Ratlet

19 hours ago, Peter Drew said:

My 30" Dob base is made of MDF which has a good native finish to it.  Well painted, it has survived for at least 25 years.     🙂

Well, you can't say that and not share a picture you big tease!

It might sound weird, but my old man had a lot of plywood furniture in the house he made during his city and guilds back in the day so there is a serious nostalgia push towards the plywood.  Although I can be convinced of other options.

Afternoon all.

I'm wanting to build a nice looking base for my 10" solid tube dobsonian.  The plan is to rebuild with plywood and go for a swish looking varnished finish.

Most of the guides online recommend birch plywood however the prices for it are currently astronomical (£200 per sheet for the 18mm) does anyone have any recommendations for sheet material that would be a suitable alternative at a more reasonable price whilst still giving a good looking finish once varnished.

Scope will be kept in an unheated shed, out of the elements most of the time.

I find when you try to explain these things it makes sense to you but nobody else 🤣.  I've got a non permanent installation so I'll need to do a bit more work to build mine.  Basically rebuild the ground board and top board.

Depending on how badly it goes cutting circles, I might try to build the supports.  Will need to see.

3 minutes ago, Stu said:

Well done chaps on picking up the MBIIs, they really are excellent. So good that I’m thinking of picking up a second pair for Solar Ha observing alongside the white light. That’s if I can ever be quickest on the draw with stock 🤪. Didn’t expect them to be at the show, but glad they were for you guys 👍.

For me, it was the arrival of a long awaited smartphone mount. It is called an Accuview by MoveShootMove and looks excellent. All metal construction, great range of movement in three axes, it’s like a non floppy NeXYZ! It just about fits on my 17mm Nag so has its limits but still pretty good.

I’ll post up more about it separately but seems like it was well worth the wait.

Looking forward to the review

How are you planning mounting the setting circle?

Be interested to see how the setting circle looks once it arrives.

I'm planning doing the same thing as yourself in the future.

If you ask 10 astronomers for recommendations for eyepieces you'll get 17 different answers.

If you ask 10 astronomers for a recommendation for a scope, you'll get 34 answers.  No matter what you pick you'll end up thinking "maybe I should have got a dob". 

If you did get a dob you'll end up thinking "maybe I should have gotten a bigger dob".

Reliable eyepiece reviews will almost always feature a wooden ruler.

Geoptik Nadia arrived today.  Delighted and I can tell it's going to be better that the camp chair I've been using.

Seating area is a bit utilitarian but hopefully going to get it upholstered soon.  Couple marks to the varnish but nothing major.

Also got a telegizmo cover.  I keep it up the shed but the condensation can get a bit intense in winter so I wanted something to keep the damp off.  Got a dehumidifier packet in it just now, but might see about some heating as the shed does have power.

6 minutes ago, bosun21 said:

Not going to get wide field views with a 10” dobsonian. It all depends on how you define wide field.

True it's not massively wide.  It'll take in pretty much the whole Pleiades and gives a tidy view of Orion and the environs.

I'm in a very tricky position where I have to decide what is more important, taking the dob out OR putting the 30mm superview into the 130pds where it should give a 3.2° FOV.  Not going to lie, either option makes me runny 😁.

I would also suggest you don't get the eyepiece kit.  Your telescope comes with 2 eyepieces that are 'good enough' to get going with.  No matter how good your eyepieces are, the weakest link you your setup if you are just starting out is going to be between the eyepiece and the ground.  I say that because I am also a beginner and I am still the problem.  It's easy to get carried away with buying kit when you get going, resist.

In my opinion you only really need one eyepiece as you have high and lower power.  So get a medium power.  To that end I'd recommend the 16mm Nirvana.  It's got a wide field of view and works really well.  It's very highly regarded on the forum and for DSO is a top performer in a range of scopes.

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/ovl-eyepieces/nirvana-es-uwa-82-ultrawide-eyepieces.html

Once it comes I would use your eyepieces and see what you need.  Decide what you like about the eyepieces you have and what you don't like.  Then decide what other eypieces you need/want.  The skies not going anywhere and the planets aren't great right now in the UK so you've got plenty of time.

