Sunshine

It's a wonderful image of one of the skies crown jewel doubles!  you've really captured it as I see it.

The moon in my 8' dob! I forgot how bright it looks in those things! I had a black spot in my eye for a while afterwards.

Nice work!

WOW! I am doubly impressed with your rosette, wonderfully sharp abundance of detail you have captured and those colours are just superb! stunning image.

Great choice on a first scope and welcome to SGL!

16 minutes ago, maw lod qan said:

rest in piece, or pieces

Nifty word play 😆

It has served its time by the looks of it, hard time.

I think I'm done for a good long while, with a 4" refractor and an 8" dob I cant think of a target set that would require another scope.

This makes me totally understand what our better halves go through with our hobby, which can be a burden when we begin collecting telescopes like they were coins.

A new scope and I’m loving starsense!

I have enough to satisfy my needs at this moment, when my needs change I will have to satisfy them again, I think I speak for the entire amateur astronomy community.

7 hours ago, Ratlet said:

I'm going to request the mods block Starsense posts.  I fear my wallet can only be so strong...

Hmmmm.   I think I have a tax rebate due from Norway soon...

Just the sort of thing tax rebates were made for!

These are beautiful images! especially the first one, I love the colour tone you chose and wow, it is detailed and sharp very evenly across the whole disc.

Amazing work.

With bedtime only an hour away (work night) I looked outside and noticed a clear sky and I just couldn’t help myself, I put my new dob out to cool for a half hour hoping it would be sufficient as the temperature difference is very little. Because my time was so limited, I was not intending on trying the starsense module figuring I would leave it for Friday night when I would have time to figure it out and troubleshoot if needed. My intention was merely to satisfy my need to have a peek and see if collimation was ok as I had collimated it with only the provided cheapo cap in my basement. To my surprise the cap did its job as the telescope provided a perfect de focused star in and outside of focus, perfectly round patterns on either side which was great to see!. Arcturus was a beautiful bright point with pretty spikes, yes spikes! I hadn’t seen those in a good while, my TSA-102 can’t do that trick 😂 they were a pleasant sight around Arcturus.  
 

At this point I was excited and ran inside to check on my phone which was dead just ten minutes earlier. 32 percent was enough, I placed it on the starsense appendage and activated the app which asked if I needed to align again, choosing  no as I had already done the daytime alignment, the app then showed the stars above. Tapping the starsense logo started it searching for its position and within seconds it said position found, how could this be? the only star visible to me was Arcturus! This thing is a miracle worker! I was gobsmacked! how did it do that? i guess the camera can see stars not yet visible to my eyes 👀 wow. 
 

Without any knowledge of the app and it’s functions I moved the telescope slightly and was amazed at how sensitive starsense is, the slightest movement was reflected on the screen, there was one tab on the bottom which when tapped it displayed several target options for viewing but I really wanted to see M13 which was nearby. Tapping the search tab I typed in M13 and hit centre, a row of chevrons appeared and as I moved the scope they guided me to the target with an occasional second or two long pause for the software to plate solve its location but within second it put M13 smack in the FOV. M13 revealed many pinpoint delicate stars but the sky was still not dark and I was too caught up in the excitement of this starsense business anyway but M13 was starry 😂.
 

With this one demonstration Starsense stole my heart, from M13 I selected about three other random  deep sky targets which I haven’t observed before and can’t recall what they were and each time was guided in to dead centre FOV positions. This is fantastic tech! I’m giddy over starsense, I was never a fan of noisy goto mounts requiring accurate and lengthy aligning procedures but I also knew I was missing out on many fuzzies which are hard to target using red dot finders. Starsense combined with a dob seems brilliant, to me. An accurate, fun, and intuitive system which can greatly increase my target count while allowing me the pleasure and purity of pushing a dob around without the need for any sort of physical alignments of the telescope is beautiful. Watching the screen with its chevrons responding to the slightest movements seems like the perfect marriage of technology and the wonderful simplicity of a dobsonian telescope. In just barely a half hour session I have seen three or four new DS objects which I cannot remember now as I was so excited with the telescope and Starsense. Looking at the time I realized I should pack up but I was left with a huge sense of satisfaction and a yearning for the weekend, how impressive this starsense is, I can’t wait for the weekend! I feel I may have just cursed myself with a clouded weekend with all this excitement, anyway, I’m blown away.

22 minutes ago, callisto said:

Get a set of Bob's Knobs... they make collimation so much easier 

Funny you mention, I literally just got off the phone with local shop asking about them 👍

59 minutes ago, IB20 said:

That really looks great. Like an upmarket Skywatcher! I definitely recommend one of these focuser upgrades, revolutionised my dob https://www.365astronomy.com/lacerta-dual-speed-1-10-microfocus-upgrade-kit-for-skywatcher-crayford-focusers it certainly looks the same focuser on the Starsense 8. 

