Lunar image with Mk67

Excellent work there, Dave. The MK67 really is a lovely wee scope - it seems to handle silly-high magnifications quite well. Did you pull the handle and alternative spotter mount?

I think replacing the focuser is on my to-do list. It's not terrible but there's practically no fine control so focusing can be frustrating.

I sometimes mount the ota in a set of 6 inch rings, the handle gets in the way there.
I didnt get any finder with the scope, I got my hands on a red dot finder for it, works well.
Its a fine scope, its build quality is the typical Russian style, all metal and robust.

As for the focuser, Moonlite do a custom focuser ring for it, although its abit expensive.

Even the finder is built like a tank - compared to the Meade stuff it's significantly more robust. If the SN10 was built like the MK67 it would probably weigh an additional 10kg; heavy metal. :rock:


Do you think the flip-mirror with adapters is the way to go? I was going to buy a good 2 inch diagonal but the set-up you have looks pretty handy for both photography and visual use.

well, for normal observing nights, then a diagonal is perfectly fine. I wont be using the flipmirror for nights where I'm not taking images with the 300D, and to be honest, imaging with this scope will be rare enough.

But for events such as eclipses, I dont like messing around with the setup and only want to be focusing just the once, then the setup here is easiest to work with, especially with solar eclipses which are time critical.

The setup I have here is not ideal interms of focusing the camera. If you look closely, there is no actual focuser, I focus the camera by rotating the camera along a threaded barrel and then use a ring to lock it, cumbersome but as the image above shows, it can be done.
A camera with live view would be a major bonus.

Dave,

Nice set of images.

Did you use the Canon 300 to get the second image and if so what
else did you use and how many frames.

Yeah I noticed no focuser it must be a real pain to get
precise focus, but as your images show it can be done.

Well done again.

Yip its a pain, but now that I know where the focus position is, thats where it'll always be, it took about 5 mins to figure out its position by eye.
The second image is a cropped version of the first one, the first one is a drastically reduced size version of the original, click on the link in the first post to see the half res version of the image. I put this together with the lunar eclipse in Barcelona and future eclipses in mind and will not be doing deepsky imaging with it.