VX10 first light,Dust lanes

[jetstream]

I tried out my new Dob tonight-of course it was cloudy all day,but the sat images showed a possible break in the clouds at 10:00pm-12:00am.I drove out to a near darkish site & was pleased to see the Milky Way-not great but visible,lousy transparency tonight & winds gusting to 20mph or so.I checked my collimation,and it was close so on to the sky.I must say that I am surprised and impressed at how much difference the extra aperture made.For the first time I saw some dust lanes in M31-honestly I just stared & stared at this galaxy for a while-so huge & bright,with some lanes going across-I couldn't believe it.My Ethos 17 sure works with this telescope.M110 was very easily visible-not a dim smudge,but a bright haze & M32 was unimpressive in the 10" for some reason, eventhough I saw a brightish small core,I'm thinking that so much more of M31 is visible now it is kind of drowning out M32.I forgot my OIII filter,but I easily saw the Veil neb without it & both parts of it,sure wish I had brought the filter!The whole night was remarkable....One more thing-M82-low in the sky but showed up great.I actually saw some shade differences through it with a little more "dark" towards the center of it.This was at 120x.

I managed to split the Double Double @ 150x,nice clean split-not too bad for my skies tonight.I star tested my collimation efforts & it was the same on either side of focus with the "hole" centered in the disk.This Dob is smooth and stable,with the friction brake changing eyepieces with different weights is a breeze.Set up was fast as was cooldown with the fan.It works extremely well & I'm happy!

Oh & the focuser works great & have no intention of changing it,very smooth & 10:1 reduction is well worth it.

[John]

Excellent Gerry 

Sounds like the scope is "firing on all cylinders". Amazing the difference that aperture and dark skies make to deep sky objects - you start looking at them in a completely different way 

If you could see the Veil without a filter, I can tell you the views with an O-III will be mind blowing 

Looking forward to reading more reports.

[AlexB67]

Nice to hear that report Gerry ( salivates on floor while typing) . Pity they  don't do a nice flex-tube version of this   . It took me while to realise all those different  Orion brands UK, US, the Skyquest cheaper ones, and  these, I assume you are talking about these beauties ?

http://www.orionoptics.co.uk/VX/vx10.html

and some that swear by religiously ( not to mention one poster above my post if I am not mistaken  ) 

[YKSE]

Nice First light Gerry, I'm really happy for your that the VX10 works so well, it really worths the extra penny and waiting time

The extra aperture increase happens to be 6.25X, i.e. 2 magnitudes. You'll have to struggle to do the same upgrade from this one - a 25" is not a small one...

[jetstream]

Nice to hear that report Gerry ( salivates on floor while typing) . Pity they  don't do a nice flex-tube version of this   . It took me while to realise all those different  Orion brands UK, US, the Skyquest cheaper ones, and  these, I assume you are talking about these beauties ?

http://www.orionoptics.co.uk/VX/vx10.html

and some that swear by religiously ( not to mention one poster above my post if I am not mistaken  ) 

Hi Alex,last night was a good first start for me with the Dob.The weather here is so erratic that the opportunity to have a chance to maximize my equipment is limited,so when I see a break in the clouds I go running with the scope!!lol!I just can't wait for clear,dark,transparent,no wind nights......The telescope I bought is made by Orion Optics UK (OOUK) in Newcastle under Lyme,England.This company is very good to deal with-they answered my questions "all the step of the way" (I had quite a few) and my delivery date was extremely reasonable.My scope is the VX10,F4.8,1/8 wave optics & I ordered their Dob base.I must say I love the base too,smooth,tough & portable-a very stable platform to observe from.

I checked out various manufacturers & the flex tube VS solid Dob & I am very happy with my choice.My choice was heavily based on what guys on here told me-Thanks guys.In particular John,who has offered me very good,honest advice.My Dob is not that heavy,but it is a little awkward to carry-(going through doors etc.)BUT the OOUK ring system is not only great,but I can easily carry the Dob by the rings.....a huge plus to me.No problem carrying into my truck & then setting it up outside.I will NOT buy a truss Dob,until I can have one like estwings! This is a personal choice and to each their own.This solid tube sets up so fast it is unreal,no playing around with the truss poles.My collimation has held through 3 moves now,which is also a huge plus.Good luck in your pursuit!

