SkySlab

Interstellar Light and Other Quantum Effects

Guan Sheng Optical

Collimating the GSO RC12-A

There are some excellent resources to help with this task, many forums on IceInSpace and CloudyNights. Step 1 should be done in daylight - it's easier, the rest do not matter so much as long as you get the collimation close to spot on using a Takahashi collimating scope: http://www.dosborne-astroimages.co.uk/equip_image/collimation_article.htm The Takahashi Collimating Scope Coupled [...] Read More

Guan Sheng Optical, 12″ Carbon Fibre Truss Tube Ritchey-Chrétien – Part two

In this post I mentioned that I would show how the GSO RC12-A was commissioned. Here's the process. It seems to have worked well. Next steps are to collimate the scope, then test it with some T-Point modeling runs of the sky. Here's some information on collimation using a Tak Collimating Scope. StepImage Step 1: [...] Read More

Guan Sheng Optical, 12″ Carbon Fibre Truss Tube Ritchey-Chrétien

The Keck and the VLT observatories both use Ritchey-Chretien (RC) design telescopes. While SkySlab is no Keck or VLT, for astrophotography the GSO RC12-A will produce good quality pictures. It's a large aperture light telescope used by a high percentage of the amateur astrophotography population. One has been sourced for SkySlab from Bintel in Sydney, [...] Read More