As to the rest of your budget, get the laser collimator (check the collimation but don't futz with it) and one of these:

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/moon-neutral-density-filters/astro-essentials-variable-polarising-moon-filter.html

It will help dim things down for venus and the moon.  Easy to use.  You can decide if you want the 2" or 1".  You might want to pick up a red dot finder.  You'll find it easier.  I've only really used a red dot finder or telrad/rigel quickfinder

Apart from that, pocket the rest of your budget and get out and observe and see what you think you'll need based on your experience.  Maybe you'll like the wide FOV from the Nirvana and want more of that.  Maybe you'll find you prefer lunar observing and want a better high power.  Or maybe you want wide field views of clusters and nebula but can't stand the Superview and want an UFF.

I just started observing in the summer and recently got the 10" Stellalyra (last week) as an upgrade for the 130PDS so I'm in a similar boat as you, but I'd suggest being methodical in your approach.  Buy your kit based on your experience.  You'll quickly decide what you like/don't like and want to get more kit so imho you are better hanging onto your bucks and buying then.

3 hours ago, Mr H in Yorkshire said:

That's one reason, taken to a another level, that I generally go binocular roaming, 25 x 100 field of view is great, things like the Plieades and the bigger globular clusters are just wonderful.

It's brilliant isn't it?  I love the fact you can look at one object at different magnifications and get completely different experience of it.  Plieades is one of my favourites with the 130pds at x20.  With my constellation binos it turns into a mini big dipper at X2, but once you use them and look again without them your brain seems to hang on to the detail and it always feels you can see a bit more.

Next clear night I might break it out again and have a look at it with the 30mm that came with the dob for x22 but a 3.2° FOV.

They finally got the Nadira back in stock so all going well when I finish my hitch in 2 weeks I'll be observing in some real comfort.

If you can get our early, Jupiter and Venus will look pretty good even if the sky is in twilight.

If you double your socks, make sure it doesn't make your boots too small.  Thick socks are great unless they start to squeeze your feet which can make them get cold quicker.

Sound like a good session.  Planets are past their best for many of us (if you can see them at all).  DSO will benefit from the sky being as dark as possible, but sometimes you get this thin high atmospheric cloud that really kills the view, especially for faint ones.

Have a look at clusters.  Auriga has a fair few that will be high up just now and they look great (m36, m37 and m38)

That is incredible.

1 hour ago, Mr H in Yorkshire said:

You might find this of interest https://www.blocklayer.com/protractor-printeng

and possibly this, if you have the time

https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/63081-degree-circles/page-2

 

Perfect.  I used the block layer to do the azimuth setting circle.  I at least confirmed that it doesn't move, unfortunately the A4 sized circle is too small. 

That's a lot of forum posts on setting circles on cloudy nights!  I missed that one somehow.  I'll have a look through that for inspiration.  I like the look of some of the edge fastened ones.  They'll be a lot easier to print at least.  On the plus side I managed to find Bode's Nebula and a nice cluster near polaris that looked like a miniature Cassiopeia with more stars.   It's quite nice panning about with the Dob.

1 hour ago, mikeDnight said:

Not exactly what the post man brought, but more like what I was "encouraged" to buy by some rather persuasive SGLers.  Effectively they bought for me while I paid! Never the less I'm very pleased.

That's how I've gotten my best gear lol

3 hours ago, apaulo said:

I understand now. The varnished plywood base would look smart. good luck with the project, it would be good to see the finished mount.

Cheers chief.  Hopefully it will look smart.  For some reason the varnished plywood when done right always looks like a sort of high quality 90's aesthetic.

I like sounding out my ideas on here as there is a lot of more experienced people who can spot the obvious problems I miss 😂

1 hour ago, apaulo said:

Having done similar with a homemade dob, and also with the skytee 2 I now use. I am wondering how you are going to see the dial when the telescope is in the way.  a setting circle is a big plus, i personally would not be without it. When i made mine i had a local sign maker print me of a protractor to suit my base, the markings are quite far apart and a point can split them. Also when setting up its important the dob is as level as you can get it. Or close as. The same goes for aligning it with polaris.  I hope this is of help.

That's the plan long term.  This is more of a proof of concept and will involve me tilting the tube a bit.  I'm not going to be able to get a big enough one printed for a couple weeks.  This should hopefully let me test out the principle.  The setting circle would be on the top section of the base.