[jetstream]

Nice First light Gerry, I'm really happy for your that the VX10 works so well, it really worths the extra penny and waiting time

The extra aperture increase happens to be 6.25X, i.e. 2 magnitudes. You'll have to struggle to do the same upgrade from this one - a 25" is not a small one...

LOL!Yong!A 25 incher!Ok I want one ....You are right again Yong,to get the same magnitude difference will be pretty challenging,not to mention expensive @ 25" of aperture.What I have to do now is learn how to use the increased aperture,it can take more magnification,thats for sure.I went to 150x on the Ring & could have used a lot more,I never thought of bringing my 6mm Delos.Or my OIII,because my 90mm under those skies would have been challenged.I would have seen it ,but not well.With the 10",the view would have been really good.... Just part of the learning curve I guess.

Cheers

[AndyWB]

Nice report. Hmm. Tempting. You're upgrading my upgrade...

The base was good and stable? It looks a little 'tall and narrow' in some of the photos.

Anything else custom, other than the upgraded focuser and optics? Did you go for the additional brakes? What are you using for dew protection? (If anything!)

Any thoughts on how it would perform with cheaper eyepieces?

[jetstream]

Nice report. Hmm. Tempting. You're upgrading my upgrade...

The base was good and stable? It looks a little 'tall and narrow' in some of the photos.

Anything else custom, other than the upgraded focuser and optics? Did you go for the additional brakes? What are you using for dew protection? (If anything!)

Any thoughts on how it would perform with cheaper eyepieces?

I like the base and I find it stable.This is my first dob however,so I have nothing to compare to.It is stable.I've tried it on my lawn setting up the finderscope,on concrete & last night in a gravel pit-packed "crusher chips" basically.I did go for the friction brake & it works well.Putting the base together & lining up the rings takes a little bit,but that aluminum base is tough & so are the rings.The scope has a cooling fan.I have no dew control & I will deal with that if needed later on(probably for secondary).At f4.8 it will challenge some eyepieces-my 23mm Luminos for example,but I hear ES eyepieces do well in these.Moonshane fixed the tall & narrow part in one of his posts on his 6".I have no reason to do this with the 1200mm tube-but the option is always there.I'm just running to work here so got to go.OOUK is really worth consideration.You know what youre getting & its good.

[Moonshane]

told you so welcome to the dob side!

[paul mc c]

Yep,its good on the dob side.......

[YKSE]

I never thought of bringing my 6mm Delos.Or my OIII,because my 90mm under those skies would have been challenged.I would have seen it ,but not well.With the 10",the view would have been really good.... Just part of the learning curve I guess.

Cheers

 Yes, it's the learning curve. I think it has to do with the size of exit pupil. With my f5 130P, I used to be able to barlow down to 8mm for brighter DSOs, while for f7.5 ES80, 9/10mm EP works, and with f10 C8, I've used mostly 15mm or longer EP, so something like 1.5-2mm exit pupil feels like to be the sweetspot.

Of course the seeing conditions play an important role too, as you mentioned in the other thread, that 10mm Luminos  worked better than 8mm Delos.

BTW, I think I'm going for the cheapo solution for a more complete EP set, i.e. a couple of BST+Maxvision, after reading some more reviews. More EPs with various fl of smaller AFOV should work for me, it would be more fun for e.g. splitting doubles. I'm working on solution for my EP case too, I'd like to have all the necessities in one case.

[AlexB67]

Hi Alex,last night was a good first start for me with the Dob.The weather here is so erratic that the opportunity to have a chance to maximize my equipment is limited,so when I see a break in the clouds I go running with the scope!!lol!I just can't wait for clear,dark,transparent,no wind nights......The telescope I bought is made by Orion Optics UK (OOUK) in Newcastle under Lyme,England.This company is very good to deal with-they answered my questions "all the step of the way" (I had quite a few) and my delivery date was extremely reasonable.My scope is the VX10,F4.8,1/8 wave optics & I ordered their Dob base.I must say I love the base too,smooth,tough & portable-a very stable platform to observe from.

I checked out various manufacturers & the flex tube VS solid Dob & I am very happy with my choice.My choice was heavily based on what guys on here told me-Thanks guys.In particular John,who has offered me very good,honest advice.My Dob is not that heavy,but it is a little awkward to carry-(going through doors etc.)BUT the OOUK ring system is not only great,but I can easily carry the Dob by the rings.....a huge plus to me.No problem carrying into my truck & then setting it up outside.I will NOT buy a truss Dob,until I can have one like estwings! This is a personal choice and to each their own.This solid tube sets up so fast it is unreal,no playing around with the truss poles.My collimation has held through 3 moves now,which is also a huge plus.Good luck in your pursuit!

