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Found 40 results
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I am thinking on grinding my own lightweight mirror (first f4 16", later f4 24"). The lightest and cheapest option is to get a thin blank and slump it in a decent kiln. Anyone has longer term experiene with slumped mirrors? Overall doesn't seem to be more work than a normal (not pregenerated) blank. Do I have to grind the backside as in case of normal flat back mirrors to avoid astigmatism? How do people support a convex back while grinding? Does it make sense to grind a hole in the middle for additional support? I am remotely considering a convertible Newtonian/Cassegrain system anyway...
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Hi, Looking for a 12" DOB (or larger) which can be transported to Prestwick, Ayrshire. Any brand, as long as the telescope is optically sound and in good working order. I'm a reliable buyer who has bought and sold on this site before. Thanks, Mark
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Looking to upgrade from my current 4.5" EQ reflector to an 8" Dob. Not particularly concerned with brand and don't mind used condition provided all is in good working order. Bundled accessories are a bonus (EPs and filters especially) though not a must. Based in North Wiltshire and happy to drive to collect within reasonable distance (<1hr30).
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Hope someone with more experience than I, which basically means anyone that has successfully collimated a Newtonian, can answer a couple of compound questions I have based on my first and only attempt at secondary collimation of my SkyWatcher Flextube 250. 1) All three of my secondary collimation screws were extremely snug before I did anything and I was only able to comfortably turn them counter-clockwise. Is this normal? Do I need to loosen all three screws first before I can properly start collimation? Should I be turning any screw beyond "snug"? 2) Before collimating, I placed a yellow sheet inside my OTA opposite my focuser tube and I placed a red sheet between my secondary and primary. The view this gave through my focuser tube was of a red circle surrounded by a partial yellow ring (the secondary mirror stalk blocking a portion of this yellow annulus). While independently turning each of the secondary collimation screws counter-clockwise I looked down the focuser tube (both with and without a sight tube installed) expecting to see some change in the shape of the red area (more or less circular) and/or the yellow area (less or more even thickness). I turned the screws no more that 2 complete revolutions. I did not perceive any appreciable difference in what I saw and I turned each screw back (clockwise) to their original tightness before working with another of the screws. Does it make sense that I didn't perceive any change? Should I have turned the screws more revolutions? Should I have loosened more than one at a time? Very confused and looking for your help. Thanks -
Hello folks, for long I have been browsing the internet to find a suitable 10in dob and despite lack of reviews, I have decided to take the plunge with the Bresser Messier 10in Dobsonian. There was some doubt at first, especially when considering the popularity of similar scopes from Skywatcher, Meade and GSO. Even though Bresser is relatively new to the market, it has some clever features: 1. The massive 2.5in hexagonal rack and pinion focuser is very solid and the movement is smooth. Despite being only single speed, Bresser sells an a dual speed 10:1 extension. However, I find the movement precise enough and do not need the extension at the moment. 2. Optical finder scope feels a bit cheap but it is a nice upgrade over the red dot finder I had on my previous scope. 3. Rocker box style base allows disassembling the scope into two pieces (OTA and base). 4. Tube rings allows the scope to be easily balanced when adding weight + after adding a suitable dovetail plate, the OTA can be used on an equatorial mount (if you plan to upgrade to an eq mount, I would consider the 8in model, as an eq mount for the 10in would be expensive). The only negative comments I can give about the scope is the production process. There were some minor issues with the assembly with the scope as parts did not fit properly. First problem was with one hole drilled deeper (loosening the particular screw fixed the issue). Another problem was with the altitude wheel as it made the OTA to pop out from the rocker box. (A loose screw on one of the plastic pads between the box and altitude wheels was causing this. Make sure all these screws are tightened and below the surface of the pads). Lastly, I assume there must have been a mistake in the quantity of items included (I got twice as many screws for the rockerbox and 2 eyepieces instead of one, both were 25mm super plossl but the standard was a 1.25in advertised on the bresser webpage, while the other was a 2in wide angle) I did not have the opportunity to test the scope outside properly due to clouds. Update: 01.06.2017 Had the chance to try it out on the moon and jupiter to a max magnification of around 160x. The results were very sharp and detailed views. Unfortunately, clouds rolled in before it got dark enough to observe DSO's. I am waiting for clouds to clear and a package with a 42mm wide angle eyepiece and a 2in GSO 2x ED barlow to arrive next week.
