---
Ignore below. I'm using it as scrap paper.
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COTTON CARRIER LTD
930 W 1ST ST UNIT 103
NORTH VANCOUVER BC V7P
3N4
CANADA
SEYMOUR SOLAR
195 N 700 W #520
ESCALANTE, UTAH 84726
9400111105501071949282
9200190207211325476115
heavy but what the hell.
1/32 - - 0.03125
1/16
0.571
Swarovski
2024/10/07 - FedExed
4.5 to bottom
2 revs plus 150 degrees - operational
--
Step 1 is the Foot element of the Tripod Ring / Foot component (Arca-Swiss - 43 millimeter length x 38 millimeter width) and we need to amend it by dropping down from its bottom face with Shims.
I used cereal box cardboard, carpenter's square, pencil, scissors, drill to produce a stack.
And we can use our Template to cut enough 43x38 millimeter Shims out of cereal box cardboard - about seven or eight - to raise the 115 up about 8 millimeters above the top face of our GS5370LDR Plate - our Step 2. Our Plate is slotted to give us a fore/aft adjustment range of 100 millimeters. Its Mounting Screw is threaded 1/4-20 and can only be installed at the like drilled and threaded points full fore or aft. And the slot in between the fore and aft point is narrowed to 0.192 inches so a specialized Screw is requried. The bottom 0.143 inches of its shaft is unthreaded and narrows to 0.164. So our long replacement Screw will need to be modified / filed down accordingly.
Understanding the geometry and measurements of Swarovski Spotting Scopes' Arca-Swiss Foot...
We can then cut cardboard Shims to raise the Foot (Scope) up about 5/32 inches /
- Step 2:
.021 - cardboard thickness
.165 - screw diameter
.192 - slot width
.127 - slot depth
.343 - screw length
.164 - unthreaded diameter
.143 - unthreaded length
.125 - platform depth
.049 - strips elevation
.012 - strips base
.030 - washer thickness
.320 - foot socket (3/8-16) depth
Best idea at this point...
Escalante
.15625
We need the 3/8-16 to 1/4-20 Adapter screwed in 'cause we'll be needing to engage the smaller diameter.
Then a Button Head Socket Cap Screw - 1/4-20 x 7/8 inch
1/4-20 Button Head Socket Cap Screws,
cereal box cardboard
.320 - Foot depth
.265 - Spacer
.045 - Plate Strips
.130 - Plate thickness
.030 - Washer
.790
.875
Full Moon
This event is visible to the naked eye from user-specified location.
THU, 17 OCT 2024 AT 06:26 GMT-05:00 (11:26 UTC)
4 DAYS AGO
2024/11/18
And now I'm close to advising not to get it with the possible exception of as a free gift. I've done a tremendous amount of work to develop and implement a solid balance solution and I've heard and am hearing, suspecting, fearing that the optics fall well short of snuff. In theory our view is brighter. In practice I'm not noticing the advantage when I swap in the 95. Seems like the only thing of somewhat usefull substance it has going for it is a large exit pupil. I don't need it and I'm pretty effective at getting newbies quickly operational behind my 85.
And it weighs a ton.
95 versus a 115 in the same condition at the same price... Definitely go with the 95.
The largest lenses on the market? So how come no other manufacturers are putting out even lower quality humongous front end objectives? And what was it which inspired Swarovski to blaze the path?
Any glass we get will involve trade-offs - beyond just price tag. Can we think of any circumstances in which we might have a 115 while really wishing we had a 65? Other than packing for a flight or hiking in a half mile to an observation point?
Act Blue
GS5370LDR
Bob - 2024/06/19 06:49:21 UTC
Jebb
Bob
2024/11/03 - 115 cracked, dried
85 mounted on plate
glue stick glue
adapter - clock only torque
Kamala Harris - Timothy James Walz
Donald John Trump - James David Vance
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9434909105459109636157
2024/11/19 21:04:17 UTC
The Sunshade diameter tapers down as we move fore and aft from its longitudinal midpoint. That means that we gotta be real careful when operating with its Seymour Solar Filter. Good news... We're virtually always tilted up - usually to a substantial degree - when in solar mode.
2024/11/205. Safety Lock
To safeguard the Quick Release Plate and camera/lens from falling accidentally. Push the pin to insert and remove the Quick Release Plate to/from the Quick Release Clamp.
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Condensation - Objective Module
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Seal Integrity
2024/11/02 the 115's condensation issue really started ramping up. Afternoon solar was getting compromised, early night astro started getting mediocre and rather quickly ramped to total garbage. The environment between the two front end glass elements had become a total swamp. Before the following dawn I decided to open up the Objective element. Steps:
- With the Locking Screw hard lock the Tripod Ring at 12. (And leave it locked - Tripod Ring fully/normally engaged - until after completion of reassembly. (And if you must pull the Tripod Ring / Foot component first pull the Set Screw and recover the Spring. Then pull the component and recover and secure the Detent Button.))
