johninderby

4 minutes ago, Captain Magenta said:

... actually that’s a VERY expensive way of doing it ... you need the flock to be all black

Oh all right then  🤣

16 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

That's flocking good stuff, John.

Did somebody mention flock??? 😁

Baaaaaaaa

It’s a question of what you are looking at. For lunar / planetary maks are ideal but due to their narrow fov not good for widefield observing. There are a bit of a specialist scope but that doe#n’t matter if lunar / planetary is what you want it for. And on cost per inch of aperture a mak totaly trounces the APO and also easy to mount due to their short length. There is a reason maks are so popular.

Re: collimation. Never ever had a mak go out of colimation. Have had a couple of refractors that did though. Cool down time is no problem in the UK and I wouldn’t imagine down under where you don’t often get extreme differences in inside vs outside temps. 1/2 hour is usually good enough with a 127 mak and there is the option of sticking the scope in the shed or garage for a while before observing. BTW big fracs , particularily triplets, have a lot of glass that can take ages to cool down so they’re not immune to that.

You will notice that many people end up with a few different scopes for different purposes. A mak, a frac and a dob are a good combination. Remember observing isn’t a competetion. It’s just a hobby, something you do for enjoyment.

Flocking from FLO. Just waiting for the acetate sheet to arrive and I’ll be able to make up my on flockboard for the Bresser 10” dob. Cutting the acetate sheet to fit exactly inside the tube then applying the flocking to the sheet while laying flat on the table (the sheet not me 😂) makes for a far neater job than just applying the flocking directly to the inside of the tube.

Short feet. 🙂

The feet I otiginaly fitted to the base proved to be too short for standing observing and a bit tall for seated observing. So have replaced them with some short 100mm high feet that had the same size mounting plate so just bolted on using the holes drilled for the longer legs.

Still long enough to keep the base out of the grass. Only mowed the grass on Saturday and needs cutting allready. 

So that covers all the inmates in the asylum then.  😁

All Skywatcher mounts that use a regular power connector are centre positive. The centre of the plug is called the tip so FLO is not contradicting the manual.. 

An interesting bit on scratches on  optics and a surprising conclusion.

http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/indexmag.html?http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/artjun04/pjso.html

I’ve seen the gold tube version go for about £400.00 or just over without acessories. The black version seems to fetch £500.00 to £600.

Try this with your Skywatcher dob. 🙂

Here you go. 

david.grennan@hitecastro.co.uk

Maybe an Explore Scientific 10” dob as a first step. A very good dob but unlike most dobs this one has the tube mounted using tube rings so it could be fitted to an EQ mount later on by simply bolting on a dovetail. They also do an 8” that wouldn’t need as heavy duty an EQ mount.

https://optcorp.com/products/es-firstlight-10-dobsonian

https://optcorp.com/products/es-firstlight-8-dobsonian

Is it one of the old gold tube ones or the newer black tube? The gold ones don’t seem to bring as much as the newer ones. 

Usefull find, thanks. 👍🏻

Still waiting for a reply from Hitec. 

Things for collimating the new Bresser dob. 👍🏻

I would expect the mirror to be very similar optic quality to the Skywatcher 250PX. Uses H-PZ33 low expansion glass which is the same as Pyrex. Also has a 9 point mirror cell which should help. 

28 minutes ago, niallk said:

Congrats!  It's a beaut

I got a 250px as my 1st scope, and it has been great.

However I totally agree with you - the Bresser Messier looks a much better option.  The mount / bearings are a big advantage it would seem to me, and a dual speed focusser makes a big difference.

 

Had a 250px in the past and was very happy with it and allways recommened it as a great buy. However the competition doesn’t stand still. Hopefully Skywatcher will respond and update and upgrade the 250px.

Guiding handle

Fitted a handle at the top of the tube for guiding the scope. Matches the carry handle fitted to the base. The mirror cell is a 9 point one and proper collimation knobs.The inside of the tube has a rubberized coating. Not as good as flocking but miles better than Skywatcher’s efforts. Note to Skywatcher.....see this is how it’s done.

Just waiting for the collimation bits to arrive this aft and hopefully will be ready for tonights clear skies. 🤣

Few other pics of it sitting In the back garden. 

Stock pic of the mirror cell from Bresser

16 minutes ago, Trikeflyer said:

Looks like a quality scope.

You peeked my interest and so I looked for the scope.  Not sure if it’s the same but astroshop eu have it at an even more amazing price?

https://www.astroshop.eu/telescopes/bresser-dobson-telescope-n-254-1270-messier-hexafoc-dob/p,52181?utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=52181&utm_campaign=1908&utm_source=froogle&gclid=CjwKCAjwkqPrBRA3EiwAKdtwk0iYHUXK7pFXopMNsVRl8yWW6ySZ_fn2iY-pSKBLmEDccpxklMyJLBoCVDwQAvD_BwE&utm_content=

Looking forward to your first light report.

steve 

Not a great price. The sneaky ******** have lowered the price of the scope but are charging a crazy price for shipping so the total with shipping is the same as Harrisons.

Bit of work to the base.

Replaced the little eyepiece tray on the lower front with a carry handle. Never use those little eyepice trays on a dob anyway. 

Wanted to raise the base up a bit so fitted some steel furnature legs.. only had 10:suitable bolts so will have to get a couple more. Will keep the base well away from damp grass. 👍🏻

the base has three teflon pads and an embosed metal ring for them to run on. Sort of a metal version of ebonystar. Seems to work very smoothly.

9x50 RA finder fitted. The standard finder is a straight though one. Had to drill one new mounting holes to fit the Skywatcher finder shoe. I just stuff a big towel in the tube and then hold a painting tack cloth below wheree I will be drillingnthe hole to catch the bits. 

The secondary has proper colimation knobs not just screws so if I needed to adjust the secondary will make it easy.

From Harrisons. The 10” isn’t stocked in the UK but shipped from Germany. Ordered on the 27th and arrived yesterday. Not bad for Harrison’s standard £2.95 delivery charge. 👍🏻

Focuser

Have fitted the 1/10 knob. Took all of a minute. Focuser is silky smooth. Very impressed. Comes with one extension piece for the focuser drawtube but you can buy others if need be. 

The inside of the tube is quite black as is but have some flocking coming from FLO.

Just took delivery of a new Bresser Meesier 10” dob. Bresser have just dropped the price to £535.00 from £599.00. At the new price it was just a no-brainer to choose it over the Skywatcher 250px. For just 56 quid more you are getting a lot better specced scope. Skywatcher needs to drop the price of the 250px  to about £399.00 or upgrade it a lot.

First impressions are the excellent fit and finish of everything. The focuser is a really  nice quality 2.5” R&P  that feels really smooth even without the 1:10 option. Had one on another scope and was impressed with it’s load capacity. And of course it has tube rings and proper sized alt bearings. Easy to adjust the OTA for balance and rotate the tube to put the eyepiece at just the right angle. Could allways unscrew the alt bearings and attach a dovetail if I wanted to fit the OTA to a regular mount.

Now to fit the 1:10 knob to the focuser and fit a Skywatcher finder shoe and a 9x50 RA finder. More photos and details to follow.

3 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

So, a Newtonian OTA and mount then....

Dob 👍🏻👍🏻

Few things to do to it this aft and start a thread. 🙂