In an ideal world i'd love to have on of these and the advice you've been given is sound and glad you got one . I now understand a  lot better why they are what they are. I checked for some time and saw one second hand go on ebay time ago, but back in that time I did not know what it was nor did I have the cash. However given my smallish car and limited budget a 10 inch solid tube is not even that practical. In the end I have to make do with a inferior 1/4 PV SW mirror flextube or something like that ,, for now .  Given the circumstances I am sure I'll be happy with that for time to come. The Scopes John and Moonshane swear by are outside my range for the foreseeable future, but an SW 10 inch is better than not having a 10 inch at all I tell myself

All in good time I'll join the club OO club in future, but there are more important things that are priority right now where the dinero goes. Also it doesn't help when you have a missus that has expensive taste ( and I don't blame her ) , but no IKEA or laminate floors in my house, it has to be oak or real wood     

[John]

.... The Scopes John and Moonshane swear by are outside my range for the foreseeable future, but an SW 10 inch is better than not having a 10 inch at all I tell myself 

  

The SW 10" is a very good scope. I've owned one and an OO 10" F/4.8 and the difference was really very little. The SW is actually a better engineered scope in my opinion. The optics on my OO 10" were decent (1/6 wave PV) but nothing really special.

With the 12" I got very lucky with and found a used OTA for a low price with a bit better than 1/8th wave PV optics in it but mechanically it's around as good as the old SW solid tube 12" dob, a bit lighter, but no better.  Shane built my mount as his DIY skills are in a different league from mine.

Keep your eyes on the used market and bargain OO scopes turn up quite often 

I do like them but I would never pay the prices that OO ask for them new I'm afraid. I appreciate though that Gerry did not have this choice being resident in Canada.

[faulksy]

The SW 10" is a very good scope. I've owned one and an OO 10" F/4.8 and the difference was really very little. The SW is actually a better engineered scope in my opinion. The optics on my OO 10" were decent (1/6 wave PV) but nothing really special.

With the 12" I got very lucky with and found a used OTA for a low price with a bit better than 1/8th wave PV optics in it but mechanically it's around as good as the old SW solid tube 12" dob, a bit lighter, but no better.  Shane built my mount as his DIY skills are in a different league from mine.

Keep your eyes on the used market and bargain OO scopes turn up quite often 

I do like them but I would never pay the prices that OO ask for them new I'm afraid. I appreciate though that Gerry did not have this choice being resident in Canada.

that's interesting john that you rate the sw as high as the oo, now that's food for thought.

[John]

that's interesting john that you rate the sw as high as the oo, now that's food for thought.

My 10" F/4.8 OO was good but not an outstanding scope. I've never been that impressed with the build quality of the OO scopes though. Their own make crayford is one of the worst I've ever used, the tubes dent really easily and the overall fit and finish is OK but hardly in the de-luxe league, at least the ones I've used. The trick with OO scopes is to get one with their better quality optics and Hilux coatings on board and thats where they pull ahead of the chinese ones, in my opinion.

I've also had some "run ins" with the customer service at OO but thats another story !

[Stu]

I've also had some "run ins" with the customer service at OO but thats another story !

They do have a 'unique' approach, don't they......

Stu

[faulksy]

My 10" F/4.8 OO was good but not an outstanding scope. I've never been that impressed with the build quality of the OO scopes though. Their own make crayford is one of the worst I've ever used, the tubes dent really easily and the overall fit and finish is OK but hardly in the de-luxe league, at least the ones I've used. The trick with OO scopes is to get one with their better quality optics and Hilux coatings on board and thats where they pull ahead of the chinese ones, in my opinion.

