It looks and sounds great. A lot of effect went into that construction. I admire how u can put what u know into practical use. Excellent.....

 

I truly understand how u can get as much enjoyment from building as observing. This is because I have a similar situation.

Though it’s on a much lower level in every way than ur construction, I enjoy the care of optics including storing, labeling, and cleaning of eyepieces and scopes.

I like to cap my eyepieces while I label the caps with their particular MM, the company or manufacturer, the type of EP, and any other way of identifying the eyepiece. I use a black, sharp, felt tip marker.

I love to collect eyepieces especially odd, old, and preferedly, inexpensive oculars. Then after I clean and or restore and if possible repair the ocular. I love combining those inexpensive, cleaned and maybe repaired eyepieces with a good scope to produce good images for less cost than normally thought possible.

I even enjoy cleaning my observing equipment; both the glass and the housing/tube/mount. I use a combo of 91% or higher alcohol content with distilled water for the glass applied with 100% cotton ball and Quips. I use “Armor All” on the surface of the housing or tube, and stand/mount. I apply the Armor All with an old and soft white cotton bit of material, such as an old sock. I then use a “buffing” cloth on the tube or housing and mount till it shines like new.

In fact, I enjoy these incidentals as much as observing.

 

I love the Starlight 1.jpg image. Everything about that image is super - the scope, mount, background, etc.

Ed

 

I too enjoy the process in which I push a scope to it’s limits.

I will often proceed slowly, using shorter and shorter FL eyepieces till I hit the limit; a little blur that cannot be corrected by the focuser. I will then go back and forth till I come upon the eyepiece that produces maximum magnification that night.

From that point I will bring out my Barlows. I have 4 Barlows that I use to produce magnification similar or identical to the highest magnification achieved with a single eyepiece. Interestingly, I usually will find that the maximum mag is slightly different with a Barlow eyepiece combo vs. a single eyepiece

The manufacturer of and the type of eyepiece used also effects the maximum magnification. Even when using the same focal length, the maximum magnification is effected by the type of EP. IE, a good quality Plossl will produce a slightly better image at high magnification than a wide view EP.

I have seen a different maximum magnification produced with the same type and FL listed with EPs, when the manufacturer is different. This is not always the result of a better quality eyepiece. I think that this issue maybe the result of how the FL is measured.

Even the type of sky effects the maximum magnification produced. But this issue (the sky effect) is primarily noticeable when using different types of scopes with the same aperture. Of course, an SCT or even in a smaller way a reflector’s aperture is offset by the secondary mirror.

Maximum magnification is the result of a combination of several of the above issues. So, achieving maximum magnification is one of my favorite parts of this hobby.