New man toy arrived

[NickK]

I'm not sure if this is 'photography' but it is a lens..

Vixen A80MF and Porta mount arrived

The Vixen A80Mf is an Achromatic Refractor with 80 mm (3.2") of aperture. Its focal length is 910 mm with an f-ratio of 11.4. Its light gathering is 130 times better than the human eye and has a maximum (realistic) power of 144x.

And the two eyepieces (the black 90deg inverter top of the picture):

6mm for high magnification and 20mm for low magnification.

 

[NickK]

I went with a cheaper, manual but more mobile scope so that it forces me to learn the sky and not the technology. It's supposedly a good starting scope with a bright picture, good colour and without issues for the field of view. It'll also teach me more about scope care (dew etc) before forking out for better setup.

I'll have a chance to look at other scopes over the course of 2011 before purchasing. The path of imaging leads to ruin The VC200L is still the favourite but with a computerised mount and camera the cost is something I'll build up to. When I do this scope will become a guide scope for star tracking so money isn't wasted.

Next up will probably be a mid-magnification eyepiece and a then do a MS HD webcam mod. Again these will be reusable in future.

 

[NickK]

Here's what you can get with an HD lifecam:

That's with a 20" telescope though (yikes!)