That looks great! thanks for the heads up, I’ll look into it.

At least the 10” comes with a proper set of collimation knobs.

Welcome to SGL!

Hello! yesterday I picked up the Celestron Starsense 8” dobsonian, eagerly put it together and did the whole alignment of the starsense module and now it sits pretty and waiting for first light. 
 

It really does look great, doesn’t it? I think so.

Upon opening the box I was pleased to see the care with which it was packed, double boxed and the optical tube was nicely cradled within thick foam, not the hard foam but the softer stuff that absorbs impacts well. Another pleasant observation was the color of the OTA, it is a nice metallic silver kind of deal, looks great (I think so).

Opening the box for the base I also noticed the individual parts which make up the base assembly were also impressively packed, each one laying within precisely cut cardboard so they won’t slide and bang into each other during the rigors of shipping. 
 

If you ever put a piece of IKEA furniture together will have no problem assembling the base, same idea except one can actually understand celestrons instructions, the pieces are all included, and it took me only twenty minutes and one attempt as opposed to several hours and many botched attempts. From this POV Celestron hit it out of the park, the base is super sturdy and it looks good to boot.

Both the base and OTA have a handy, sturdy, and comfy carry handles which is great. Once the OTA was on the base I was able to really take a close look at fit and finish, looking at the focuser I noticed it seems to be pretty well made (it is not a high end unit) but it is sturdy and smooth throughout the entire focus travel, no jumps, bumps or wobbles or that sort of thing, it will do what a focuser is supposed to do. It comes with an extender and 2-1.25 reducer.

Looking down the tube I see nothing to complain about except maybe it could be a bit darker, I mean flocked, I would like if they had used a darker paint/material on the inside, maybe something I could do later.

Moving the scope through its motions was a smooth operation, the friction knob is smooth and even with my phone and heavy 3.5mm PENTAX XO (not an eyepiece I will be using on a 1200mm scope often) lol the scope held the weight without issue and remained smooth when moved. 
 

Installing the starsense appendage was easy, simple slide into place and tighten the screws like one would install a finder, except this thing is massive and reminds me of a bulbous walrus nose, one of those ones that slam their bodies into each other on beaches. Either that or a cows tongue, it’s not an attractive bit of kit, makes the Telrad look like a beauty show contestant.

Setting up the module, aligning the phone and following instructions on the starsense software to get it all aligned was a joy, as easy and intuitive as one could wish for. Thanks Celestron, the software walks you through the process and as long as you are using a compatible phone, it will hand hold you and you’ll be done in minutes. This alignment process can be done during the day using a distant object in the same way one would align a finder.

Next up was a collimation check and the first upset,  checking collimation using the collimation cap showed a slight offset, no problem, I’ll just loosen the locking knobs and adjust the collimation knobs accordingly…NOT!!!! I was met with this joke!!!

A minuscule hex nut and a Phillips screw to adjust the mirror, adjusting them was easy but imaging fumbling with a tiny hex key and a screwdriver which you must line up with a screw head in the dark! Celestron you really cheaper out on this, I would have paid and extra $50, $75, $100!!!!! for proper knobs, you mean to tell me, Celestron, that the 10” has a set of knobs but the 8” didn’t justify such a convenience?? you can bet I will be looking for a way to substitute these ridiculous things double quick.
 

Anyway, that collimation abomination aside, I’m excited about first light, a peek outside at a distant tower crane with my XO eyepieces revealed surprising detail on pulleys, wires and such, detail on a rusty bar a half km away was fantastic, I could see tiny flies hovering over a flower at great distance, pleasing to see, hopefully it will perform as well at night as it did today.

Something tells me that because of those difficult collimation screws requiring two different small tools, maybe a laser would be handy as I could collimate from the back end without having to look into a cap with every adjustment. Do any of you use a laser? what are the ups and downs of lasers? it sounds handy.

27 minutes ago, maw lod qan said:

Daughter #1 called on fathers day to wish me well.

Sorry, but we went on vacation and I forgot to mail you your gift.

It's on the way, I think you are going to like it.

Finished on both sides.

Oh yeah!

Those are awesome!

It wasn’t the postman but I did just furnish a 4hr round trip to pick up my 8” celestron starsense dobsonian ! excited, I’ll be posting images and initial impressions real soon.

Coatings? just a guess but that could be the case, I'm sure someone will have a definite answer.

I can't speak for the Delites but I certainly love my XW's, built like grenades and super comfy eye relief and FOV.

Excited as I just bought the 8" thanks for your helpful post!

Just bought the 8” version, picking it up this weekend, excited!