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Hello guys,my 8" dob is arriving soon. I have trouble setting my expectations Since i have looked through my 3 " dob its hard picturing what i could see with an 8" one.i live in a light polluted city. Can i look at any dsos directly? How will they look like using adverted vision? What can i expect to see? Also which all around filter should i buy (2") to look at dsos and maybe some planets? Thanks Kronos
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After adding several large two-inch eyepieces and an Explore Scientific illuminated finder scope, my dob was quite top heavy. To remedy this, I added two 18” bar magnets to the bottom portion of the scope. Balance now seems nearly perfect! Got this idea from another post I read a while back on SGL!
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This is probably my options as of now:I will definetly buy a 12mm BST Starguider A 2X BST Barlow( So thats 100x and 200x magnification) AND Either: 15MM BST STARGUIDER VS 25MM STARGUIDER My dobsonian telescope will include:A 25mm and 10mm Eyepiece . So the obvious awnser is to go for the 15mm BUT i ve read in reviews that the bst s have are noticabely better than the eyepieces that come with my telescope.So i am wondering, should i buy the 25mm or the 15mm BST? Also is it worth to barlow either 25mm eyepiece to make 12.5mm and ditch the 12mm i am definetly buying for a 6mm one? i am thinking not because if i barlow the 6 mm it will give me 400x and i think that is too much magnification for the image to appear clear , plus i will also barlow the 10 mm to give me a 240x the acceptable limit for good clarity / magnification ratio (i ve read that and not sure if its true or not). Thanks again for your time and help! This forum has been very polite, welcoming and kind to noobs like me just getting into the hobby XD I hope i can one day look back at myself and laugh at my ignorance! This site has been truly amazing and i hope i can stay a member for a long time to come! Thanks as always Clear skies everyone Kronos -
In preparation for the upcoming "galaxy season", I have been busy re-organising my eyepieces across my eyepiece boxes. I am expecting to be using a mix of traditional and a-focal night vision observing. Therefore, I have put together a "mixed" case of eyepieces. There is a little space remaining just in case I need to swap in a couple more (but I don't tend to go outside will all my eyepieces in one go as they only get cold and unuseable, I prefer to leave a couple inside for a mid-session warm eyepiece swap-in! I have also created a new Sky Safari "brightest galaxies" observing list so I can target these larger/brighter galaxies with the night vision to hopefully tease out some views of unseen spiral arms? (most likely with the 55mm TeleVus Plossl) as focal speed is key to getting the arms. I may need to swap in the TeleVue Panoptic 27mm for more scale (but we will see)... [Here is the Sky Safari Observing List that I will be using Galaxy High Brightness.skylist should you wish to try it too…(you can import it into your Sky Safari - just email it to yourself then when you try to open the file in the email app it should offer you the chance to "open with Sky Safari") ] Having learned last year that night vision is not much help on the smaller galaxies (they just get overpowered by the super bright galaxy cores), I have the TeleVue Ethos 21, 13, 10 ready for some "traditional viewing" (with the option of swapping in the Ethos 8 as needed) on the smaller galaxies. I am eagerly awaiting the heavenly widefield views of endless galaxies as seen in Leo with the Ethos21 and the big dob! Last year turned out to be a "Supernova Marathon" with seemingly weekly supernovas occuring over the UK (and I managed to bag EIGHT of them with the Big Dob). NGC 3941 - SN2018pv UGC 5049 - SN2018pc NGC2746 - SN2018iq NGC3367 - SN2018kp NGC6217 - SN2018gj NGC3158 - SN2018aaz NGC2146 - SN2018zd NGC4151 - SN2018aoq I can't see that happening two years running but I did bag SN AT2018ivc (in M77) on December 1st. Tonight I will be targeting SN2019np in NGC3254 so here's hoping... Either way, I will need a good supply of clear sky, so lets hope our luck is in. Wishing you the best for Galaxy season, Alan
