Focuser Update Matt Vinyl Sticker

As I said in an earlier post I will be covering the inside Focuser with a matt black vinyl sticker.

All I did was peel the paint came off so easily as it hadn't bonded to the plastic yet, any bits that had I used some wire wool on it. I cleaned the area up with soapy water then rinsed and dried it thoroughly.




I then used some vinyl primer ( I already had this when I did covered my laptop in carbon fibre easily found on Ebay you don't have to use this it just makes life easier) over the area and let it dry for a bit then cut some vinyl to size and stick it on and roll it across the surface to prevent bubbles. then fold over the extra to prevent it peeling up. This might increase the diameter slightly, if you decide to do this I suggest doing this first then fitting the Teflon in the outer focuser tube.





Results
This is going to last alot longer than the paint I had on previously and its silly cheap I bought an A4 sheet for 99p on Ebay with free P&P! bargain

however where I folded over the ends it did increase the diameter slightly and thus gets stiffer to in focus the further it gets down the tube but I never need to do that so its ok.

The gears on the focuser jump occasionally but I think that is more to do with the semi permanent set up I think I will look at a different mounting technique maybe a dovetail of some description? 

All in all it worked well and is super easy to apply and cut!


Thanks for looking


 

Tweeking modifications making them BETTER =D

Just thought I would put up a post about small changes I have made to some of the mods I did a few days ago.

Battery free electric focuser

I have made many to its design since I finished the new focuser mainly due to the fact it required more pressure to focus it the gears kept slipping.

the first change I made was to lower the height of the assembly on the telescope, this is easy to do with polymorph just cut it, heat it and stick it back together while its cooling smooth out edges so it looks nice :)
the reason for this is to allow it to sit closer to the tube as well as getting a better connection with the 2 gears

The other change I made was to place a small piece of that non slip matting that you can buy for like 99p under the focuser on the telescope as this stuff is spongy as I apply pressure with the belt it allows the assembly to sink down, it now does not move!!

I made a small cube of poly morph to sit under the servo, i did this because when i change from in focus to out focus the front section flexes to compensate this change in direction and occasionally slipping gears, I put some electrical tape on it so it wouldn't fall out.

I made a crude (very crude!) handle for the hand operated servo. It's basicly a section of cardboard tube with a slit cut in it, the servo is placed in the slit then taped in place, the whole thing is stuffed with tissue paper then a generous amount of electrical tape  to seal it all in. i also changed the style of the handle to allow me to focus with greater ease.

I will be updating the mod page eventually :)


I also purchased some matt black vinyl sticker which I will use instead of the paint on the new focuser, so I will post when I have done the mod

Hary

Focuser Mod

Finally finished!! the Glue came today and got the Teflon all stuck in and the focuser is back on the telescope phew =D

It was a little tricky the glue sets up fast and the first attempt was a complete disaster and had to remove the half stuck Teflon but now I had a better idea of how to stick it down it all went smoothly as does the focuser now :)

Link to the new focuser mod (Mark II)

new viewing season

I haven't used my telescope much lately, but seeing as the nights are getting longer and we have had a few good viewing nights I thought I would get the scope out give it a good clean and line it all up for the nights viewing, during that night I had many ideas about modifying and improving my telescope and decided to implement them during the cloudy nights.

Check out the modifications page to look at the mods i have made :)

Thanks for looking :)

Webcam has arrived!!!

New Webcam for astro-photography arrived in the post today today yay!  :)

cant wait till the next clear night!!!

still waiting for the flocking to come :/

HK

quick planet watch

Just been out briefly to have a look at what's about, it was pretty windy so it gave me a chance to test out the anti vibration pads I made and they worked better than I thought they would which is great! the image still wobbled but it quickly subsided after 1 or 2 seconds. however I think I need to do a bit more tinkering with the focuser as its not as smooth as when I tested it the first time.

Ok so out in the garden I whizzed the telescope round to grab a look at Jupiter which was pretty amazing on a slightly blueish background I could clearly see the bands and the 4 moons :)

I saw what I thought was a bright star near the horizon so I pointed my scope at it and to my surprise I had found Venus, which was the first time I had ever seen it! (though a telescope).

I have also bought a webcam to do some astro-photography and downloaded lots of software so I will add a pictures section to my blog and add them when they come up :)

Also bought some flocking paper to flock the inside of my scope, I will put some pictures up after I have done all that but I'm sure you have all seen the inside of a flocked telescope :)

Thats all for now just a quick update

HK

Collimation

Found this and thought it was very useful. Accurately aligned optics makes astronomy so much fun :)

Enjoy
Collimation with a barlowed laser

HK

Hello all

welcome to my new blog all about the wonders of astronomy =)

I started astronomy a few years ago after I found my old 76mm no brand Newtonian reflector and pointed it at what I thought was a bright star in the sky, the 'star' had a strange appearance as if it had 2 ears, excited I grabbed my 10 mm eyepiece and sure enough it was Saturn I couldn't believe it after seeing many pictures in books and on television none of it compares to actually seeing it yourself through a telescope.Since then my passion has only grown.

I wanted to up my game and purchased This:

A Skywatcher Explorer 130M with motorised eq2 mount. When I bought this I was able to get money off an eyepiece set found Here which is mazing for the price I paid.

Ok so the rest of this blog is pretty much going to follow my journey in astronomy including any kit upgrades, DIY mods for my telescope, images I have taken and all sorts 

hope you enjoy

HK