First Light of 12" LightBridge from Los Angeles. 1hr Speed session!

[AlexxxAA]

Hi Everyone. So on wednesday i finally got myself the largest telescope that i have ever owned so far. Moved up from an 8" f/4 Newt to the 12" LightBridge. The telescope is intimidating to stand next to once it is assembled. But i am extremely pleased on how easy it is to disassemble and set up outside. Takes no more than 5 minutes! Huge difference compared to taking out a tripod, polar aligning, and sky aligning. It always took me around 30 minutes. And those 30 minutes cut valuable observing time since i have to be in bed kinda early for work.

Unfortunately wednesday did not work out for first light since i realized that the telescope's primary was EXTREMELY uncollimated. I took the telescope back inside and started looking to see how the collimation worked since i had only collimated the secondary mirror on my 8". The primary on that 8" was very well locked in place. Ive never had to mess with it.

When i finally managed to collimate the 12" i called it a night and remained patient to try it out again on Thursday night.

Setting up was easy again. But then i realized that the primary was extremely uncollimated again!!! I dont know what happened??? So this time outside, with my new found knowledge of primary collimation i got it right on the mark with the laser.

Now the moment of truth!!!

• My first target was Saturn... No matter what size scope, Saturn's rings never fail to amaze... I pointed and centered with the ES 24mm 68degree and confirmed that the collimation was spot-on since it was nice and sharp, and no longer had a double next to it ... I braced myself, and slipped in the 5mm Nagler for 300x... I gasped!!! Eventhough the atmospheric aberration only gave about 1/4 of a second of clarity out of 5, it was still epic! Never had i been able to CLEARLY see the Cassini Division!!! And i beleive there where 5 moons visible, all next to each other, so it made the image even more beautiful.
  

• With my new excitement i swung up to the Zenith and found M13 right away. Through the 24mm i could see the bright ghost and what seemed like 100 little sparkling specs. Then i slippled in a 9mm - 68 degree and the ghost now filled about 3/4 of the field of view!!! About 100-200 twinkling little stars with a darker ghost behind it. I knew the view could be better on a moonless night, and darker skies, but i was happy anyways
  

• Nearby was M92. I was glad that i still knew how to starhop and estimate distances through the finder because i centered it right away in the 24mm. This one seemed to have a much brighter core compared to M13, but was a little smaller and didnt have quite as many sparkles around it. Putting in the 9mm gave a very decent view. Still a very bright and prominent core with plenty of specs all around it. Very pleasing view even with the bright Moon and no shroud on my LB.
  

• Next i realized that Lyra was starting to rise well over the neighbor's house. The Ring Nebula was a must! Through the 24mm it was very bright! The halo shape was very easily visible and the dark center very obvious. Switching to the 9mm gave a decent view. The dark center was very obvious, but the central star was not visible . I tried focusing and refocusing many times but with no luck. I figured i'd try again on a moonless night under better conditions.
  

• I looked at my skysafari on my phone and searched for a bright object to check out next. The Blinking Nebula was next! Through the 24mm it was very bright! Almost star-like. With the 5mm i inspected more but found no detail. It was just a bright ghostly ball with no central star. But i appreciated the view anyway. I knew that the moon was affecting in some way and that i could come back again some other time.
  

• To end my first light session, i swung to another Planetary Nebula... The Cat's Eye Nebula. Through the 24mm i could see the decently sized ghost with a bright little star in the center. Then i switched to the 5mm. What a nice little nebula! It handles magnification very well. The Central star was always visible and its oval, almost point, shape was very easy to see. Averted vision and patience gave very obvious hints of its detailed twisting shape. Truly beautiful. This one i will visit very often in the future. Cant wait to try this one again on a dark sky!
  

I cant believe it myself, but i saw all this in only 1 hour!!! I know that i should have appreciated maybe only one or two objects with this amount of time. But i was like a child with his new toy and i wanted to see what it could do. Its too bad that first light had to happen with such a bright moon, but im very happy nonetheless.

The only complaints i have about my new LB are mechanical. The movements are very awkward. The objects never stay where i put them. If i center an object, when i let go of the telescope, the object shifts the side. The side movement of the telescope is quite loose. Ill try to tighten the knob next time. The up-down movement on the other hand is the opposite. Not smooth at all. Small movements are not possible. It seems that only jumps are possible. I guess i just have to keep tweaking the telescope and find the right balance to my liking.

Hope that everyone is enjoying some clear skies! Thanks for reading and comments are very welcome! And please excuse any grammar mistakes

[Carbon]

Excellent first light report Alex! And the skies in LA were not all that steady last night.

Your experience, even without the shroud was way better than what I see using the same scope on any given night from my back yard. What area of LA were you observing from?

Yeah, the altitude bearings can use a little work to really smooth out. I'm currently working on that on my scope.

What you can do meanwhile is to apply wax to the alt bearings. That should create less friction between that and the felt, and smooth things out a bit.

George

[AlexxxAA]

Thanks George! I live in Downey. I'm about 14 miles away from Downtown LA. But still the skies are always a pink mix of smog and light pollution. Maybe one night out of every month we get a nice dark sky where we can actually see some 5th or 6th mag stars.