I've also had some "run ins" with the customer service at OO but thats another story !

thanks john for being so honest, and sorry Jetstream for the highjack. I contacted oo a few years ago about there otas and asked a newbie question, and it was how good will the views of Saturn be. there reply was your view of Saturn will be that incredible that with lots of magnification you will be able to see through the rings and if anything was on the other side you will see that as if Saturn isn't there, that's the truth. I no this isn't a witch hunt for oo, and I know a lot of peeps love them, and I apologise to anyone I offend

[jetstream]

My 10" F/4.8 OO was good but not an outstanding scope. I've never been that impressed with the build quality of the OO scopes though. Their own make crayford is one of the worst I've ever used, the tubes dent really easily and the overall fit and finish is OK but hardly in the de-luxe league, at least the ones I've used. The trick with OO scopes is to get one with their better quality optics and Hilux coatings on board and thats where they pull ahead of the chinese ones, in my opinion.

I've also had some "run ins" with the customer service at OO but thats another story !

Hi john,I'm wondering in which particular areas that the OC1 OOUK focuser falls down?I did see that the "drive flats" on the draw tube have wear patterns starting near the edges,so no 100% contact.This has caused me no problem at all.Even with the 23mm Luminos (1.8lb),there were no issues.The focus lock has very little image shift when tightened and the focuser does not let the almost 2 pound weight "slip"down.My focuser is silky smooth,no grumbling or gritty feeling , OH NO,Iv'e just had a thought ....if I like this one so much,just think how much I would like a Feather Touch (with SIPS)!

[jetstream]

thanks john for being so honest, and sorry Jetstream for the highjack. I contacted oo a few years ago about there otas and asked a newbie question, and it was how good will the views of Saturn be. there reply was your view of Saturn will be that incredible that with lots of magnification you will be able to see through the rings and if anything was on the other side you will see that as if Saturn isn't there, that's the truth. I no this isn't a witch hunt for oo, and I know a lot of peeps love them, and I apologise to anyone I offend

No problem Faulksy,I believe that free speach and honest opinion is our right and obligation.It could be OOUK has "revamped" their customer service,they were honestly great with me,so that is my experience.If someone said that to me I might have chipped back something like"great put that in the warranty & I'll bring you the cash right now!"In my transaction there were no negative conversations,just helpful tech talk,pricing,shipping and time frames. They answered my emails immediately and were polite on the telephone.I had the same experience with Jim Fly @ Catseye,collimation equip.,great there too.

[jetstream]

In an ideal world i'd love to have on of these and the advice you've been given is sound and glad you got one . I now understand a  lot better why they are what they are. I checked for some time and saw one second hand go on ebay time ago, but back in that time I did not know what it was nor did I have the cash. However given my smallish car and limited budget a 10 inch solid tube is not even that practical. In the end I have to make do with a inferior 1/4 PV SW mirror flextube or something like that ,, for now .  Given the circumstances I am sure I'll be happy with that for time to come. The Scopes John and Moonshane swear by are outside my range for the foreseeable future, but an SW 10 inch is better than not having a 10 inch at all I tell myself

All in good time I'll join the club OO club in future, but there are more important things that are priority right now where the dinero goes. Also it doesn't help when you have a missus that has expensive taste ( and I don't blame her ) , but no IKEA or laminate floors in my house, it has to be oak or real wood     

Alex given your situation I think you made a good choice.Getting the scope to dark sites is a priority & if that meant me buying a truss Dob I would have.I understand the SW optics compare favourably with more expensive mirrors, and sky,seeing conditions limit the full potential of our optics alot anyway.I think you will like your telescope and congrats on your purchase!

[John]

Hi john,I'm wondering in which particular areas that the OC1 OOUK focuser falls down?I did see that the "drive flats" on the draw tube have wear patterns starting near the edges,so no 100% contact.This has caused me no problem at all.Even with the 23mm Luminos (1.8lb),there were no issues.The focus lock has very little image shift when tightened and the focuser does not let the almost 2 pound weight "slip"down.My focuser is silky smooth,no grumbling or gritty feeling , OH NO,Iv'e just had a thought ....if I like this one so much,just think how much I would like a Feather Touch (with SIPS)!

Heres a thread from a couple of years back on the OC1 focuser. Mixed views I think it's fair to say:

http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/113964-orion-optics-uk-crayford-focuser/

It's quite possible that OO have improved the design now. 

[AlexB67]

Alex given your situation I think you made a good choice.Getting the scope to dark sites is a priority & if that meant me buying a truss Dob I would have.I understand the SW optics compare favourably with more expensive mirrors, and sky,seeing conditions limit the full potential of our optics alot anyway.I think you will like your telescope and congrats on your purchase!

You bet ya I'll enjoy it