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Hi everyone, I was lucky enough to get a 12" Skywatcher Dobsonian (305mm/1500mm) for Christmas. It shipped with a 10mm Plossl and a 25mm Plossl, both 52° AFOV. Finally had a clear enough night to try it out and I absolutely loved it. I researched a bunch over the last year so I knew this was the scope I wanted should someone want to get me a really sweet gift before I grabbed it myself. What I didn't research at the time was accessories and equipment, something I've been doing relentlessly over the past few days. I'll primarily be viewing in the backyard until I find a great viewing spot (and a good way to safely transport). Light pollution isn't terrible but I haven't fully gauged its impact on seeing fainter objects. I'm not interested in imagery/photography at the moment. Not foreclosing on the idea by any means but everything I'm looking to add is purely for visual gratification at this point. Hoping the experts out there can lead me in the right direction. Here's what I'm trying to figure out: 1. What eyepieces should I pick up? I've read that, generally speaking, you want 2-3 premium pieces in over to cover low, medium, and high magnification. I'm currently looking at the following "sets": 5mm Nagler, 13mm Ethos, 35mm Panoptic or 6mm Ethos, 13mm Ethos, 21mm Ethos. I'm not overly concerned about price. I recognize that there's going to be a premium associated with a brand like TeleVue and with squeezing out that last drop of performance; however, I don't want to throw away money unnecessarily if I'm not going to see a benefit from pulling out the stops. I'm not beholden to TV by any stretch but everyone says they're the gold standard so I figured I'd look there first. I'm not looking to grab everything at once either. Was thinking of starting with the 13mm Ethos since it would fill the mid-range gap between my 10mm and 25mm. 2. Should I grab a Paracorr? I've read many comments that go back and forth on this but the consensus seems to be that, while it's not crucial at f/4.9 like it would be with a faster scope, it's something I should probably have in the arsenal if I'm using wide field eyepieces, which the ones I'm contemplating are. I couldn't detect any coma with the two eyepieces I currently have but I suspect I probably wouldn't given the FOV and my beginner status. I also think that once I see it I'm not going to be able to unsee it. 3. Should I pick up a Barlow? This question assumes I'm not getting a Paracorr. I like the idea of essentially doubling the number of eyepieces I have but I'm not too sure of the ultimate utility/necessity of it. 4. Any other crucial accessories I should have? I'm looking at a Cheshire collimator for when the time comes. Aside from that, is there anything else I should absolutely have? 5. Finally, any suggestions on transporting? It goes without saying but this baby is heavy. I don't have a garage, and I'm hesitant to store it in the shed, so what I've been doing is removing the OTA from the base and transporting them separately to the backyard for setup. It's not bad but I can see it getting old after awhile, especially with numerous viewing sessions in a row. After all, I didn't get this scope so it could collect dust; I want to use it as often as the weather lets me. I do plan on replacing the feet with wheels so I can at least roll it, but I'm trying to figure out a good solution to getting it in and out of the house (down 3 small steps) to the backyard without damaging it or breaking my back. I think that's all I have for now. I appreciate any help you all can provide. I'm just trying to learn as much as I can so I can have a great experience and eventually show my little guy all about the joys of astronomy. Thanks everyone! -
Hi, I have a skywatcher 200p dob and was hoping someone would be able to recommend an eyepiece with a wide field of view that would help finding objects and observing larger objects like the Pleiades. I have had a look at an explore scientific 30mm with 82° FOV, but was unsure if it would be good with my scope. Thanks Katie
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Hi, I have a Sky-Watcher Skyliner 300P FlexTube GOTO which I am enjoying however after a period of no use the base has become very stiff. My fault, as it became wet not realising that the cover I had bought for it was not waterproof. Looking through the threads in here I found one which I followed to try to strip down the base however I have become stuck at the point of trying to remove the motor housing from the base after removing the 4 machine screws. I suspect that it is a combination of corrosion and the base material swelling which is preventing me from removing the motor from the base. When I release the worm gear from the static gear using the release lever the motor turns easily which is what is fuelling my suspicion. Any advice or suggestions would be useful as I've come to a halt in my investigation for the moment. It looks to me like I'm going to need a new base which may be a better bet anyway as the original supplied is heavy and definitely not good in the damp. Dom