Longer term I'd like to rebuild the base out of varnished plywood.  This is purely aesthetic.  But I would have a cut out section on the side where the focuser is so I can have the pointer at a convenient position relative to the focuser.  There are a couple designs on cloudy nights which do this setup well I think.

Is anyone using a soft case?  My trofast drawer from IKEA is reaching its limit (and it's a drawer) and I'd like something I can get my eyepieces and sketching stuff in and a soft case like the oklop bag looks ideal.

42 minutes ago, bosun21 said:

I just use a sack barrow to wheel my 12” about easily enough fully assembled.

Depending on where you are storing the scope, a sack barrow (with the flip out toe plate) basically makes it grab and go.  I use one for a 10" dob I keep up the shed and the setup is less time for the dob than the 130pds (5" Newtonian) on a tripod.

I'm going to make no offer on what to buy, everyone has covered pretty much everything.  Do not be put off by a smaller aperture.  You'll get great views on planets and DSO from a 5 or 6" Newtonian.

If you are deciding between goto or manual you can easily find things using setting circles and and digital inclinometer.  Both work well although goto has the added benefit of tracking.

46 minutes ago, Mr H in Yorkshire said:

Good solutions, I like magnets and yes, a vernier is the item you need, but do you really need 1/10ths? In practice a half degree mark would probably do and you could 'eyeball' it for smaller amounts, it's surprising how accurately one can estimate visually - you'll need a light too don't forget.

Hadn't thought of lighting.  I have a spare head torch somewhere.  This is a MK1 design since I could print and laminate this size at home.  I think you are right on the half degree being more suitable.  I think it will land me close enough for most objects.  Thanks for the feed back.

38 minutes ago, Sunshine said:

This basically sums up what Mars looks like at the moment except maybe on a night of exceptional seeing, nice report.

I'm think about getting it printed on a t-shirt.

1 minute ago, Mr H in Yorkshire said:

How are you to read the azimuth angle, an arm with pointer, attached to the stationary base? If I understand correctly, if you do that you'll need to align the ground base to North. To get decimal accuracy you'll need decimal degree initial alignment. Am I just a pain?

Not all a pain!  I'm however prone to overthink things and having someone like yourself around helps to stop me flying off.

The setting circle is fixed to the bottom base via the tension screw.  It doesn't rotate as the dob does.  I'll probably use some magnetic strip to hold a bent bit of metal as a marker.  It'll stick to the dob base and rotate around the setting circle.

I think you are right, I'll need to align the setting circle north, but for fine alignment I can just move the marker, so long as the setting circle is north ish.

For decimal accuracy I will need decimal alignment which might not be possible.  I've also just realised what I was thinking of to get that is a Vernier scale on the marker.

As an interim solution to the azimuth circle I had a light bulb moment:

The knob you tighten to control the azimuth doesn't move when you rotate the tube, and neither does the washer below because of a needle bearing.

Quickly printed up and A4 sized setting circle, laminated it and popped a hole in the middle.  It's a bit small but doesn't move as you rotate the dob.  Should do for some initial testing.

I think for a marker it might be nice to get decimal accuracy on the degrees.  I know that's broadly how slid rulers worked in a way but will need to read up on it.  Will be a couple weeks I think till I can test it out as back to work tomorrow.

5 minutes ago, noodlehat said:

as an aside, lost a good half hour/ 45mins to the display your eyepieces cases thread at the weekend.... turns out this hobby is like catnip to those of us with ocd leaning tendencies! 

Indeed.  I spent hours debating over whether or not to join the pick and pluck proletariat or the shadowfoam society, Eyepiece vertical or horizontal...

If you're anywhere near bortle 4 you'll be laughing with a 12".  Oh what sights you will see!

25 minutes ago, Grant Fribbens said:

I went and here is the evidence!

It was great to see everything up close.

I could not beleive the size of the cq350 tripod!

I came away with a few goodies

and enjoyed the talks and spoke to a few people, will be going again next year but will need to save up!

 

 

Is that the oklop eyepiece bag?

The 28mm is a pretty decent eyepiece which is handy since you won't need something at that focal length yet.  Do you need to wear your glasses whilst observing?

What do you plan on observing?

What I really like about this is that if it was grayscale it would look pretty much bob on for what M42 looks like through the eyepiece on my scope.