Two more RTBC. This turned up And finally, after having a front tooth out I've been able to knore a lamb chop.
Telescope innit. Edit: Or not. https://www.orionoptics.co.uk/ODK/odk12.html Do not look at the price list.
Fortunately I got it at a show discount. Still painful though. Had to wait as these are built to order.
It is mostly hollow so not too heavy. You do not fit it on to anything except a mount. Then you fit a camera or eyepiece to it.
My limit is about 25kg. A standard bag of cement.When I was very much younger I could get a one cwt drum of Snowcem into a Bedford van. I cheated and rolled it up a scaffold board.
Definitely. Though it'll be December at least before first light, as there have been delays in collateral work. The 'scope and camera have a similar FoV to the Deer Lick and Stephan's Quintet photo I posted earlier, but the resolution is theoretically a lot finer.
It's not so much the weight, it's being able to lift it onto the mount on the pier in a safe and controlled manner. Not something you'd want to drop!
Sounds like that one clears the area of trip hazards, has two people to lift, one each side of the plynth, and you to instruct the handlers and secure the fixings.
It's a nice damp evening here - so no Halloween hijinks. The stern Presbyterians who founded this place didn't bring the Celtic variety, and the American variety is a recent unwelcome import.
No, they're still around and pretty good, especially the Meade ACF and Celestron Edge-HD versions. However this is a fair bit lighter due to the CF tube and not having a big lump of glass at the front. Also SCTs focus by moving the primary mirror along the axis, which is not good optically, and introduced mirror slop, even in Celestron's design. The optics of the ODK are fixed relative to each other (To within +/- 1 mm) with focusing happening after the final corrector. I had been in the market for a 12" / 300mm Ritchey-Chretien 'scope, but this came in between the two I had been looking at (GSO at £3+k, CFF £7.5k allowing for exchange rates), and was built here.
I was the owner of a couple of scopes, including a C8, and followed the hobby like a crazed hippy, camping at various star camps, member of the BAA, Webb Society, even FRAS for a number of years. I even had a Starlab mobile planetarium which I took around schools for a few years teaching astronomy at various key stages. Sadly my illness struck and I just couldn't stand the cold and damp. All a distant memory now of some 16 years past.