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I wouldn't want to miss observing the Sun in a full-size 300mm filter, the detail compared to smaller instruments is such a joy to see. I do have an off-axis mask for my 300mm dob but not all the time. If daytime seeing is too bad for such a large scope, I'll switch to a smaller one, but the extra resolution and ease of spotting micro-detail thanks to the brightness is something I can't do without. A sheet of 500mm wide Baader fillm allowed me to craft this. I had enough left to cut several smaller filters. To protect it I made a storage box from cardboard of obvious origin. The box had to be custom-made to save space in my dwelling, and it also hosts a bahtinov mask for nighttime. At f/5 fine focus is not too hard with the smooth single-speed focuser, but in order to enjoy moments of clarity immediately at high power, I pre-focus with the bahtinov, which sees through turbulence, what a nice invention, and simply wait for calmer air. No need to rush to fine focus and waste precious moments. This mask needs to be copied in some sort of plastic, the cardboard trial proved the number and width of the slits are fine. The rear of the filter shows the four clips mating the four button screw heads outside the tube. And this lateral view shows the sandwiching. A rigid backing plus two layers of lightweight neoprene foam cut from a cheap mat in tiger-stripe deco, its poor taste matching its 7€ price. The bottom sheet used to be a shower booth panel, my neighbor had in its garage. Hey, do you need that? No? Okay, thanks! The Baader film is held between the neoprene sheets by staples and many strips of tape. The neoprene is held to the shower booth sheet by little collars, and its edges are sewn together for a finished look. Oversize 10mm stitches didn't take too long to do, and the foam layers can be separated for replacing the film, something glue would prevent. Holes in the neoprene allow to check that the clips' bolts are always tight. Close-up of a clip. They are made of a material whose name I forgot, I only remember it is made in the UK (thanks, guys!). This is a PVC foam that's much easier to cut, drill and sand than full-density PVC, and it's much lighter (thanks, air bubbles!), which is essential for an item that's at the front of a scope where leverage is maximal. My GSO dob has four of these screw heads, one for each spider vane. They proved very convenient for attaching the filter. The black knob is an add-on to move the scope without having to grab the large tube with both hands. Pretty obvious what we're seeing here. Note the clip is flush with the tube, and pressed hard against the scope's metal rim for a very secure and tight fit. Only four clips but eight attachment points, really. Building this with tight tolerances was more lengthy but more reassuring. It is impossible to disengage a clip by accident because tolerances are too narrow, and the shower booth plastic tough spring action doesn't allow it. But should it happen three clips would hold the filter safely. All three layers of frame material are flexible, so, to remove the filter from the tube you just bend it at a corner while you lift the clip, and the clip disengages. I already rebalanced the dob by pulling the 7-kilo mirror to the rear thanks to shorter and tougher cell springs but I'm working on a sliding counterweight made of pliable steel ribbon. Adhesive felt pads protect the paint. Thanks to the large hole the 300mm filter is not too heavy (and it's used without the finder) but the off-axis mask has only a 115mm hole, so it's heavier and may require this. While I study the combinations of heavy or lightweight eyepieces, finder/no finder, mask, filter, I can change the experimental counterweight by cutting off or adding pieces of steel ribbon. Little mounting nuts and bolts through the many holes, there's always one at the right place. Ever hated to feel the Sun while loving to watch it? If you have no sunshield you did. Heat is a discomfort on the head, and light kills off contrast. So I cut a plastic folder in this weird pattern to allow sliding it between the shower booth plastic and the neoprene mat. When it's stuck there it makes quite a large area of shadow, that's such a relief. But that's also only a prototype that wants to be made again with a better material. Has to be opaque, quite thin, very lightweight, but rigid enough. I'll stumble upon the right material sooner or later.
