Nice day for painting a dob base

[mdstuart]

Just put a coat of primer on the wooden darkstar dob base.

Its going to need another coat before putting the black satin coats on!

Mark

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[Sfarndell]

Any pics yet Mark?

[mdstuart]

Yes..

My wife...yes really! Has now added the first coat of black Satin (as recommended by John)...

Starting to look the business!

Mark

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[swamp thing]

Nice

There's only one downside to Matt black paintwork........finding your scope in the dark.

Dont walk into that great big lump, you'll injure yourself.

[faulksy]

Yes..

My wife...yes really! Has now added the first coat of black Satin (as recommended by John)...

Starting to look the business!

Mark

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thats unusual, a pier mounted dob . lloking great mate

[mdstuart]

Base now has two coats of undercoat and three of black satin..

New az bolt and two new handles fitted..

Just a few more mods to the tube and mirror cell and we are ready..

Oh yes and I need a nice 12mm 60 deg fov eyepiece or a great barlow for the 24mm max vision to plug a magnification gap..

Mark

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[swamp thing]

Looking forward to seeing the beast all spruced up

[mdstuart]

Here is the base now looking great.

Mark

[JamesF]

I can't help thinking the subject of this thread sounds like the start of a Ken Dodd line.

"It's a nice day for painting a dob base and inviting the neighbours over for a look at Uranus"

Just me then?

James

[mdstuart]

The dob is now restored to its former glory and ready for spotting those fuzzies..

Mark

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[mdstuart]

Mirror moved up tube 2cm. All eyepieces now reach focus!

Mag nife rack added..seems to help balance as heavy anyway!

Just a mechanism for moving it about to go..

Mark

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[swamp thing]

That is one good looking scope, classic Dob

[mdstuart]

My wife would beg to differ with you..

However it does make my 10 inch feel small now.

Mark

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[mdstuart]

After a few more first light checks we do have an issue with this big dob..

It was there before but I wanted to remount the main mirror to see if that would help but its still there.

Astigmatism....at 160 and 070 degrees. Same regardless of the angle of the scope..

At low power its fine but as you go up it becomes more noticeable.

Now I need to check each of the mirrors!

I plan first to swap the secondary over from my 10 inch. Although the smaller sec will not pick up all the light cone it will confirm whether the issue is with the main or the secondary.

Perhaps I should run a sweepstake on which one people think it will be...

The joys of refurbishment!

Oh well...onwards and upwards as they say..

Mark...

[knobby]

Its not just tight mirror clips is it?

good luck

[mdstuart]

No its certainly not that.

M

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[michaeldurban]

great idea Mark,

First thing I did was paint my dob's base too..

I primed it and got a few cans of Chalkboard paint..

Even had the Skywatcher stickers remade..

Before...............and after...(sorry for the fuzy pics.

and the stickers...I still have 9 left..