Limerick Astronomy Club

Hi,
After getting the last of the adapters made that I need for the MK67 for the lunar eclispe in June, I got a chance to test the setup on the moon last night

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3655/571 ... 7f35_b.jpg
This was with an Intes mk67 (prime focus), a meade f6.3 focal reducer and a canon 300D, there is also an meade flip mirror in there so I can switch between looking at it through the eyepiece and taking some shots without messing around with focusing and swaping adapters.
This is a resultant image of 10 images stacked in registax and a little photoshop work.
I dont think I'm gonna get a whole lot more out of this 6 inch scope, the view through the eyepiece using the flip mirror is also excellent, this setup will also work for solar eclipses so its good by to the 4" refractor.

Here is a closeup of the Copernicus area, probabily abit too much contrast with all those snow caps, but it does show the ejecta from the craters well.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3487/571 ... 4eeb_b.jpg

Top Drawer imaging there Dave!
The visual / photo combo with the flip mirror is a huge bonus.

Thanks Frank,
You would not believe the amount of hassle I went through to get this working
I only did it cos I know the optical quality of this scope is top class.

Very nice pictures Dave!

thanks Tom, looking forward to running this in Spain.

heres, an image of the setup


The back of the scope is on the left, the parts from there on are as follows,
1, I had a custom brass adapter to fit the Intes ring on the back of the scope, the adapter has SCT threads allowing SCT thread parts to be used. Intes use a ring on the back of their scopes that no one else in the industry use, very awkward.! The stock intes focuser is garbage so thats gone.

2,The second part is a meade 644 (1.25") flip mirror so I can use the setup for visuals and imaging without taking things apart.

3,The third parts is another custom brass adapter allowing SCT thread parts to fit on the back of the flip mirror, the length of this was critical as it had to be right for focusing the camera.

4, The fourth part is a meade f6.3 focal reducer, making the MK67 a F8 system. There is a narrow brass locking ring to lock down the focal reducer as focusing is done by rotating the focal reducer along the brass sct threads, a pain but I have no other way of focusing this thing. I cant find a low profile helical focuser that can do the job and as you might or might not know, the mirrors in this scope are fixed, there are no focus dials to turn.

5, The fifth part is a canon 300D t-adapter and then we have the camera body itself.

Its been fun putting this together, it barely gets the full moon in there, a F5 focal reducer would be better, but hey it works.

Got yourself some very nice
Pic's there Dave...

Looks like your gonna get yourself
some decent pic's of the eclipce
in June.....

Cheers Roy