Baader D-ERF for PST stage 2 mod arrives

Posted on April 22, 2018 by james

A small but nonetheless vital, not to mention expensive, element (*cough* 🙂 of my stage 2 PST mod has now arrived — a 75mm Baader D-ERF that I plan to fit inside my Evostar 100. The filter arrived in a neat little box, heavily wrapped in bubble wrap and inside a ziplock bag wrapped in tissue paper:

A handy label reminds me which what the filter should be fitted:

And here’s the entire thing complete with etching on the edge with the arrow that is supposed to point towards the Sun:

The next step is to make a cell for it that holds the filter in a suitable place in the OTA whilst giving the filter a small tilt to help prevent internal reflections.

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Tripod for Skywatcher Star Adventurer

Posted on April 22, 2018 by james

Reading around to pull together ideas for a tripod for the Skywatcher Star Adventurer mount (particularly with a view to airline travel), a number of people are apparently using the Zomei Z888C carbon fibre tripod and it did indeed look suitable for the job. I particularly liked the hook on the bottom of the main pillar that allows additional weight to be hung on the bottom to further stabilise the tripod.

It was then pointed out to me that Neewer sell (what appears to be) the same tripod on Amazon for almost half the price (the “Neewer Carbon Fiber 65”). It claims to have a maximum load of 15kg and I really can’t see me getting anywhere close to that. The TS Photoline OTA that I intend to use is just over 2kg and I think the Star Adventurer is only another 1kg or so, perhaps 2kg with the counterweight assuming I don’t rig up something cunning with a second camera that acts as a counterweight. My Canon 450D is barely half a kilo, but I need to allow for the flattener too. I think that even then a total weight of less than 6kg seems likely. Once I have all the bits I will weigh everything just to find out.

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Comedian revealed as Russian spy

Posted on April 22, 2018 by james

Imagine my surprise when the BBC website published photos of Sergei Skripal to find out that he is actually none other than the host of Radio 2’s long-running “The News Huddlines”, Roy Hudd. Here he is in better days:

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PST stage 2 mod

Posted on April 21, 2018 by james

A few years back I modded my Coronado PST solar scope to remove the “black box” and replace it with a proper focuser. Since then a potential “stage 2” mod has always been nagging at the back of my mind, basically replacing the “gold tube” with something rather larger.

Recently a Skywatcher Evostar 102 came up for sale second hand and at very close to the “desired” focal ratio I decided it was about time to make my move and the deal was done. Sadly UPS showed themselves to be a complete bunch of clowns with the shipping and despite being heavily wrapped in bubble-wrap the OTA ended up arriving with the focuser looking like this:

and one of the lockscrews for the diagonal equally bent out of shape:

Opening up the focuser mechanism showed the spindle for the pinion was not even close to straight any more and as is just about visible here, one of the teeth on the pinion is missing:

Fortunately I happen to have a spare part hanging about, but I had in my head allocated it to another project so I’ll still have to fix this one somehow.

Quite how UPS managed to inflict such damage I really can’t imagine. Perhaps they were playing “parcel cricket” with it?

Anyhow, the next step is to get hold of an ERF and make a mount for it. More news on that when it happens.

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TS Photoline 72mm OTA unboxing

Posted on April 21, 2018 by james

In a blatant attempt to stop the sunny weather clear in its tracks I recently ordered a 72mm TS Photoline OTA with the intention of being able to take it on holiday flights in my hand luggage.

I was therefore a little concerned when this arrived after the careful ministrations of DPD:

Fortunately the box contained two more cardboard boxes, well padded against interventions from the outside world, so I’m pleased to say that what actually arrived was this:

And with the dew shield extended:

Initial impressions are that for a small scope it feels quite heavy and very solidly made. The tube contains a quite astonishing number of baffles for such a short scope:

and the dual speed rack and pinion focuser is beautifully smooth:

The focuser knobs are perhaps not quite on a par with the quality of the rest of the OTA, but I think I can live with that. The tube rings help to make up for it, being machined rather than cast.

The intention is to sit the OTA on a Skywatcher Star Adventurer mount with a flattener and my 450D DSLR. I probably also need to consider a finder of some sort. I’m hoping they should all (with a tripod) fit into a suitably-sized rucksack that I can take as cabin luggage.

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Swimming, 20th April 2018

Posted on April 21, 2018 by james

Another attempt at this set today:

400m front crawl warm-up
25 x 50m front crawl, target time 55s, rest interval 20s
200m front crawl swim down

Performance was much better than yesterday, but unfortunately I still failed to complete the set. Today my failures were on reps 12, 16 and 23, meaning I actually completed 900m at race pace. Perhaps because of a combination of my time off and the shorter rest interval than I was previously on, my reps were quite a bit slower than previously — generally around 51s or 52s.

USRPT distance this year: 28,850m
Total distance this year: 63,200m

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Swimming, 19th April 2018

Posted on April 21, 2018 by james

First USRPT session after stopping swimming because of shoulder problems, four weeks after my last one 🙁 The set was:

400m front crawl warm-up
25 x 50m front crawl, target time 55s, rest interval 20s
200m front crawl swim down

This turned out to be a bit of a killer and I failed to complete the set. I had three failures, on reps 6, 13 and finally 17, at which point I called it a day, so in fact I only swam 600m at “race pace”. Hopefully things will be better tomorrow.

USRPT distance this year: 27,950m
Total distance this year: 61,700m

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Swimming, 17th April 2018

Posted on April 21, 2018 by james

I hope this will be my last day before getting back into proper USRPT sessions. 18 x 100m swims today, which is close to the distance I’d normally cover.

USRPT distance this year: 27,350m
Total distance this year: 60,500m

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Swimming, 16th April 2018

Posted on April 21, 2018 by james

Still not entirely comfortable with my shoulder so I’m going to take it easy for a few more days. Today I just swam 15 x 100m front crawl at a comfortable pace.

USRPT distance this year: 27,350m
Total distance this year: 58,700m

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Swimmng, 12th April 2018

Posted on April 13, 2018 by james

Back in the pool after almost three weeks off 🙁

My shoulder pain continued, so I have tried to rest it as much as possible. These things seem to take so much longer to heal when you’re no longer in the first flush of youth 🙂 Today though I was just desperate to get back in the pool so I took things easy and just did ten 100s at a relatively relaxed pace to see how it went, which was fine really. Next week I shall attempt to get back into things properly with a set of 50s with a 55s target and 20s rest interval.

USRPT distance this year: 27,350m
Total distance this year: 57,200m

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