niallk

Unscrew it and apply a little lubrication grease possibly?

I've two; I think they are ingenious - really good for appreciating how what is visible varies over the course of a year.

But I do use Sky Safari routinely, in conjunction with an atlas to plan a session.

7 minutes ago, bomberbaz said:

My take on this is based upon personal experience and akin to what others have said.

My first big dob was a 12" SW flextube goto, I liked using it but it was quite a beast to shift around, didn't hold collimation particularly well and it's tracking was ok to a point. Anyway, I sold it and got myself a 10" Orion Pushto.

I really did enjoy using the pushto as it was quiet, very easy to lug around and kept you in touch with the sky so was a little more interactive however there was a problem, it was 10".

During early lock down I started getting itchy for more aperture again, 14 or 16 inch was what I had in mind. I also wanted something I could settle with and call my forever scope.

I looked at the usual suspects of SW and the flextubes but the weight of a 14" flextube scope was over 40kg and so it was with anything 16", too heavy.  I did consider the the ES range but some reviews made me hesitant.

I looked at different brands overseas retailers, notably Teleskop Express and that is where I came across the Taurus. Did a little reading on here and found someone who owned one. Hearing nothing but good things I took the plunge.

In my eyes it is a thing of pure beauty. It is pushto so quiet and works with a phone app so keeps you very much in touch with the skies, it is very lightweight at just 22kg so very portable and it is given a lovely Oak look finish.  I added the optional bells and whistles because I thought if this is going to be my forever scope, I do not want to find myself wanting once I own it.  I could have got a SW flextube for less than half what I paid for the Taurus 14" but in my eyes it is worth every penny and won't be leaving me until my health tells me to stop. 

In short the quality in this instance was worth paying extra for as it ticked all my boxes and even some I didn't know I had. 

👍 they do look like great scopes, at a good price point too!

I wanted to try a 16" dob for DSOs, and looked around - Skywatcher, Orion, Orion Optics.... I wanted something portable.  ES announced their truss dobs, and I really hoped to go for one.  I was also tempted by the advertisements for the Skywatcher 18", and wanted to read reports...

>€2k is a lot of money... and when I read reports of issues with the ES dobs, I was dismayed.  I would not be happy having committed that money.  Then there were the issues with the SW 18" mirrors, and tbh, I was not impressed at all with the assembly ergonomics.

I was very very tempted to go for a Sumerian Canopus, but then one report (an Alkaid) left me with cold feet.  They are fine scopes, and I'm sure I could have been very happy.  I also was tempted by Lukehurst.

I had clicked on the website and received the Obsession DVD.  I really liked what I saw.  A lot of legacy and well regarded - and lasting decades.  The 15" base cost was on par with Sumerian... shipping was the hit to swallow.  I liked the no-fuss, simple setup.  It was a tried and trusted design, perhaps perceived as old school - and yes there is a tradeoff in mirror thickness, weight, support structure and thermal equalisation.

With Kriege's book  I have the 'Haynes Manual' for the scope - and instructions for any fixes in the future if there were any accidents.

I earned some bonus money  and for my 40th birthday my wife encouraged me to spend it on myself and indulge my interest... and eventually I went for it.

To me, it was an investment- not for resale... for enjoying using it for hopefully decades  and seeing the universe we live in fleetingly with my own eyes.  It's a joy to use: assembles / dissembles without fuss in minutes, all captive components; it moves beautifully, and is portable for my car - though the mirror box is a little heavy.  Collimates quickly, and holds collimation.   It's a very solid design and manually tracks well, damping fast, and can move a fraction of the fov precisely without overshoot frustration at high magnification.  The mirrors came with interferometry data.  Nice touch to come with wheelbarrow handles with big pneumatic tires too.

But don't get me wrong: my Skywatcher 250px was the best value money I've spent on astronomy gear.  It is incredible what a few hundred can get you!

I'd love it if there was a better 2nd hand market in Ireland: I drool at some of the deals on dobs in the US 😉

With my 250px and for quite a while on my 15" dob, I had 3 EPs: Pan24, N13T6 and N7T6 ... and a PM2.5x.

