Skyliner flexitube 12" Dob

[Drummer]

Hi guys considering the above scope because I want to upgrade from my 8" dob. Not sure of the flexitube! Anyone got one? Doesnt stray light enter the tube because of the gap between the mirrors. Would love some feedback if possible. Thanks guys

[dtr42]

yup you need a lightshroud [FLO do them for £69 ]although you can make your own using a yoga mat and velcro tape ] i had a 200 flextube and it was prone to stray light leech into view . the 200 was a great scope and i only sold it so i could get a bigger dob and a frac as well i have looked through the 14" flextube and that was excellent

[UHF]

I can't answer all of your question but i had a 12 flex auto for a short while after owning an 8 for a year.

The additional aperture showed a lot more background stars and a lot more light obviously faint fuzzies. didn't get much time on planets.

Collimation was a concern but it held between being collapsed and setup so long as i made sure all the posts were pulled tight up.

I was constantly worried about dropping an eye piece into the opening and onto the primary when switching eps! don't know about stray light but a shield would stop that and the careless handling of eps.

On another note, its a serious lump even with the flex option.

I had the auto which wasn't very good due to the play in the motors so it kept moving, id imagine that the manual version doesn't have this fault.

I found the ep height pretty much perfect for me, im 6ft. Maybe could be a tad higher but much better than the smaller dobs due to the much longer tube (its 1500 not 1200 like the smaller ones).

I did find that the focusser wasnt fine enough so a dual speed would have been my next choice.

Due to size and price and the Rubbish motor play in the auto i sold it on and going to get a gso 880 10". it comes with a dual speed focussed but its a solid tube.

Hope that answers a bit of your question and gives a bit more insight.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

[crashtestdummy]

i have a 300p flextube auto.i have an astrozap light shroud on mine and tbh this is essential for any flextube in my oppinion.mine is fully flocked too just for good measure.the scope is quite heavy(about 40kg) and with many cars you will struggle to get the base in the boot mainly due to its height.when taking mine out i can get the base in the boot and i put the tube on the backseat upright and secure it with the seatbelt(i keep mine upright to help keep collimation but its never much out even when manhandled about).its a great scope but be in no doubt that its alot bigger and heavier than your 8" but a good upgrade none the less.try and find someone near you with one and check it out.where you based?

to add based on the above-the focuser is rubbish,upgrade if you can.the auto's motors do have alot of slop which can take some getting used to but still always a bit of an annoyance.i hear the skynscan goto is better in this respect

[scarp15]

I upgraded from 8 to 12". Although my 8" (SCT) complements the 12" and is used mostly for visual as a back yard / star parties and planetary scope. I expect that based upon your current 8" dob that you will find the 12" flextube to be familiar and manageable. I think the design is great for transporting out and besides some of the points mentioned already, it might be worth considering fitting bobs knobs for the secondary. The last time I used mine (a while ago now) I collimated prior to collapsing and transporting to a dark site - as I felt it would be too dark once I arrived. The collimation held out very well though.