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Hello stargazers, I've been stalking this forum for a good couple months now in my search for a telescope. My main focus will be the visual observing of planets and DSOs. I like photography might plan that later if possible (i'd like it to be). The skies where i live is somewhat polluted but not so much. I can easily spot most constellations with the naked eye if my drive my car on a hill outside the city. I was thinking about one of the models below. I'd like the get the best bang for the buck and minimize the risk of being disappointed and then wanting a more expensive tube later on. I'd like to learn the sky by heart thus steering clear of a GOTO for now. I'm not going to buy anything right now because I'm putting some hard earned cash in a pair of binos first. My options: (but I'm open to any and all suggestions!) Skywatcher Skymax 150 PRO €569.37 + Skywatcher EQ5 Deluxe €269.02 Objective Lens Diameter: 150mm Telescope Focal Length: 1800mm (f/12) EQ5 because it's a good stable mount that I basically can keep using if I ever upgrade the OTA Skywatcher Skyliner 250PX Dobsonian €463.49 Diameter of Primary Mirror: 254mm Telescope Focal Length: 1200mm (f/4.7) Celestron Omni XLT 127 €647.16 Objective Lens Diameter: 127mm Telescope Focal Length: 1250 mm (f/10) Skywatcher Skymax 127 OTA €274.42 + Skywatcher EQ5 Deluxe €269.02 (Or EQ3-2 for €442.96) Diameter of Primary Mirror: 127mm Telescope Focal Length: 1500mm (f/11.81) I might also get the less stable EQ3-2 for a 100 euros less. But again, the EQ5 is a good investment I believe Skywatcher Explorer 200P EQ5 €504.55 Diameter of Primary Mirror: 200mm Telescope Focal Length: 1000mm (f/5) I got all the prices from FLO. Some questions that I still have: (thanks for staying with me so long) - Would you be able to see some DSOs with anything up from f/10? - Is a dew shield necessary if i live in the Netherlands? - I know its been asked a lot but what eyepieces would you recommend? FLO recommend BSTs. Then again which lengths? I thinks thats all for now:) Thanks so much for checking this post out. Clear skies to you all!
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Hi all, I want to share with you my so far best image of Saturn, taken using: 305/1500 goto dob Skywatcher QHY-5 mono IR-UV block filter Baader barlow 2.25 Registax, stack of 40 images, postprocessing
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I picked up my new (and first ever) dob from Nottingham yesterday. Its a 20" f3.6 Lukehurst dobsonian. It has a 1/10 wave mirror. David Lukehurst gave a quick demo of the scopes features and answered my questions on collimation. Then it was time to dismantle and put all the pieces into my car. I had taken some duvets and pilllows to allow me to get everything packed in and there wasn't much room to spare... Everything was unloaded into my garage just before dark. Today I have been making up some wiring to connect the various "enhancements" that will increase my use of the scope. David had fitted the powered ground board, 10K encoders and Nexus controller plus UTA dew controller unit (he cleverly wired the dew controlled up through one of the hollow trusses which is a neat solution) & secondary heater. He has added a few pass through holes in the corners that made it easier to get the cables out to the mirror box to connect up the fan & UTA dew system. Once that was complete, I got my neighbour to help me carry the mirror box from the garage down to my shed (obsy). Assembly was a breeze as David numbers each side and each of the trusses so you get them on the correct side (easy). I added the shroud then attempted collimation using the Howie Glatter laser & tublug. The secondary was almost spot on and the primary took a half turn before the triangle shaped centre spot appeared in the tublug display. I gave the Nexus a test with a false alignment on the sun and practised some push pull to find the imaginary mercury and mars. All seemed to be working fine. Just had time to fit my astro systems scope coat and see how much spare material there was as the coat is for an f5 longer scope. Anyway, too much cover seems to make the job of putting it on much easier Now, I just need a clear spell to get out and align the finder then we should be away! Alan -
I have a Skywatcher 200p Solid tube dob. I was curious if it is possible to fit the synscan system onto it like their truss tube dobs. Anyone have any insight on this one? It would just be nice to have since I live in the middle of downtown so finding some things isn't always as easy as it should be. Jon
