PlanetGazer

From someone who uses a GoTo dob, there will be a huge learning curve that will come with frustration. Once you get it sorted, it's amazing. Note that you will need a proper AC power (a good battery, which is not cheap) Most alignment problem are from power. But it's all good when you get a good battery, until the motor gears slip 😢 then it gets messy. Not sure how common of a problem it's, but I got it after one year of use.

Not sure exactly, I store it in my office, heat over here will ruin anything , yes it takes place in my office, but I would love to look at it everyday to remind myself to get it used. Not to mention that indoors reduces the amount of dust. You will figure the perfect spot for it once you buy it. You shouldn't be in a rush anyway. Enjoy whatever equipment you have at the moment, it's only a gate to the amazing heavens above Clear Skies!

Hi JM £20 well spent. It will serve good as a starter telescope, to test your eagerness of the hobby. If you find yourself getting into the hobby, start by buying a 2x barlow and 5 mm EP which will serve you on the long run, the barlow with the 25mm you already have will give you 12.5mm, which would cover the 10mm range. If the 25mm EP you have is the stock Skywatcher, I would keep it and rely on it, the 10mm stock ones are not that good. I use the xCelx celestron 5mm, which give good planetary and lunar views. Not always though, the sky conditions have to be stable. Edit: Consider buying a used 8 inch dob, the sweet spot

Oh that's the first time I see such a model. Which makes me think that such a handle should be there for all models. Mine doesn't have it, but the thread i showed in the earlier picture is on the same level, but from the other side. Your scope look 12 inches or more, right? This is how my base looks, but I have a different handset model:

So how do you correctly tighten clutches in a goto dob system? I assume they are not easily accessible. Initially I thought I would have to use a wrench to tighten this part in the altitude motor box, but wanted to ask here first.

How do you check that? Do you mean leveling the OTA on the mount to the horizon before starting it up?

You're more than welcome to participate in the discussion! If you mean balance point for equatorial mounts, then this does not apply in my case. My scope sit on a dobsonian mount which designed in such a way that it doesn't require balancing, unlike equatorial mounts. Here is a link showing a picture of my scope: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/dobsonians/skywatcher-skyliner-250px-flextube-goto.html

Battery works very well, it was perfect the session before. The battery was fully charged for last session. 12.5 is max I usually get. Regardless, battery issue doesn't explain why OTA slips before turing it on, it should hold it self without switching on the system

Long storey short : the OTA slips dramtecly when vewing an object to 0 altitude. Details: So I bought the Skywatcher GoTo flextube 10 inch a year ago. It was nothing but great, until yesterday when I was just starting the session to level up the scope on the mount for alignment. I Went to get some equipment and when back noticed the scope has declined to a minus reading on the altitude! With no attachments on the OTA. I re-leveled it to the horizon and it held itself, put on the nothing but stock attachments as usual. Switched on the GoTo and started aligning, when alignment is successful, I chose an object and notice the object is far off. I check the battery voltage and it's 12.5 volts, which indicates it's not a battery issue. I turn it off to re-align again, this time when I press the up arrow to align to an object I notice the GoTo gears struggle to move the OTA upwards, but eventually the speed increase to normal and manage to points upwards to the object. I pick a second object which happens to be near the zenith and the GoTo goes out of control straight to zenith and carrying on above 90+ degrees on the altitude bearing. I try to stop the scope with the handset before the base of telescope hits the wood in the base, only to notice the handset is not showing light or responding. I turn the GoTo off. Start to align for the third time, this time aligns but still off target. I ignore and start viewing Jupiter which happens to be 40+ in altitude , after few minutes of viewing, the scope drops slowly to zero altitude with no hand or handset movement! Handset is still showing that the viewed object is still Jupiter! Note: I did notice weird sounds of the gears when trying to increase altitude. Not the common sound. Has anyone faced this issue and fixed it, should I return under guarantee? Is this a gear slippage? Or clutches not engaged? Your help will be much appreciated!

Hello Mr GuGuzai Dobsonians are a great choice, usually size 8 , or 203mm with 1200mm focal lenght is the sweet spot. (https://www.opticaluniversescientificinstrument.com/products/gso-8-deluxe-dobsonian-telescope or https://www.opticaluniversescientificinstrument.com/products/duplicate---skywatcher-skyliner-300px-flextube-dobsonian-synscan-go-to-telescope-1-1-1 it depends on your budget at the end. all should do well for planets. I see planets fine in my 130mm and 250mm mirror telescopes. more detail in the latter. Big mirrors does get affected by weather, change of temperature from warm to cold or vise versa (if telescope is stored inside then you bring it outside for example), it will require allowing the mirror to settle to surrounding temperature in the observing site. some use fans, but around 30 mins of waiting should be fine. as for imaging, manual dobsonians and any manual Altazimuth mounts will make tracking obejcts hard, as you need long exposures to get good imaging. however some experienced astrophotographers manage to get ok images with dobs.

start with pointing an object on the ground during day, large tower chimney, can you see things fine ? be ware of the sun, never go near it

I second that

Currently Looking at the ones you mentioned here, also found these much cheaper ones: https://www.365astronomy.com/32mm-SWA-Super-Wide-Angle-Eyepiece-70-degree-2-inch.html definitely they would not match the quality of the above, but how much is the compromise?