The N13T6 was probably my favourite ep in the 10", and the N7T6 really came into its own in the 15".

I didn't really *need* to upgrade to Ethosessesss, but did.  There's a lot to be said for the lightweight and compact T6 Naglers: I think adding the extra weight at both ends - Ethos (+PCorr2) and counterweight did degrade the damping response on my particular scope a little.

A great 10" 250px dob (in my 30's).  Very versatile, had lots of fun augmenting it with a Telrad, dual speed focuser upgrade from Lacerta, Naglers, a binoviewer, and solar film!  Each little upgrade was something to save and look forward to - and then enjoy.

It showed me so many diverse objects... really incredible: the best money I spent on astronomy.  I gave it away as a present to a kid who lives close by, as I have my 15" dob and the 10" just wasn't getting the use it deserves.  He and his family now gets to enjoy a 10" as their 1st scope 😉

I used to observe from my back garden, but neighbour's lights means that I now travel 20 mins for Bortle 4 (or maybe better): but no light domes to the south, being on the coast.

I drove from Cork to Dunsink Observatory for my first views through a Ha scope - they were hosting a solar party.  It was a stunning blue sky sunny day, and also got a tour of the Grubb 12" Refractor housed in the observing dome. 

My 1st view was through 60mm Lunt - double stacked - with a Televue Binovue 😜  Simply stunning... I went back for 4 more turns.

I knew as I was getting back into my car that this was a very expensive 300 mile round trip... I knew I had to get a double stacked setup!

I got a LS50DS... and view mono - my pockets are not so deep... but it's fantastic- I still love it several years on! 😉

I used to only observe from my back garden.

Now my neighbour has lights - I never observe from my back garden anymore, and I get out observing significantly less overall, though I'm fortunate to have an option within 20mins drive, and a scope I can dismantle to travel with.

Seeing stuff with your very own eyeballs, magnified by 'just' crafted mirrors and glass is what it's all about to me

Yes, sometimes it IS a grey smudge, but you know looking at that Hubble image that you saw it it with your very own eyes 🙂

Can't beat that - amazing to see something of the universe we fleetingly live in!

As for planets - what a privilege to detect details on other worlds no human has ever visited.

👍👍👍

Congrats @John looks like a very nice mirror there!

10" beside a 15":

...me three - I want one!

Thanks for posting 👍

Think I saw a Zeiss EP being sold for $5k being discussed on CN... and it apparently sold fast!

Fair play - nice job.  I'd welcome them on my Obsession, but I'm too much of a wuss to attempt drilling 😂

My dob by night, and my lil' Lunt by day 

On 13/09/2021 at 22:26, mikeDnight said:

I believe its because the moon's are not true point sources, and so being extended objects they play a different game. In my experience telescopes that are supposedly incapable of resolving two stellar point sources are quite capable of resolving an extended object. When any of the Galilean's begin to cross the face of Jupiter and while they are still in the shaded limb area, they each display a definite disc, just as they do on leaving the disc. And as the moon's make 1st or 4th contact they display a definite disc in a 4" scope. 

Yes, this is a really interesting effect - I've seen Io appear as a beautiful 'ball' just as it transited across Jupiter's limb - breathtaking.  Off Jupiter's disc, they appear as having different sizes and colours to me, but only on limb transits do I see them as really sharp discs (15" dob) - too much glare from the moons against the black of space.

Wonderful choice in music for the vid! 😉

Very cool.

Superb - amazing work!!

Hi @seven_legs - do you know if the scope is collimated?

If you have a cheap 25mm plossl (perhaps the scope came with one?), it would be interesting to know if you see the same effect if the scope's optics and focusser are well aligned & collimated.

Looks like a helluva lot of scope at a great price point 👍

Looks like a helluva lot of scope at a great price point 👍

You really did a super job designing and building your scope 👍

I saw it - really interesting: certainly recommend it 👍