dweller25

Great report 👍

Wow, quite a setup and a good read 👍

Orthos are excellent eyepieces, I have an insanely sharp 12.5mm Volcano top 🙂

Welcome to SGL 🙂

For visual and within your budget, another vote for the StellaLyra 8” F/6 Dob. It will be like your 130 but on steroids 🙂

One option to reach the perfect observing height is to put the whole dobsonian scope on top of a few concrete paving slabs. But it sounds like you need to build a fenced in area to keep the locals out 🥴

The eyepiece position on a dobsonian is at the top so you would be stood up to use it 👍

That would be a very good choice 👍 It is a very capable scope and perfect for Newbies. The Dobsonian base the scope sits on will offer the same protection from cows and horses as a tripod 😂

I think/hope it’s clear for you tonight……

That’s good to know Steve and exactly the real world information I asked about in my original post 👍

I was talking generally about Carbon Fibre tubes Steve not specifically the StellaMira range. However, the information about possible bonding failures is on Stellarvues website who say they control the issue with their own in house bonding techniques as indeed the F1 boys do. https://www.stellarvue.com/aluminum-vs-carbon-fiber/

@FLO Any chance you will be stocking the aluminium version ?

🤣 well spotted

It has a 97cm focal length so the 46cm tube length is either a typo or you have to add a lot of extension tubes 🤣

This should be my ideal refractor but having researched carbon fibre tubes I have two concerns… 1. Carbon fibre does not seem to release heat as quickly as aluminium so cools down slower. 2. The focuser and lens cell are only glued to the carbon fibre tube, there are reports that the glue can break and the parts they were holding come loose and/or fall off. Does anyone have real world experience of these CF tubes and could offer some feedback ?

il pleut ici 😕

See this video…. There appears to be severe coma with the Funstar

Correct, no dew shield required. Cool down is it’s biggest issue but can be managed - I place a small usb computer fan on the front spider to cool the primary and also use a 40mm usb fan placed into a 2” extension tube in the visual back to pull cool air through the baffle - this is important. My 180C continues to impress, it holds collimation perfectly and once cooled stars are very tight. But it’s the contrast it delivers that is the big surprise - for a scope with a central obstruction the contrast is very high. And the mirrors are supposed to be 1/20th wave 👍

Did someone say “Tak on a Vixen mount” 😂

Great image 👍

Cannot say what it is but it does look interesting 👍

I exchange my 4” F/8 refractor between the SW AZ4 for grab and go and the Vixen GP equatorial (similar to SW EQ5) for high power tracking. Both mounts hold the scope well.

In my opinion a good 4” Refractor and a 10” Dob are the perfect combination. If you buy the STARFIELD 102 F/7 ED DOUBLET 🙂 I suspect you will find you no longer need the 130PDS.

Given the price of the scope and it’s intended purpose I see nothing wrong with paint, enjoy it 👍