- Mostly as described in my 2022/06/28 entry... (With the Locking Pin engaged...) With left (or right) hand gripping the Objective Module and right (or left) hand gripping the ATX Ocular Module twist/torque counter and break seating of the fore and aft Objective Module components. The effort required for this one was suprisingly moderate - little more than what's required for a normal Objective/Ocular Elements disengagement.
- Cover the aft end of the Fore Element and fore end of the Aft Element with Lens Cloths and secure them with rubber bands (to allow drying while protecting from dust contamination).
Next to the kitchen and one of the four burners on the top of the electric oven. Or a hot plate would work.
- Limit the heat to what the palm of a hand can take indefinitely when pressed down on it.
- Three plastic Coke bottle caps rightside up defining an equilateral triangle with 115 millimeter sides.
- Park the Fore Element fore end down on the bottle caps.
- Monitor frequently and kill heat a bit after the point at which all the condensation has been baked out.
- Reassemble everything.
I've been left with a few internal specks which will do nothing to degrade any observations. Brings to mind experience with the 95 which would develop minor issues the better part of a year after servicing. I'll report the issue to Swarovski but refrain from sending it in minus the excuse of a more significant issue.
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2024/11/13
Condensation came back with a vengeance shortly after nightime temperatures start dropping to seasonal.
Another safer approach...
After looking around on the web I harvested a ton of silica gel beads from the caps of (empty) plastic Pradaxa pill bottles. They extract with zilch effort, mess, waste.
I nuked the hell outta them in the microwave. Early on water condensation droplets formed on the glass above the deposit. Nothing bad appeared or smelled to be happening so they got a real good measure. The glass bowl was fine until i pulled out the base (glass) plate and it slid a little - then cracked. Feel bad about that. Had thought that with the water baked out the heating would stop.
Let's try another method. Electric oven set to 250°F.
Dumped all the silica gel into a stainless steel pot, put it in the oven, baked it for an hour and a half plus, killed the heat, put the lid on the pot, allowed cooling for 45 minutes, dumped it into three Pradaxa bottles (two and a half required), capped them tight.
Put chosen full (plastic) Pradaxa bottle into a washed and dried Microfiber Pouch - minus Cord Lock. Separate the Fore and Aft elements, lower the Pouch into the Fore (stood on its nose), screw the back end back on tight, leave it alone until we need to start prepping for a mission.
Went out on a wee hours mission under clear, cold, mostly cloudless skies. Temperature dropped to a degree above freezing. No problem. Left the gear in the car (out on the driveway) until well after sunrise. No hint of fogging.
I think after I get my 95 back from Swarovski I'll send the 115 back to get the specks cleaned out and another nitrogen purge.
18262903
800-777-7904
800-777-7904
7300
Not Sirius...
...Capella, it suddenly occurred to me right after end of our session. If it had been Sirius you wouldn't have had to ask - 'cause Orion would've been blazing straight and well above it well before it had broken the horizon. Which would've been about 22:20 EST last night. Capella would've surfaced damn near precisely six hours earlier a helluva lot farther north. It's our fourth brightest at this latitude - also behind Arcturus and Vega - and our sixth brightest from San Juan and way south beyond. Canopus and Alpha Centuri take third and fourth place from this planet's perspective.
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Gitzo GS5370LDR Long Quick Release D Profile Plate
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2024/11/16 - In the course of engineering the solution to getting the Swarovski ATX 115 balanced I found that the GS5370LDR Plate required a dedicated top level topic. And I'm calling my solution "the" solution until someone else comes up with something as good or better. And to date I've found nowhere so much as a comment mentioning the issue. And I'm making the GS5370LDR a mandatory component of all ATX configurations
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Specifications
Mix of Metric and British Imperial (and British Imperial fractional and decimal)...
Plate:
- 95.0 grams
- 140 millimeter - length
- 055 millimeter - Deck width
- 4.125 inch - adjustment range
- 0.209 - Slot width
D-Ring Mounting Screw:
- 1/4-20 - threading
- 0.493 - length overall
- Head:
-- 9/16 - diameter
-- 0.15 - depth
-- 4 millimeter - socket
- Shaft
-- 21/64 - length
-- Shoulder:
--- 15/64 - max diameter
--- 0.052 - length
-- Clear:
--- 0.168 - diameter
--- 0.125 - length
-- Threading:
--- 0.170 - length
-- Useable Length:
--- 0.3125 - 5/16
So what all this crap translates to is that when we torque our stock Mounting Screw
84 mm - 85 balance
04 mm - 70 x 27 mm - Allen key
1/64 - 0.537 - 0.25 - nylon washer
0.493 overall length - tripod plate screw
22/64 / 0.340 - shaft
0.288 - shaft useable
0.15625 - 5/32 inch
0.157480315 - 4 millimeter
Oben 3/8"-16 to 1/4"-20 Reducer Bushing
edit:
Condensation - Objective Module
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- Pull the Tripod Ring / Foot Component aft off of the aft end of the Objective Module Fore Element.