Thanks for the advise. Makes total sense. Ive never bought wax though. Any suggestions on a certain type/grade, or where to buy some?

[Carbon]

Well, last night Dodger Stadium was lit up and I live less than a mile north from it in the hills. As you can imagine my view to the south is a complete wash.

Most any paste or liquid car wax should be fine. ....but keep it very light as you don't want any wax build up in the felt strip. It could potentially attract dirt or debris which can gouge the bearing surface.

[AlexxxAA]

youre right. ill try to make sure it is a very light amount of wax.

i do remember that the old Meade Starfinder Dob had two small strips of teflon or some other plastic as the connection between the mount and the optical tube. maybe something to consider? i remember that it was pretty smooth movement.

By the way... Does your primary lose collimation very easily? i was just quite concerned that on wednesday night i had left the telescope perfectly collimated before going to bed. But when i disassembled and set up outside last night, the telescope was WAY out of collimation eventhought the white knobs were tightened. any thoughts?

[John]

Congratulations on your first light with the LB 12" !

You picked some great objects for your 1st session with it. Globular clusters are very impressive with larger aperture scopes and start to look like their photos under dark skies. I could not see the central star of M57 with my LB 12 either if it's any consolation.

The mechanical issues you mention are not uncommon with all dobsonian scopes - I think they need to be treated as a "work in progress" when they come out of the box but all the little niggles can be sorted.

Thanks for posting the report - it's nice to know that somebody has seen some stars - June has been a literal wash out here in the UK !

[AlexxxAA]

Thanks John! Im really excited about my new Dob! Cant wait for a moonless night and to see the difference with a light shroud. And even better yet, on my next trip to a dark sky star party in the end of July.

Its a shame that its so gloomy there with you in the UK. There is so much to try to observe right now! We had the same situation here in Los Angeles this month. There was 3 or 4 weeks straight of marine layer creeping up as soon as the sun would set. It was so frustrating! Incredibly clear skies all day, but nothing but pure clouds at night. Now im praying that doesnt repeat itself again lol

[Carbon]

Well, I'm actually modifying the base by adding short teflon strips in place of the felt, and formica type material around both alt bearings. This mod increases the diameter of the bearings a bit so that requires enlarging the bearing cradles both sides of the base.

My original plan were to build a completely new and compact base out of birch but due to time constraints I decided to just modify the existing base.

My primary slightly loses collimation practically every time I move the scope out onto the driveway. I take the base out and level it, then bring out the assemble scope, carefully set it on the base, let it cool, and then check collimation. But that takes less than a minute by laser.

I also installed milk jug washers in place of the large metal washer on the secondary. With Bob's Knobs tweaking the secondary takes just seconds also.

George

[AlexxxAA]

Sounds great George. And like John said, its gonna take time to get used to my dob and make it work to my liking. All your mods are things that i will definitely consider for mine little by little.

And i completely forgot about leveling!!! Ill do it next time and check the difference for that too.

[swamp thing]

Hi Alex

Great first light report.

Funny I had the 16" LB and the altitude bearing was the other way round on that. Slightest touch and you were off. I thought it moved too easily.

I never saw M57 central star in that either. So don't worry it's very tricky.

[estwing]

my meade creaks and jerks like an old weightlifter...side to side is smooth but up n down,the movement is pants and trying to follow say saturn at 200x is very taxing

[AlexxxAA]

Hi Steve and estwing... Yea the movements are very awkward. And the following objects right now at 200-300x is a major chore. But atleast the views are worth it!!! I'm gonna work on my mount and balancing until it feels like its running on butter lol

ill do a few tweaks and I'll let you guys know if anything improves.

[estwing]

i'm gonna end up putting oil on mine soon anything for a bit of smooth movement!!!

[AlexxxAA]

I never saw M57 central star in that either. So don't worry it's very tricky.

For some reason I remember reading years ago that the central star was 14th mag... But I just read on SkySafari that it's actually 15.75!

Meade says that for the 12" the limit is 15.1... So I guess that's out of the question lol

[Bart]

Nice one AlexxxAA,

First night with a new scope is magic, especially if you got through as much as you did. Hope you have many wonderful nights out with it. I'm sure you will, in LA. Not like here in Ireland. But, you know, we're optimists here, especially when it comes to weather related topics!!!!

Bart

Edit: The az motion on my new LB feels 'slower' than my 10" GSO even though they both use the roller bearings. Mind you, there's a lot more weight on the 16" !!! The alt motion on the GSO was an absolute dream, while the LB feels a bit more 'frictiony' , thats a new word, by the way. Hope it works out ok for you.

[AlexxxAA]

Nice one AlexxxAA,

First night with a new scope is magic, especially if you got through as much as you did. Hope you have many wonderful nights out with it. I'm sure you will, in LA. Not like here in Ireland. But, you know, we're optimists here, especially when it comes to weather related topics!!!!

Bart

Edit: The az motion on my new LB feels 'slower' than my 10" GSO even though they both use the roller bearings. Mind you, there's a lot more weight on the 16" !!! The alt motion on the GSO was an absolute dream, while the LB feels a bit more 'frictiony' , thats a new word, by the way. Hope it works out ok for you.

Thanks for the kind words Bart. I'm looking forward to many nights of observing... And probably many more observing posts here and sketches