IanC11

Looking more like 4th / 5th for us on the East Anglian Coast.

A Rabbit taking up most of the bottom left corner

Hi Jonny, I've just checked the Royal Observatory website and tickets are on sale for this Week so maybe they've reopened.

Jump on a train and visit Greenwich Observatory. Always something going on there.

No luck here after spending over 5yrs trying to even find out who owns the street lights. County Council says District Council, District Council says Parish Council and Parish Council says County Council. Have found ownership for every street light in the village apart from those lighting 2 roads ( and yes I live in one of those ).

Welcome from another Suffolk member.

rechargeable insoles. Not cheap but work wonders

And one other big tip. get yourself 3 pieces of wood, 6"x 6" x 3/4"+ , put these under the base feet and it stops the feet sinking into soft ground.

1st thing would be a shroud, then probably a Telrad or Rigel, both a far easier to use than the supplied 9x50 finder, especially when observing anything near the zenith when you may end up on a step ladder ( depending how tall you are ).  The head of a 2Kg lump hammer and magnet may be useful as well if your planning to use any heavy eyepieces and you can stick it to the mirror end to balance the weight out.

I also fitting a cooling fan to help speed up mirror cooling ( approx £20 at the time ).

Dew prevention and eyepiece choices can wait until your used to your set up and know what your likely to be targeting.

Ian

Shipping weight for 12" GOTO is 33KG, So allowing 3KG minimum packaging the base won't be more than 30Kg

15 hours ago, James1967 said:

Thanks.  The only SW website I could find was showing the one without the goto, motor drive etc, here

http://www.skywatcher.com/product/bk-dob-12-collapsible/

this has the same weights that you mentioned.  This one below says 46kg total for goto.  Around this weight is fine (each weighing about a full suitcase - no issue for me)

https://www.apm-telescopes.de/en/telescopes/dobsonians/skywatcher-dobsonian-skyliner-250p-flextube-synscan-goto-dobsonian

to be honest, these are fine, but I saw somewhere on SGL (can’t find now, sorry) a mention of ~40kg+ just for the base/mount, which would be prohibitive.  I’ve fired off a few emails to suppliers too now, so I’m sure I’ll get to the bottom of it.  Thanks again.

You don’t happen to have one to sell do you - save me waiting for the new stock? 😄

 

I've got the 16" GOTO model and the base for that only weighs 35Kg, I had the 12" GOTO before this and the base was a lot smaller and lighter so there's no way the base will be 46Kg

Skywatchers site says shipping weight is 21kg + 23kg with the tube weighing 21kg so that would make the base around 20Kg ( the smaller of the 2 packages when shipped )

Tele Vue are designed for fast scopes across their entire model range.

On 04/09/2020 at 12:55, DaveS said:

Ooh, sounds interesting. Maybe the Little Green Men are going to land on the White House Lawn 🤣.

Thought one was already inside

Camping portaloo tent, well pegged down

Welcome back from another Suffolk resident 

If the panels are hollow you could try polystyrene beads, the type they use to stuff teddy bears etc. They also used to use it as loft insulation

Some form of boat.....

14 hours ago, wookie1965 said:

I know but its the thought of driving 2.5 hrs in the rain putting tent up in the rain and packing the tent away in the rain I do hope it gets better towards the end of the month I have been looking forward to this since I booked, meeting old friends and making new ones.

Can't get any worse than last year. Check out the posted videos

I should be ok with the caravan then. Still thinking of hiring a hovercraft after last year 🤣

I take it there's still no sign of a pitch plan ???

Any news on pitch allocation yet ?

My 41mm panoptic works perfectly in my 16" dob.

I use a Neodymium magnet with the head of a 2.2lb lump hammer attached on my Flex tube 400. Works a treat on my heavier Eyepieces. Just put a small piece of felt between magnet and body to stop accidental scratches.