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The dealer sent me the wrong item for the WO 2x Barlow nose. I found a finder bracket in the clearly marked WO Barlow box.The dealer has found the missing lens and has put it in the post. It will probably be next week before I see it. In fact it arrived within two days from Germany thanks to GLS.
The WO 2x Barlow lens body is about half way between the two TS GPCs in length. Whatever that means in optical power, if anything. Pouring with rain and storm force gusts today. So no chance to test anything.
I am increasingly frustrated at my inability to provide images to support and illustrate my visual observations. For years I have been taking snaps at the eyepiece. With widely variable results. None of which are a patch on "serious" imaging. Everything is against me and I'm not being paranoid nor grumbling. I simply haven't invested in better kit than that which came "free" on cheap, secondhand telescopes.
My 2" Vixen focuser is stiff when locked but otherwise sloppy and is only single speed. Now better adjusted but still rather stiff. I use a short zoom, handheld, digital compact camera with, of course, no cable release. Using the timer is possible but far too clumsy. My Neximage5 camera was so supposed to lift me to the next level but produces huge images on the end of my long refractors. So I get a tiny field of view at ridiculous magnifications which hideously exaggerate any sloppiness or simply poor aiming.
Looking at the range of focusers available in suitable sizes and travel for my 7" f/12 is really depressing. After making my own entirely out of brass and buying a cheaper 2" example I don't trust Crayfords for heavy loads. Which rather limits my choice.
Feather Touch R&P have a high reputation but are very pricey in all [and particularly larger] sizes! They go right up to 3.5" diameter and 4.5" of travel. Handy if you want to hang a full frame DSLR off the back but not much change from 1000 Euros. None at all in fact.
At least it would be in scale with my 8" diameter, main tube and charity/thrift shop bought, saucepan backplate. Of which I need to go on the hunt again for one with squarer shoulders. I still don't own a DSLR of any kind.
The Feather Touch mounting plates/tube adapters and eyepiece adaptors run to literally hundreds of euros! That is just plain crackers when the almost complete focuser costs only twice as much. It makes no economic nor common sense at all. IMHO.
I have been searching for cheaper adapter options which avoid the several hundred pounds just to be able to fix FT focusers onto an OTA. T-S do a number of adapters but their website descriptions leave something to be desired. No thread dimensions? Are we supposed to guess? Do they fit the drawtube or the base? Who knows? A quick addition of the vital "extras" means that half of the bare focuser price must be paid for some simple threaded adapters.
I suppose the real question is whether the obvious build quality and superb cosmetic finish are worth paying for. I have a lathe but is producing the large and fine threads to save money worth the considerable effort? How much does this particular "pensioner" value his remaining time?
Not that I wouldn't thoroughly enjoy the turning exercise. I can use the drips from my nose as a cutting fluid in my cold and unheated shed. I even have some helical racks from macro lens bellows which could be adapted to making an oversized, long travel focuser. Would it be worth the considerable trouble? Only I can tell.
Feather Touch R&P have a high reputation but are very pricey in all [and particularly larger] sizes! They go right up to 3.5" diameter and 4.5" of travel. Handy if you want to hang a full frame DSLR off the back but not much change from 1000 Euros. None at all in fact.
At least it would be in scale with my 8" diameter, main tube and charity/thrift shop bought, saucepan backplate. Of which I need to go on the hunt again for one with squarer shoulders. I still don't own a DSLR of any kind.
The Feather Touch mounting plates/tube adapters and eyepiece adaptors run to literally hundreds of euros! That is just plain crackers when the almost complete focuser costs only twice as much. It makes no economic nor common sense at all. IMHO.
I have been searching for cheaper adapter options which avoid the several hundred pounds just to be able to fix FT focusers onto an OTA. T-S do a number of adapters but their website descriptions leave something to be desired. No thread dimensions? Are we supposed to guess? Do they fit the drawtube or the base? Who knows? A quick addition of the vital "extras" means that half of the bare focuser price must be paid for some simple threaded adapters.
I suppose the real question is whether the obvious build quality and superb cosmetic finish are worth paying for. I have a lathe but is producing the large and fine threads to save money worth the considerable effort? How much does this particular "pensioner" value his remaining time?
Not that I wouldn't thoroughly enjoy the turning exercise. I can use the drips from my nose as a cutting fluid in my cold and unheated shed. I even have some helical racks from macro lens bellows which could be adapted to making an oversized, long travel focuser. Would it be worth the considerable trouble? Only I can tell.
On the subject of more expense it seems I now need a tilting camera support to kill my Newton's rings. The problem arises with my Neximage5 which suffers badly in H-alpha. It's just like looking at a 405 line CRT TV on the laptop. Except that the lines aren't usually horizontal. It only take a degree or two of tilt to make them disappear. The lines have made my interest in using the camera non-existent. As soon as I see the lines I just unplug it and put it away. Luckily I saw a post on a forum suggesting the tilting.
ZWO do a smart, little, T2, tilting adapter for about 40 Euros/pounds. The two plates are easily reproduced but then I'd need a focuser matching thread [or spigot] and a 1.25" eyepiece socket for the camera. Though a C-thread adapter is possible if the camera's 1.25" nosepiece is removed. More expense for a T>C adapter.
Saturday: I had a few moments between building clouds to see a long filament in H-alpha. The 40mm eyepieces and the binoviewer fitted with the new, 2x Barlow nosepiece provided a full disk with a small margin of sky.
Not as good as the 32mm and 26mm with the 1.6x GPC, though, because of the smaller field of view in the 40mm. The WO nosepiece deserves to be tried with more powerful eyepieces because it eats up more optical path length. I was observing straight through without a star diagonal because the sun was still low. The ridiculous length of the H-a set-up is obvious in the image. Of course it sagged. Particularly at the cheap TS, T2 focuser. The binoviewer eyepieces can easily move up and down by half an inch hinged at the focuser.
I keep looking at possible means to support the binoviewers. Two tube rings and an aluminium tube would reach them but how to achieve proper support? A rubber tired wheel? The tube rings could be rotated around the OTA as the attitude changes. All fine in theory but rather clumsy.
Not as good as the 32mm and 26mm with the 1.6x GPC, though, because of the smaller field of view in the 40mm. The WO nosepiece deserves to be tried with more powerful eyepieces because it eats up more optical path length. I was observing straight through without a star diagonal because the sun was still low. The ridiculous length of the H-a set-up is obvious in the image. Of course it sagged. Particularly at the cheap TS, T2 focuser. The binoviewer eyepieces can easily move up and down by half an inch hinged at the focuser.
I keep looking at possible means to support the binoviewers. Two tube rings and an aluminium tube would reach them but how to achieve proper support? A rubber tired wheel? The tube rings could be rotated around the OTA as the attitude changes. All fine in theory but rather clumsy.
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