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Upgrading a 250PX 10" Dob or a new scope? Advice anyone please ?

Yeoman

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Dude_with_the_tube

Dude_with_the_tube

Posted
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well,i had a no go from wife regards the 16" dob :mad: ...

but at the same time all the family is participating in my observations and it is a proper pain in the back to align the scope each time one of them wants to have a peak at something so I have ordered this upgrade kit from poland.I spoke to the guy over the phone,he has 2 kits on hands (only 1 left now),ordering is simple:you add everything to your basket and do a checkout but dont pay.Wait for they email confirming everything is in stock and once email received,you do a paypal payment for goods(not gift!!!).As i did it in the middle of the day,he said that they will post it the same day and yes,i received email 1 hr later giving me a tracking number.Carrier is GLS (surface) and estimated delivery time:3-5 days.So now its waiting time.Will report back as soon as i get the parcel.Estimated friday 25th or monday 28th, and will let you all know how the installation goes.Will try and upload some pics too.

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Guest

Guest

Posted
Posted

Used their web based form to submit the same question, got a fairly prompt answer this time:

Dear Mike,

We are not offering upgrade kits for the standard Dobsonians

Kind regards,

OVL

Obviously don't want to make money!!!

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Dude_with_the_tube

Dude_with_the_tube

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well,good news my friends.

first of all I cant fault the service of the guys at www.teleskopy.pl they are top,so if anyone else is willing to spend they hard earned cash,rest assured you will get the goods promtly .I was able to track the progress of my package all the way and delivery was prompt 3 days.

Big box turned up at 14:00 with parcelforce (GLS partner in UK). box weights solid 21kg and yes the upgrade did made my scope heavy so now i am unable to lug the thing outside without taking the scope tube off.never the less,transformation progress.In this upgrade kit you are basically getting another complete base with motors,synscan handset and a side bracket for the tube.Base is straight forward assembly process,motors are already installed on the base and on side panel,all you do is screw the base panels together.the tricky part is to swap out the side bracket on the tube.Manual clearly suggests to remove the primary mirror on solid tubes and yes they are right as you need to have 3 feet long hands to be able to reach down to the nuts to be able to unscrew them.Well,i was not that keen on removing the mirror assembly and found a way around it :D the issue is that you need to put on a washer before you put on the nut.All you need for this is:tork wrench,strong magnet (i used one from old speaker) and a 10mm socket.Attach the magnet with insulation tape to tork and check that with the nut inside the 10mm socket the magnet holds the washer too and it is not felling off.(removing the bracket is easy:stick your hand with the tork in and use screwdriver to unscrew,keep the tube tilted downwards as if the nut and washer feels out of the socket they will just roll out).ideally you will need someone to assist in this!!! Now put the new bracket on,insert the screws,get someone to hold them where you insert your hand between the front spider with the tork wrench and nut+washer.All you need is to get it on the screw! once they are on,ask the other person to start turning the screw and they will get on themselves.Simple and job done without having pain of removing the mirror.I didnt drill additional holes for another 2 screws (installation instructions suggested it as an option and screws are provided) as i found the bracket being good enough with 2 normal screws.the rest is straight forward:put the tube assambly on your new base and thats you done.took me about 30-45 mins to do.(15 mins i spent thinking how to get the blumming bracket on lol)

I tested the assembly and all works perfectly.Construction is solid,there is no play in motors,response is immediate.So i am well impressed witht he new look sof the scope.Will upload some pics tommorow during the day.

Total damage of the upgrade: 550 quid. and I have a spare base either to use for myself or for sell.

Now i have question to people with the synscan.My handset came with the version 3.08 where i can see that the latest update is 3.37 or something like that.Is it worth me upgrading the software or not?thanks.

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Moonshane

Moonshane

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I am sure that tracking will be very useful and goto to some extent but I really don't think you'll get good images of DSOs with an alt az mount. give it a go though but I suspect field rotation will ruin any attempts at long exposures. good luck though and it will be interesting to see how it all works. hope it meets your expectations - sounds a good piece of kit. :smiley:

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Stargazer_00

Stargazer_00

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Well done on taking the perceived risk of buying from abroad! Personally I wouldnt order anything that expensive from a country whose language i dont speak.

Makes me sick to my stomach that the UK suppliers cant see the merit in getting hold of these kits in the UK, its simply stupid. Someone should link this thread to OVL and any other skywatcher importer. Money to spend and not the right products to buy.

One question, can it be used manually as well? Does it have that dual encoder system?

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mitchelln

mitchelln

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Well done on taking the perceived risk of buying from abroad! Personally I wouldnt order anything that expensive from a country whose language i dont speak.

Makes me sick to my stomach that the UK suppliers cant see the merit in getting hold of these kits in the UK, its simply stupid. Someone should link this thread to OVL and any other skywatcher importer. Money to spend and not the right products to buy.

One question, can it be used manually as well? Does it have that dual encoder system?

I wonder if Sky-Watcher get a significant number of returns due to the trickiness of the upgrade. It does sound like it was a bit of a faff. The official "remove the primary mirror" method sounds a bit scary and accident prone. Perhaps they do not have the facilities to support woes caused by DIY mount changes in the UK and so have decided not to sell it here.

It is a shame this is an issue. I am in the market for a 12" Flextube and was orignally hoping to buy it without the SynScan GOTO and upgrade later, but found this is not possible. I was also puzzled by this. So "officially" you have to make the painful choice of being stuck with the manual mount and paying a lot less or going for broke on the GOTO base version. Also the dilemma of whether to buy a smaller aperture GOTO or a large aperture manual. Pity Sky-Watcher have gone this route in the UK.

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  • 6 months later...
Dude_with_the_tube

Dude_with_the_tube

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i cant confirm this as I have the upgrade kit and it works like a champ.I did a full strip of the system a few month later to improve the performance but that was just general TLC nothing major.You need to make sure that your scope is levelled spot on as that will affect the accuracy and obviously star align accurately.I use a cross reticule of 12mm to align (bought on ebay) and havent experienced any inaccuracy issues.Practically any target is dead centre of EP.

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Steve_meg

Steve_meg

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Posted

I had a 250p and saw the moon, planets and M13 through it. I since moved to a celestron 6se now the 8.

I find the 8 gives IMO better views that the dob and is much more practical.

Some more experienced people might say learn to star hop. But I have seen so many objects through my Se as there at a tough of a button.

Main thing is what you think will be best suited to you

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