- Separate the Click-Stop Button and stow it along with the Set Screw and Spring Elements.
- Cover the aft end of the Fore Element and fore end of the Aft Element with Lens Cloths and secure them with rubber bands (to allow drying while protecting from dust contamination).
completion of reassembly. (And if you must pull it then pull the Click-Stop Spring Screw and associated Spring first.)
2024/11/10
*
2024/11/12
419893886705
Hi back to Rick, sorry for the slow response. I've had - for at least the better part of a decade - a staph infection that really ramped up a several years ago and costs me a lot of time, effort, sleep.
And/But I do get out get out to my nearby cattle farm - 1.2 miles from the driveway (and as away from light pollution as I'm gonna get in this chunk of the country) - most nights when the sky is tolerably open and hit my planets, moons, stars, constellations, asterisms. Was getting fair shots at the current comet until the Moon started wiping me out a few nights ago. And sometimes I set up outside of stores, restaurants, concert venues, the Annapolis Library and get people lining up.
Current prominent stuff... Venus (showing up high right around Sunset), Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Capella, Vega, Cassiopeia, Altair, Orion, Regulus, Arcturus, Spica...
Rick's Capital One account is being closed out due to inactivity. Looks like a good thing since the only charges we were getting were annual ones from his Skype account - which we were unable to cancel.
Thanks much for efforts to help get him out of that vile situation into which our government has placed him.
And a little dot here...
08-011202
What we're gonna do is... Do a little manual for the ATX and the STX telescopes.
So I have a box... And I'm gonna take the objective module out... Protected in cardboard halters... And the objective cover you can just snap off like that... And stow it in the box for now.
At the back... You've got a little bayonet... And I can open up the bayonet enclosure.
The other box... I have the ATX... ocular... Also with the bayonet... I'm gonna open that up... Open up the other side... And to put the two together it's actually quite easy... What you wanna do is... There's a little dot here... And a little dot here... So you would put those two together. But to put it you just hold it up like that... Twist the right hand towards you... And it's just gonna slide on. And you'll hear the little click... As the knob drops in place. So it's now fixed.
If you want to disassemble it again you can just slide it apart. And you have the two parts to transport... with the bayonet caps.
If you have another objective... And you want to swich between objectives... You can do it in exactly the same way. Just switching off like this.
TELESCOPE
FEATURES
Next to it we have the zoom ring... which is a higher tension... so that you never get the two confused. You look and feel that it's slightly bigger... with a different texture... Zooming up to 60 power... and back to 25 power.
With the eyecup... We have an extendable eyecup... So that normally you would extend it out... and look through... and it should hold your eye in... in the correct position.
If however you wear glasses... or sunglasses... then you can always twist the eyecup in... and look with glasses to give you just a little bit more space for your glasses so you can get the whole field of view.
I also use this when I am sea watching or there's a wind and you don't want to touch anyything... You can hang a backpack on the tripod and then without touching anything you can not disturb or shake the spotting scope and get a clear view.
But for some people they have very big sunglasses or because their facial structure their eyeglasses are a little bit further away from their face. So we've made another little eyecup that you can get from your dealer... What you need to do is to switch it off and you'll see the difference between the two... Is that we kind of shaved off the top of the rubber bit here. Which means that then your sunglasses or glasses would lie flat almost against that ocular lens there. Just to give you a little bit more space for your glasses. You can still use it normally.
One other thing we have is our sunshield
54-054504
http://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51387394338_5e5807b777_o.png
So what happens if my telescope is an 85 and a 95? Am I gonna see two of those in the box? I notice you're packing all three flavors.If you bought an ATX angled module for your... for your telescope then you would've seen one of these in the box.
How 'bout I just roll my ATX to 10:30 and use the built-in Aiming Aid ridges on the Sunshade like we're supposed to do if we bought an STX straight module for my telescope? Can't talk about that 'cause corporate policy is to stay as clear as possible from that can o' worms?
- But we haven't yet actually verified that it helps any people who are struggling to find their deer or their bird through their spotting scope. So if you find that it helps you to any degree please get back to us so we can get some feel regarding the usefulness of continuing to throw them in the box.This is an Aiming Aid. And this is just something that we thought that might help some people if you're struggling to find their deer or their bird through their spotting scope.
- Yep. And just the losers who are STRUGGLING to find their deer or bird through their spotting scope. But how 'bout Yours Truly, Dale? I seldom have the least trouble hitting a deer - which is ALWAYS gonna be on the ground - or a perched, floating, or distant airborne bird. But how 'bout a high faint astronomical target with nothing close by to use as a reference? How's this gonna work in comparison to your ATS/STS peep sights?
