Meade LightBridge 10" - First Light

[Astralstroll]

Well, I guess Im not the only person who has been cusring the Rain Gods recently! Having ordered my new Dob far too many weeks ago, it duly turned up. My first impression when the delivery driver was unloading the two boxes was that there must be something missing. Thankfully, I was comforted by the words Box 1 of 2 and Box 2 of 2 on the delivery. Later that day, despite near deluge conditions outside I set about unpacking and assembling my new scope. As far as scopes go, it is rather a good looking beast.

A couple of days later and the latest addition, a laser collimator from Hotech also arrived. After marevelling at the design of the Hotech laser collimator, for it is truly a wondrous piece of equipment, I set about learning the fabled art of colimation. I had watched numerous video clips, including the one by the designer of the Hotech colimating a Meade Lightbridge, and the legendary "men in black" video clip. After reading the instructions, I installed the laser. The secondary was almost perfect, and only required the smallest of adjustments to hit the doughnut. If only that was the end of the story!! The primary was well off. A lot of adjustment later and all appeared well. I then proceeded to move the scope around on its mount. After checking the collimation again, I was not amused to find that the primary was once again well off!! Adjustment the first time semed hard work, the second time around semed even worse. Something didnt feel right at all. In the midst of the adjustments I managed to totally unscrew one of the adjustment screws and lose the spring somewhere in the lounge! A few cursed mutterings later, well a lot of cursed mutterings later to be honest and the spring was located and reunited with the scope. From that moment on, it took literally seconds to collimate the primary! Not sure if something was amiss from the start, but all seemed well afterwards.

Come the weekend, I had the chance of a darker garden than my own for the Dobs first outing. It was duly dismantled and packed into the car and transported to Somerset and reassembled. A whole sunny and glorious Friday and Saturday followed, with cloudy skies both evenings. Come Sunday, the scope was dismantled and loaded back intot he car without being usd in anger. Back at the ranch it was unloaded and reassembled once again. As the evening headed towards eleven pm and the latest episode of Wallander was but a dim and distant memory I spurned the lure of the German Grand Prix highlights as the sky was looking as clear as I had seen it in a long time. After all the dismantling, transport and rebuilding the collimation was still spot on, much to my surprise. It was time t head outside and see what I had been eagerly waiting for.

Armed with a flask of strong coffee, my iPhone, torch and Turn Left at Orion, I was all set. Using my not yet adjusted red dot finder and compensating for the offset I had discovered after sighting it on Vega, I set about bagging a few Messier objects. The following were found with varying degrees of difficulty:

M13, M92, M57, M56 and M31 (at long last!!!).

By far the most spectaclar was M13.I found M31 was somewhat of a disappointment, but I was viewing it in competition with two street lights in the close vicinity.

In addition to the modest haul of Messiers, I also saw several meteors, the local police helicoptor (thankfully without the bad guy chasing spotlight switched on) and a small frog who had decided to hide under the base of the Dob. After returning the scope indoors, I made a fresh coffee, grabbed the binoculars and had a peep at Jupiter and Venus. Unfortunately, they were too low to be visible using the Dob owing to a rather inconveniently located fence and garage.

The following evening, the sky was nowhere as clear, but despite this I still managed to track down M27 and M71.

Tuesday evening was a night out for curry (special Biryani) and beer (x3), so apart from watching the moon set on the walk home, it was a viewing free night. I have given my self a rule, no manhandling the scope whilst under the influence!

Wednesday evening was very hazy and esentially a wash out. However, I took the opportunity to align the red dot viewer. This proved to be a lot of fun, as the elevation screw appeared to do nothing! After a small bit of dismantling and relocaing a spring that looked very out of place, all was well. Checked the alignment on a few stars that were visible. Then set about trying my newest gadget, the Wixey digital inclinometer. After checking the base was as level as I could get it, I found that the Wixey was within about 0.5 degrees of the Alt reading I got from Starwalk.

All in all, after a bit of teething trouble, I am happy with my new scope. My only niggle is that if I could go back to the day I ordered it, I might have opted for the 12". However, even as I am typing this, I am thinking of what mods I can do to the scope I got. The next is likely to be a setting circle. I like the idea of a digital one, but am not sure there is enough clearance between the bottom of the scope and the dob base. Looks like it might have to be a paper setting circle to begin with. That, and saving up for some more eyepieces and filters. Then I need a case to keep the eyepieces in. And do I need to upgrade to a TelRad. Is there room to squeeze in a finderscope as well? I can see a long list for Santa coming along.

So until the next clear night, I can flick through "Turn Left" and dream of more DSOs to hunt down.

Dave.

[cotterless45]

Lovely scope, very handy for transporting around. You might find the 12 " a beast to handle.

I didn't like adjusting the rdf, so fitted a Terad,so much easier.

I upgraded the primary springs with Bob's Knobs and removed the 2ndry vanes and turned them around the right way and unbent the spiders, come on Meade!

What is good is the azimuth movement. The brake is a waste of time , I use weights to balance. There's plenty of mods on the forum to this most excellent of scopes.

Oh, you can fit a Terad base in between the finder and the finderscope mount, so have them both.

Get an Astro engineering shroud , cheap from Astroboot, ace.

Nick.

[Astralstroll]

Nick,

Yes I can see many a wet night will be spent dreaming up a whole range of mods. Still, Ive dreamt of a decent sized scope since being a frustrated astronomer years ago with a very old pair of binoculars!

Dave.

[cotterless45]

Just found these pics of the worst diy.......also;

Sling the locking knobs, Orion Optics don't use 'em. Neither do I.

Astro engineering Astrozap shroud....often £10 on Astroboot.This stiffens up the truss, you'll find it'll hold collimation when swinging around better.

Some large shower caps.

An ally EP case.

A portable stand to hold the base when moving around.

Welcome to the dark side, there's plenty on the dark sky observing threads to see!

Nick.

[Astralstroll]

Nick,

I like the use of the MFI bedside cabinet. Ive been pondering a "spare" base for use when moving the Dob about. Ive heard a few people say they dont use the locking screws, so I may have to go with the flow and ditch them! Ive seen a nice reasonable priced case, so thats probably next on my list. Mainly becaue its cheaper than anything else I want to buy!

Dave.

[cotterless45]

Yo, on feabay item 170881385367

will get a diced foam case. The foam alone will cost £10-£13. I've got two.

I got the cabinet out of a skip, I wouldn't know what to do with the base otherwise.

The cheapest upgrade is the Astrozap shroud, try Astroboot. It keeps the spiders out and light out. Don't get the Meade one, it's rubbishio.

For transport, I carry (phew) the base with primary to the car boot and put the 2ndry in a large plastic Wilko box on it's side. All ends are covered with XL shower caps (£1.99), pink's cute.

Will try and upload a few pics in the album , it's not playing at the mo.

From the £ shop I got a plastic hook stuck on the top of the tube to swing it about.

Nick.

[cotterless45]

Just uploaded these pics, awaiting car MOT, spending time on SGL!

[Astralstroll]

I have succumbed and ordered an Astro Engineering shroud. Looks a very well thougt out design. I will haev no money left for eyepieces at this rate!!