I'm considering both, part of the list of comparision. Noted, thanks for the advice! you are tempting me more towards the 20mm, also thank you for the advice. Thanks. Sorry all for the late replies, I wanted to read all advice with a clear mind. After reading all, I shifted my search to the right eye pieces, but i'm afraid I fell in a new rabbit hole, there are other options that came up, so still undecided, I will update with my final choices before I buy

Planning to add a 2" EP to my collection as I have a SW 250P (10 inch) and want something special for DSOs and would love to capture the range of Andromeda in a gaze, so angle would be important . I'm thinking of the range between 35mm to 50mm. Budget is not a limit, though I would prefer to have an EP reasonably priced if available. I regularly use the 25mm standard plossl that came with the scope, which is doing more than ok. I have a 32mm and 16mm classical plossl, but don't use it much as it's hard to use with eyeglasses. I was thinking of the Explore Scientific 52° 40mm, but then I realized it's only 52 degrees and other reviews say that the brand is planetary focused. I was also looking at the televues, but should I make the crazy jump? I wouldn't mind much cheaper EP that have a little less performance that I wouldn't notice anyway at my current level, or is it worth it now? Thanks in advance! Edit:typo

Have you tried the Tele Vue Plossls by any chance?

a question that I have been wondering about lately, though, only looking for short exposure only, as I use my dob usually for visual. But would love to take a couple of short exposure pictures. Wonder if the Canon EOS 4000D (NIS) is any good for astrophotography? Also, Nikon COOLPIX B500, found it on sale

That's a great price! I did find similar car jump starters, but they are either small cheaply made lithium batteries, which is a safety concern for me; or a lead acid battery that's over priced (equivalent to £ 100 after discount link). So maybe buying a proper safe lithium battery with double the life-span (theoretically), could be the best value.

I do need a power tank as most of my observing sessions are remote. I live in a flat with restricted outdoor space. the power tank is expensive, but the cheapest available power tank that can be shipped to my location. Regarding voltage, the manufacturer states it has a " 4* 12V DC for car powered device under 60W" which I think means 4 outlets that you can connect to a cable with negative car socket adapter. The mains outlets are 2 and are 120V AC (300 Watt Surge)

I tried buying the SW or Celestron power tanks from multiple sites, US and UK. but non would ship internationally. For safety reasons

Spot on, 8 inch is a good choice. And it's even doable with 1 person.

What do you guys think of this power station. I would buy one for my current telescope or any other in the future. Reason I'm thinking of this one, as it's the only site that'll ship internationally. https://www.rockpals.com/collections/portable-power-station/products/250-watt-portable-generator-rechargeable-solar-generator-with-110v-ac-outlet https://www.amazon.com/Rockpals-250-Watt-Generator-Rechargeable-Emergency/dp/B075SSMR6K

My favorite!

lots of good tips and advise in this post, which helped me. Thank you! No problems at all 3 Amps for mains power seems fine so far, 4 Amps could be next on my list, though mobile batteries are my priority now Trust me I have lost more, and kept my patience in many xD but glad that I gained knowledge in a new area (power and electricity) This was also helpful, I've never went back to the battery and decided to try a working car battery first, before buying a dedicated one. Thank you! I'm considering a 17 Ah or larger. Can't find a shop that will ship to me, due to safety regulations. Though I may just end up buying a separate car battery Impressive battery! I've bought a value voltmeter for the long run. I will start to learn how to use it. I have used the default accessories for the initial trials until I got it aligned and then used different accessories but were similar weight and did not find any major problems. regarding set up options, all were correct, I double checked with the amazing Synscan init 2.0 app as well. and yes I was excited! I found that the scope takes the longer angle to rotate sometimes, and the the cables get extended to the limit. to remedy that, I locate the object on the sky map, manually rotate the scope to the direction of the object (with the handset directional buttons) then use the GoTo to locate the object, this will make the scope not turn more than 180 degrees and will contribute to saving power. They have, but I'm much happier now xD Thanks for the help Ron This is good advise. the use of up and right as final steps to align, do contribute to the accuracy of the allignment

Update : I would like to thank everyone for their contribution in this topic. I have finally managed to sort it out. As many have suggested, power was the issue, and I have managed to solve it. Sorry for the late reply, but finding the right time for an observing session + weather + debugging the issue, all contributed for the late reply. I have planned to test 2 methods: 1- Use mains power 2- try car socket battery power. Which meant I had to find some power supply cable and an extinction cord for the cigarette socket to position the scope an appropriate distance away from the car, to keep all sides visible. 1- I found 2 power supplies with 2 Amp 12 V (Mains power), tried them and both didn't align the scope correctly . I managed to find a power supply with 3 Amp 12 V and with multiple tries on different nights I finally managed to get the stars aligned with acceptable accuracy. As long as the target is anywhere in the 25mm EP view, I'm pleased. Boy was I happy when I managed to view Uranus for the first time! Not an easy target 2- So after I managed to align successfully using mains power, I had to insure that my scope works well when using batteries, since I ,mostly, stargaze outside my home. I tried using a working car battery via an interior cigarette socket, using the original cable that came with the scope, connected to an extension cord I bought. I manged to get an alignment that was one nudge away from target ( I might have been able to align more accurately if I tried again), though this was good enough for me to start the session and this time I went for Neptune! very small even in a 5mm EP, which was pushing the limit of my skies at that night. I have also enjoyed the views of a couple of DSOs. My next mission now is finding the ideal battery for my use! I would like to thank this community for helping me solve my problem and for keeping this hobby live and enjoyable!