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Thanks to those who contributed to my choice ITS HERE.... Woopeee. Of course it arrived yesterday just in time for the last bit of clearish skies... minus the box with the base in. That arrived today. Purchased from Amazon by OPTICRON TECHNOLOGIES who sell for Orion (US) and distribute from Holland so no nasty import surprises. The BIG box with the scope had been a bit through the mill being transported by FedEx with a few holes punched through the outer box but the inner box and scope were fine..well packaged. Waiting for the base gave me the chance to set the scope up on the table sitting in its foam cradles and check the collimation . It had been through the wars so not surprisingly it needed a quick tweek . Nice big knobs to do the job...I think its OK but star test will tell at first light. My first play at this being an ex SCT man. The second box arrived today... the build and installation of the push to bits was easy IF you followed the videos on the Orion Website. Don't try with just the literature. Its the right choice for me. I can only just carry it assembled from my garage to the deck about 15 meters. Just the right size to break down and fit my Ford Focus. I will do a First Light post but for now I must apologize for the poor weather for the foreseeable future.... new scope you see -
I think I have just purchased a bargain. £550 for a Orion SkyQuest XT12i IntelliScope Dobsonian Telescope The product was used only for advertising purposes in my store, and the price is so low because has been unpacked-,full warranty, full accessories New,never,used- . To good to be true... I hope not I just snapped it up on AMAZON so at least not going to be a ripoff. Was looking for a 10" as thats how much I could afford but with a bit of luck it will arrive. Will be a bit of a change from my previous 8" SCT. Weather forecast over East Markham for the next 3 months Cloudy with rain.....
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We decided to build a shed to house our Dob, which was taking up way too much house space. As to design, @ollypenrice suggested that we build a large 'skateboard' upon which we should sit our shed. The board is made from a sheet of plywood onto which the wheels are mounted. The wheels we chose were the ones used for sliding gates (we have something similar on our roll-off-roof shed. Here is the shed on the rails. The rails themselves were mounted onto concrete, steel reinforced lintels which were concreted into the ground: A slot is cut into the skateboard to allow it to fit around the base of the Dob: It seemed sensible to put down some sort of circular patio, and we discovered that you can buy kits. It was a little awkward cutting the slabs around the tracks, but I am happy with the final result: Before After And finally, the completed project with Dob in situ. We used a green strap - the thing you use to keep your suitcase closed - to stop the Dob from rising up in the shed (without an eyepiece it is a bit rear heavy): We chose materials for the shed that would match those of our existing ROR observatory (from Home Observatory UK - https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/245177-home-observatory-uk/):
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Established wisdom, or opinion parroted as fact?
russ.will posted a blog entry in Musings from The Fen Edge
I threw an opinion into the mix in the beginners forum the other night and decided I should expand on my reasoning here. Even somewhere as benign as SGL, you still have to remember this IS the internet. That means opinions repeated enough by people with large post counts, gain credence as fact among the rest of the forum. It does not hurt to challenge that, if only to get people thinking, as long as you do it in a reasoned way. So..... What got me thinking was the humble 8" Dob. For instance, I've noticed that the most recommended scope for a beginner is an 8" Dob; 10" if there's a sniff of the OP having a bit more to spend. The thing is, a rake of this recommendation appears straight off the bat, without further quizzing of the OP, but for most newbies, I think it is wrong. True, a great many people started there and went on to bigger (some might say better) things, but a lot do not. You don't have to be Poirot to notice it's also the most sold scope on Ebay, along with the EPs it came with; reasons (excuses) of needing the space, etc, being given. The ratio of 8" Dobs for sale on Ebay is greater than on here. A lot of people don't stick with it long enough to achieve the fifty posts required for access to the classifieds. Why? Because if you don't know your way around the skies, you'll find it really hard to find stuff and you'll break your back grovelling around doing so. It is also a scope that will likely be way off the mark in collimation out of the box and be harsh on the rather basic EPs* it came with. When I started, my Explorer 200p only showed half the primary when looking down the focuser. They really can arrive that far out of whack and dealers these days are driven by price, so they are extremely unlikely to have seen more than the outside of the box you've been shipped. Few would actually check the scope and if they did, most people would whine they're too