Piero

I attached a magnetic bar at the bottom of my 8" dob. It works great with heavy eyepieces. Cheap solution too.

The 10" flextube will be more compact for transportation, but will still have a similar weight. If that is a concern, you could consider the 8" flextube. This would be lighter than your 10", slightly smaller, easier with eyepieces, show less coma, still powerful.

Yes, exactly what I was thinking of. The APM version is black, which would be a better match with the current colours of the telescope. Can I ask you how much travel the focuser accepts, please? 1cm?

I have been thinking about the APM 60mm RACI finderscope, actually. I can see that there is a possibly identical TS and Altair version of it too. 80mm is more than what I want, due to the restricted fov and extra weight. The dobson can accommodate 1 kg on the UTA without causing balancing issues. This was something I asked David as I was not sure about 'future changes' (e.g. finder or heavier eyepieces than my current ones).

It does indeed. Your case matches mine: 12" dob vs skywatcher 8" dob. The latter is a good dob and a great bargain but few changes to the mount can make it much better. Yes, wood has a beautiful colour. It matches the UNI19 too.

Thank you, Paul. That was my thought about a 60mm. It's a noticeable jump in aperture vs a 50mm. In my opinion, the TV60 as a finder is not ideal because a) too heavy, b) too slow, and most importantly c) almost impossible alignment to the other scope.The last point could be solved by installing rings. Still the tube has a conic shape that doesn't help at all. Not casually the "is" version has a cilindric tube. I would also want to have a finder with the Tak 100 but this installed on the other arm of the AYO2, to avoid making the focuser side of the Tak too heavy. A finder would help when using 42 Deg AFOV EPs with this scope. Finally, I have too many scopes, and the TV60 hasn't been used at all in the last 2 years. So, I'm thinking about selling a few things... A 10x60 finder with changeable eyepieces could replace the TV60 as wide field grab and go telescope. Having larger scopes now, observing at high power with a wide field telescope is no longer necessary. If I fix a finder bracket to a dovetail, I could attach this finder on the other arm of the AYO2, getting a finder of the Tak-100. Finally, it could also be reused as a finder for the Dobson. This move would resize my equipment and allow me to make a better use out of it.

Good choice! Will do. Piero

Thank you, Paul. actually, the RACI finder is something I've been thinking of for a while but having no experience with it, I preferred to wait and get the telescope first. How do you get on with a 10x60? It could be quite handy under skies with some light pollution. I'd also like the idea to change eyepieces if needed. Plus, there is a chance the TV60 will go.......

I was not aware of the plan/idea of a new Nagler 85. My case is even simpler.. the 30mm, 12.5mm, and zoom I have, cover all my cases, really. As Stu said the 20mm Lunt is excellent, but in my case at least, I could perfectly live without.

Thank you, John. The view was not terrible at low power when cooling down, but it was not great at 150x which was the mag when I started. Regarding coma, well, I do see coma in all my telescopes, including the Tak-100. It is quite contained, I have to say, but is still visible. Of course, the eyepiece showing the most amount of coma is the 20 Lunt, and it is more visible with bright stars as the spread area is larger. Not a big deal for me, as I rarely observe at the edge, particularly with a 100 deg eyepiece.

