philjay Posted April 16, 2012 Share Posted April 16, 2012 (edited) Bought this big brute off ebay in Feb and have now finished the mods to it to make a great visual and Mintron DSO scope. The SW focuser has been replaced by my refurbished ex Meade 127 EDT refractor focuser, now modified to rotate. The focuser was fitted with a home made finder shoe so the finder rotates with the focuser. I machined an adapter to fit the focuser to the OTA and also added lead weight to the focuser end of the tube internally to bring the centre of gravity more to the centre of the tube, (these scopes are notoriously objective heavy). I tried it out for a few hours over the weekend and I must say I ammightily inpresed with these scopes on DSOs, it was pulling in loads of galaxies in Virgo and Leo. One last addition is to make a carry handle across the tube rings as its a heck of a lump to hefy onto a mount, a handle will help nicely.I also have a flexible dew shield to replace the heavy ali one fitted as standard. Here it is in the observatory the other night, looks a bit of a beast and beleive me it is, in a nice way of course Sorry I shall try and post the image again, failed last time doh Edited April 16, 2012 by philjay Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rusty Strings Posted April 16, 2012 Share Posted April 16, 2012 Pics please or are you bringing it on friday? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philjay Posted April 16, 2012 Author Share Posted April 16, 2012 Quick off the mark there John Pic now posted. I dont think so John as its so big it makes the HEQ5 mounts eyes water, can only really use it on my CGE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Posted April 16, 2012 Share Posted April 16, 2012 Looks fantastic Phil, they are great scopes and being F8 useful for so many things. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rusty Strings Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 excellent mate looks like the kind of refractor for me, if you don't mind me asking, what did you pay for it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Eddy Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 Very nice looking scope Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldfruit Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 Looks the biz. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Graham Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 Hi Phil I have just got one of these myself and you are right they are brilliant. Why did you change the focuser ? was there a problem with the original. It does look mighty fine. well done. Graham Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daz Type-R Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 Awesome, looks the biz! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BAZ Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 Nice scope there Phil. That really looks good, and from your first impressions performs well too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philjay Posted April 17, 2012 Author Share Posted April 17, 2012 (edited) Cheers guys John I got it off the bay for 255, it came with an EQ4 mount and ali tripod which I sold at SGL7 for 130 so the scope has only cost me 125 Normally you can see these around sh for 200 to 300 dependant upon condition and modifications so at 125 I am really pleased :) Graham, the stock focuser is OK ish for visual but it does have quite alot of shift when focusing. One of the main uses this will be put to is with the Mintron and the image shift is made worse by the small ccd chip which doesnt make focusing easy so I had a redundant crayford which after refurbishing works alot better than the standard fitted SW R&P Martyn, it performs really well on DSOs but lunar and planetary its average, no competition for my F15 or the Meade 127 but then thats not what I have got it for, it'll be used mainly on DSOs using visual and the Mintron. I spent a couple of hours making a handle for it today and this makes lugging it about and hoyking it onto a mount alot easier. Edited April 17, 2012 by philjay Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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