Beulah

Absofragginlutely!

Sorry to read this. I suggest you give yourself a bit of time so that you can think more clearly. If you have paid a deposit, that is very likely to be non-refundable. If it is a matter of time, please heed the advice of others on this forum and wait.

Naw, it's THIS one he's waiting for (I'd have more than a wan grin on my face if that was my mirror in the pic above ):

Ach, I am off to grout the bathroom, the suspense is too much...

Yep, just wait for bossman to arrive. It's five mins or so until you can ring back, so not long now.

Good on ya Shane. It's like riding a bike, you don' t forget where all those treasures are... I've had a Dob 'sabbatical' since April and I am in love all over again. Only studied 7 targets before the cloud came in but at least I got out there. Was too busy reacquainting myself with old friends... What is the FL of your scope? You tower over it!!

Lovely image Stuart. I was out observing last night - nice to be warm...but not nice for seeing/transparency.

Hmmm, when I was last in Rhodes I was 21 and very inebriated. Shame on me for not taking notice - we did moped to very remote areas of the Island, too!

The sheep takes care of that.

@DRT, that's a great collection you have there; I hope you will be happy with them. Takes a while to get there...

Thank you very much sir. You are a champion.

Great project. A real masterpiece. I am loving everything about it, even the fantastic finish. Look at the gloss on it!! I am interested in those sturdy aluminium poles - can you tell me which suppler you used? Also, where did you get those (plastic?) pole attachments, the ones attached to the mirror box? My 2L 'dobmobile' was written off in an accident on Tuesday (mechanical failure, RIP 306) and the next car is not an estate - I am thinking of converting one of my dobs into full truss.

Arty! A 'constellation' below your feet..

My 12" "Dobmobile" looking thoughtful after sunset...photo taken by my pal when observing with them at a remote site last year. The Skywatcher 300p is more portable than the 400p!

Thanks Raanany for your review. What a beautiful image. I have always wanted to stargaze in the Negev. I have heard from other Israeli members here how great the skies are there. Sounds like the mirror is up to Synta's usual great standards; which is pretty good. Such a shame about the build quality. I was quite keen to own one; now I am not so sure. If it were mine I would consider some serious retrofits, and even then, it might not be worth purchasing at that price point to have to make serious adjustments for optimum alt movement.

How much?!

One thing that comes to me from reading this thread. I want a 20 inch dob!!! Thought I was going to stop at 16 inch... Great thread and great craftsmanship!

Interesting review, thank you, Raanany. I have the smaller brother (400p) which is built like a tank. I was thinking about getting a Stargate if my ship came in, but might have some second thoughts. As a further comment, one or two frontal elliptical dust lanes in M31 can be seen in skies around Limiting Magnitude 5.5 and darker.

You don't have to go over the Mynd - you can avoid it. Assuming you are heading down on the A5 from Shrewsbury, you can hit the A488 and pootle around the lanes via Shelve: https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.5834142,-2.9678148,13.25z Long Mynd and Stipertones uplands is a no-go in icy, snowy weather but the lanes should be relatively OK - they aren't gritted, so it's a case of checking the weather forecast... Going by Bridges/Rattlinghope is a bit of a tedious faff, but nice scenery...

The locals at The Bog are passionate about their skies, too. A number of years back one of them told me that they had successfully fought off plans for street lighting installation! Fabulous area for walking, too. Fantastic part of the county I know well.

Wow, that's a project and a half!

A perfect, elevated position for an obsy. Nice, neat garden you have there. Hope it all goes to plan and under budget.