Oakbeard

Im not even sure what I was afraid off. The site was close enough to town that some people are bound to wander through. Mostly bored kids as I have seen them around or twice. I actually know a much better place fenced off and everything but it goes from 10 mins drive to 45. I think Ill try to befriend someone who wont mind some beers in exchange for letting me set up. For a laugh, it seems much less isolated seen from above 55.6876798, 12.3660658

My plans were thwarted when Saturday turned out to be cloudy and then Sunday I had no one to tag along since most people need to sleep for Monday 😅

I have a relatively nice darker spot near my big city, so tonight being clear I loaded up the car and off I went. It was really dark there and I must say that I chickened out... Clear nights dont come often round these parts but it is what it was. Surely I cant be alone in some last minute psychological self inflicted drama. So I hope this "report" can maybe offer a little consolation to some and a frustation outlet for me.

It slipped by me being like this for a while now. Not that I can see any markings on the diagonal but still 😕

Hi, I just noticed that on my ar152 one of the screws that holds the diagonal on the focuser is not under the compression ring band, I think this is not normal?

I did miss that one 😁 but is the mount not a neq6? On the newt that is.

I'm sure most of you have watched The Expanse by now, well season 1 ep 9 at 22:08 has a funny blopper. For a series focused on space you figure they would know which way to point a dob

I did not venture too far on my idea. I have a largish reflector to mount and thought of building something myself. Started by deciding that the simplest would be a dob mount but I wanted gears to motorize it and realised I did not know how powered mounts hold the scope in place. I think in my mind I had crossover between dob mount and those motorized forks meade uses in the LX series.

It had never occurred to me how complicated mounts can be. When a mount is holding a telescope in place I guess it holds it there via one of two things: friction or gear lock. I made up the name gear lock, I actually don't know what to call this. If I make 2 gear wheels how would they not simply backtrack to achieve equilibrium? Do motors create constant tension? Im puzzled how to lock them but also have them being able of reverse motion.

Thank you all for the input, I like the laser idea but don't want to deal with rules or laws, so that's off the table. In my local area I found someone selling a stellarvue 50mm finder for a very reasonable amount, now this of course cannot go on the edge of the 130p Heritage (around 500 grams). I admit I want o get my hands on it to use as an even quicker grab and go BUT is there any way to mount this to the dovetail of the heritage? There is quite a bit "after" the base clamp and that seems to be the only solid place such a thing could be attached. I'm not sure what to call this if it is a thing at all. " synta style mounting base " was a very useful new term for me Im guessing this is what would be needed, in a different size ofc: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/adm-vixen-type-v-series/adm-rings-on-v-series-dovetail-adapters.htm

My red dot finder on the 130p seems to have given up on living. Are there any common problems with these? Battery change had no effect. In any case, because I use it with the original dob base it sits very low to the ground, and the finder is a pain to use, are there any finders that don't make you align yourself with the scope? Sort of like there are prisms for not having to look straight from the base of a refractor. Edit: I overlooked these: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/finders/sky-watcher-6x30-right-angled-finderscope.html but I'm not sure I can mount them the same way as a red dot and its a bit overkill for such a small scope, any red dots with this principle?

What a beauty. I have been toying with the idea of getting a 10" myself and there really isn't a lot of info around about these scopes. Thank you for the post. Functionally it means nothing but in your pictures on the part that has the focuser there seems to be some glue seeping out from where the wood discs meet the cylinder? I will take function over aesthetics any day but there is some careful work to do to obtain a new telescope license in my house In any case congratulations, I hope it brings many delightful nights once this absolutely horrendous weather blows over.

Loved to read that enthusiasm, it is quite something to see them by oneself. Happy views

In anticipation of getting some new eyepieces I decided to actually put some time aside and check collimation on my heritage 130p. Truth be told I'm not sure it needs any but I also reckon that this is a difficult task for me. First I have no basis of comparison and second the focuser is of such a design that precision cannot be achieved, at least in my opinion. I only have a cheswire and was confused for the longest time until I figured that the tube must be inserted quite a bit out so as to be possible to see the secondary mirror. After a little thinking I tried "rotating" the focuser and of course the alignment just kept changing, so I believe there is no point in trying to align anything at all at least with a cheswire. In any case my conclusion is that this scope can only be roughly collimated and as soon as you try to bring an eyepiece into focus the collimation will most certainly not be perfect anymore. That being said I did purchase a collimation cap and that will be my next attempt at this. Of course I would love to be told I am deeply wrong on this matter

I thought about that but since everyone seems to lay them down I'm wondering if I would be exposing them to worse "bumps". A case is always useful and monoprice have slimmer ones, shipping was free so I would probably order another one if I find this one not up to the task. Appreciate the thought