate barlow for that purpose. I have some solar filter material and now know the proper size for which to make a proper solar filter.

I have a LOT to learn and especially to put into practice, but I am encouraged by the images that I see others have produced with the ED80T on astrobin:
Search | AstroBin
and
Search | AstroBin

The ED80T CF can also be used visually, and should be a nice grab & go scope to go along with the 8" Dob that I purchased from Jack Cudaback several years ago. (Thanks again, Jack!)

Scope should be here late next week. Something tells me I'm going to be getting less sleep in 2014 than I did in years previous. Get ready for a bunch of really amateur-ish first swings!

Have fun with the new instrument. Looking forward to your results.

I never found the focus peaking on the K-01 to work for astrophotography, but the focus zoom goes to 6X and that is quite useful. I think you will like the results with the K-01 as it offers good fidelity in long exposures.

Say hello to Rob Runyan. I fist "met" him online back in the early 90's when he was looking to interface an ST-4 autoguider to his Vogel Digitrack II drive corrector. We were both running Meade 8" SCT's. I don't think either of us got it to work, lol!

Incidently, I spent over three years in Nebraska when I was in the Air Force in the 80's. Was member of the Omaha Astronomical Society. Spent many hours at the Weeping Water observing site viewing through the club 13.1 Coulter Dobsonian scope. One club member had an 18" newtonan that I looked at the Whirlpool (M-51) with. Quite amazing. Fond memories. Central Nebraska has crazy dark skies.

Small world, huh, Nightfly. But (as Steven Wright said) "I wouldn't want to paint it."


Yes, where I live is perfect if you like birds (Sandhill Crane migration and Whoopers, plus lots of other birds), or weather (I like chasing supercells), or astronomy. Not far to VERY dark skies!

UPDATE: Got the tracking number. The scope will be at my workplace on Wed.

UPDATE: my imaging scope arrived today and it appears to be AWESOME.
Naturally it is totally cloudy tonight, so I can't star test it. I am
interested in trying to use this as a birding scope also.

This is a TRUE APO and I'm also curious to compare it to the Bigma for
both terrestial and astro use. The scope is a 480mm f6 and the Bigma
(advertised as an "APO") will do that at about f6.3 so it should be a
"fair fight". It came with a field flattener that doesn't affect the
focal length. A lot of scopes come with good optics at good prices,
but then to do Real Work with them you need to upgrade the focuser
($300+) or something. This one (The Orion ED80T CF) has a really good
focuser already on it. The focuser on the telescope is super smooth
and has two knobs, one for "rough focusing" and a smaller knob that
has a 10:1 gear reduction for "fine focusing". I'm also curious to see
how close I can get it to focus (and with what light loss) using
extension tubes.

SO many things to work out here in the next few weeks & months. I
realized that I don't have a "prime focus" adapter for either of my
Pentax cameras, so I ordered one. Hopefully it will be here by
Saturday so I can get SOMETHING done with it over the weekend (weather
permitting). I also decided to splurge and get a Rigel QuikFinder for
it:
Amazon.com: Rigel Systems QuikFinder Compact Reflex Sight with Built-in Dew Shield, Extra Base & Battery: Camera & Photo

Pics to come.

That triplett should work pretty well, based on images seen on the web. Have fun.

While you are waiting for your T ring adapter, you could make a bahtinov mask for focus. The 10:1 knobs will help you get the right touch and you'll quickly see how little it takes to chase critical focus.

I can't tell if you have the carbon fiber version or not. If so, then you'll have less hassle of having to change the focus point as the ambient temperature drops. Be aware of this and maybe bring a thermometer with you on your first few outings. If you keep some good records of how often you need to change the focus, then you can predict it and not lose many subs.

Good suggestions. Yes it is the CF.

Scope arrived with all in good shape, but have not yet gotten to star test it.

My serial to SBIG cable showed up for connecting my XP laptop to the SkyView Pro motors.
I have a PK prime focus adapter, a webcam adapter, and a Rigel Quickfinder that should be here Monday or Tuesday.

I think I still need to buy a dovetail and rings before I'm done shopping. (Or are you EVER done shopping?)