expensive. Service costs. So, if you do find something on your first light with your new scope and then pop in the 10mm MA it came with, it will look rubbish. De-collimate your scope with a half decent EP and have a crack at Jupiter. It's not impressive and that's as easy as it gets. For a n00b, it's confusion time. In other words, it's not the most intuitive scope, it has a built in steep learning curve just to get it to work and requires immediate upgrades just to get near what this, admittedly capable scope in the right hands, can deliver. The 8" Dob is best suited to someone who has at least used binos, or a friend's scope. That way, they'll have advice on hand. So my contention is that, in this push button, battery driven age, the ideal beginners scope is a 127mm AZ GOTO Mak. I can hear the hackles rising, so let me justify this. I'm not interested in the cries of 'It needs to be level, it needs to be pointed North!'. That involves a bubble level and the one star everybody knows. People who get the date format wrong should RTFM! Anyway, if this is tricky, how are they going to get along with a Planisphere? No, the learning curve is minimal and when the crisp little optics and it's long FL, which is easy on cheap EPs hits a target, it's going to be a sharp view. If it doesn't hit the target first time, the erstwhile n00b will slew around a bit and unless they're complete attention deficient, will hit the target. This is my point. Getting the first few targets a newcomer sees to be clear, is the hook that keeps them engaged. Jupiter will look good in a Mak. Saturn at any size when sharp is unforgettable. The moon will look amazing and M42, M57, globs, etc, will be good enough to show people there's a universe out there they hadn't even considered. I know an 8" Dob will do these subjects better, but it's not exactly Wow! territory. There are plenty of atmospheric UK nights and particularly from suburban locations, where a 5" Mak might actually do these subjects better. Now I know that hardly anybody reading this will still have their first scope, but if one of these had been, it would still be a great little grab 'n' go, plus a handy mount for an 80mm ED/Apo for the same purpose, plus white light solar, etc, etc. Nobody who starts in the hobby with an 8" Dob stays there. In the long run, rationally, the humble 5" Mak GOTO is a very handy little weapon on a number of levels and one that has uses further down the line. Russell * One of the scopes I bought at a time when my collimation learning curve had long since flattened off, came with the usual 10 & 25mm MAs. For a laugh, I thought I'd give them a go. You know what? In a 300mm F4.9 Dob, they weren't that bad. The deficiency I recalled, was in fact, mostly mine in terms of collimation - It was far easier to blame the EPs and post yet another 'What EP for a n00b' thread....- 6 comments
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I am about to buy a high quality 250mm F/6 (or longer) dob. I will invite Orion UK to tender, but who else would you go to?
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Skywatcher 250PX Dob modded with Wixey alt/az encoders Well loved in excellent condition, stored in house. Mirrors light dust never cleaned (scared to :-) apart from rocket blower and MC Donald straws ) Secondary has steel washer mod, Base has lazy Susan mod, also levelling feet and wheels. Focuser is standard but will include self centring adaptor. Also included 50mm illuminated RACI finder. Also Baader laser collimator. Obviously due to size, collection only or can meet if local ish. Selling as going solar ... Any questions feel free to ask. ***photos tonight*** Also on UK Astro buy and sell
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After opinions please ... I have a C8 that I use for planetary imaging / visual and a 250 px Dob for DSO visual . I haven't touched the Dob for what seems like forever and keep using the C8 more and more . I have about £300 Christmas / birthday money and keep thinking about selling the Dob to maybe fund something like a Lunt 35 or 60 second hand to throw on the AVX ? Have any of you been through this process and were you happy ? Cheers for reading
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Hey guys A guy in my area is selling a 13.1" Coulter Odyssey, the 2 mirrors. I'd want to get an idea on the optical quality of them. He bought the many many years ago, and they still in the original package, hasn't been used. 1. Would the optics degrade over time if they were wrapped up? 2. What is the general quality of the mirrors. I have heard the optics can vary alot, and they generally not that great for planetary views. 3. He is selling them (and he mentioned the Rocker once) for around $350, is this good for a un-used mirror. I'd like to build a really nice DSO / Planetary Dob, and this gives me hope if the optics are really good. Any advice, tips etc would be greatly appreciated. Tx guys