Last night the new dobson saw its first light! In summary, I really enjoyed using it, it surpassed my expectations, and I will have a learning curve with it due to many new variables to me. My objective was to view certain targets that I am familiar with, rather than jumping into new things. First of all, I checked the collimation of this telescope using the Glatter's tools mentioned above. The secondary was already spot on from last time I checked it. This despite the fact that the telescope was dismantled and mounted back again. The primary mirror only required a very minor tweak. Cooling time. Well, my inexperience really. I took the telescope outside, but I left it vertically. Therefore, there was little chance that the mirror had cooled down properly by the time I started observing (about 11:00 pm). Therefore, when I started, there was variable astigmatism, CA, and coma visible across the field and more towards the edge. After about 45m, the view was stable, astigmatism was completely gone, same for CA, and coma was minor but noticeable from 70% of the fov using the 20mm Lunt HDC (100 deg). Targets: I started off with Jupiter (I know, the telescope was not cooled down properly, but that is when I realised my mistake). There was still quite a lot of detail going on, with features appearing and disappearing all the time. One thing that was striking to me was that the axes due to secondary spider were very minor. My other 8" dobson F6 I have in Italy is a disaster in comparison. In this new dobson, the axes are certainly not in the way. Even when observing bright stars, I didn't find the axes distracting at all (@jetstream I re-checked my secondary mirror. The centre of the secondary mirror is at exactly 7", exactly half UTA internal diameter). I will need more sessions for this target. I completely forgot to buy the AA batteries for the telrad (new tool for me), so I used only the RACI finder (another new tool for me) for finding object. Having some experience with the TV-60 helped, but the TV-60 was used on its own, not on top of a 6ft telescope (another first time tool for me). A few times I was puzzling on the actual pointing of the telescope. Just lack of experience, really, and it will improve with some practice. Currently, a step ladder is still in my purchase list, as I preferred to wait for the telescope first. Unfortunately, this means that targets above about 75-80 deg were not really accessible for my height. So, for the time being, I opted for Delphinus, a small but bright constellation, with a lovely double star (gamma) and a globular cluster C47. I am glad for this choice as it allowed me to have some pre-training on pointing the telescope and star-hopping an easy target with it. This globular cluster is quite small and the bright nocturnal sky at the moment does not help either. Said this, it was still enjoyable to revisit a target spotted a few years ago. From Delphinus, I moved to the old globular cluster M15, which looked outstanding, completely covered with stars. I am not a guy who swaps many eyepieces during a session, but this time was a bit different as the telescope is new and it's also important to see how the eyepieces behave (e.g. all reach focus). Shortly, yes, all my eyepieces reach focus, including the ZZ+VIP. With the latter, there isn't much travel left, but still enough. David added a 0.5" moonlite spacer, so if more backfocus is needed in the future, I can always take that spacer off. At 150x the cluster was majestic, what a sight. I believe I spent a good 45 min only on this target. Other targets were M39, M31, M32 (man, how bright this was!), M110. The Duck Cluster was absolutely beautiful at 150x. I've never seen it so big and detailed. A memorable view, really. Finally, Saturn was visible down South. It was 3am, so quite late for a proper observation. Still, the Cassini division was nicely visible, with a few moons around, a faint one (I didn't check the moon position TBH), 2 distinct belts and a faint one, the shadow of the rings on the planet - all in all it was very good. Tracking the targets at high power was very easy. The axial movements are really smooth but with good stiffness. I like that. Take home messages (for me): 1) I need to get a short ladder so that I can observe close the zenith with 1 step, and sit on the 2 or 3 steps when the telescope is pointing very low, 2) get the batteries for the telrad (!), 3) cool down with inclinated telescope, 4) (totally personal consideration) although I like my 20 Lunt optically, I'm still not that trilled by 100 deg AFOV and instead find the ultra large FOV distracting and tiring. I much prefer up to 80 deg. Question for Moonlite users: I've always forgot to ask this.. do you use all the 3 screws for locking your 2" eyepieces or you took off one and just use 2 screws? Are 3 screws really necessary?

Thank you, Gentlemen! Paul, I use the Glatter's collimation tools, like in the photo below. I have the 650nm version plus tublug. Very happy with them.

It's a bit windy, but the dob is ready for tonight!

Pretty much like mine: 20.3%

Great report, Gerry! I also think that the cannon can go deeper. Any plan for Docter+VIP?

Thanks Gerry! what is the CO of your 24" dobson?

@jetstream here are more accurate measurements. Altitude bearing diameter: 15 in UTA external diameter: 14 in Approx distance between Sec Mirror centre and back of the focuser is 6.5 in. Note that there is .5 inch of moonlight spacer too. Sec mirror MA is 62mm

It is clear here too but I will have to get up early tomorrow... Argh! Hopefully tomorrow evening.

Thanks Philip. What I mean is to attach a finderscope bracket to a standard Vixen dovetail, the ones used for attaching refractors to mounts. Of course one could make an adapter ad hoc, but I wondered whether these can be bought.

Are you aware of adapters for attaching a standard finder to a Vixen dovetail? I must admit that I haven't done a proper research on this, but maybe someone has already done it? thank you

Nice one, Gerry! If it were me, I'd go for a ladder with larger steps and handrails. Is that the terrain where you cut off the trees and then flattened? Will you build an observatory?

The red layer filter anything but red. It's quite good I have to say and better than what I used to with this tablet. Under darker skies than mine, one could simply add another on top (2 layers).

I regularly use a tablet with a red screen on top while star hopping

Sounds good! By the way, if one does not know the size of the 15", looking at the two telescopes together, one might think that the 24" is actually not that big! Having my 12" F6 (which is about as long as your 15" F4.8) in front of me, oh man, I can only imagine how big that 24" is! It will provide you with some cracking views, I am sure! About the encoders, I think they can are very useful for larger apertures than my 12". I would have put them on a 24" due to the long focal length and the amount of targets that can pop up at the eyepiece.

Thank you, Gerry. At the moment the beauty is the living room, kind of asking me when are we going outside? I can see a bit of wiring on your new 24". Apart from the 4 fans, sky commander, and secondary heater (?), what else will require power? Also, have you nailed down the options about the ladder?