Fitting a telrad on SW 250px flextube Dob

[AndyWB]

I, for one, would be interested in what you make of a Rigel; I'm tempted by one myself. It seems to me a choice between the 4-degree circle vs the pulse feature.

[AlexB67]

I'll let you know, ordered today so hopefully I'll be able to give it a test run soon this week.  I did not order the cloudbuster stickers to go with it  though,  so who knows when it will see first light :0) . 

You can get the pulse feature on the telrad too as an addon. You sort of nailed it Andy. Is the extra bulk size weight and  solidity worth the extra 2 degrees. Perhaps it is, but for me that was sort of the deciding point  versus everything else. I feel I can manage without that since I already got the finder on there too, so in my own mind decided  the rigel would be fine, but am I stupid or not in that decision, time will tell :0)

[Moonshane]

I have a pulsing switch on my telrad but never use it. I find it bugs me. for me the useability is the same with both, just the robustness issue I mention seems a little stronger the telrad fixings. the rigel is excellent too though and I am sure you'll enjoy and like it.

[David55]

The Rigel is a good choice. I have one fitted between the focus mechanism and the spotter scope on my 200p and hardly ever need to use the spotter scope at all any more. I don't use the pulsing facility, others are right, it is a bit annoying. Although the biggest circle is only 2 degrees, it's easy to estimate 4 degrees on the rare occasions I need to. I didn't buy the bigger battery accessory- the little battery has lasted months now- just remember to switch it off when you aren't using it.

[AlexB67]

The Rigel is a good choice. I have one fitted between the focus mechanism and the spotter scope on my 200p and hardly ever need to use the spotter scope at all any more. I don't use the pulsing facility, others are right, it is a bit annoying. Although the biggest circle is only 2 degrees, it's easy to estimate 4 degrees on the rare occasions I need to. I didn't buy the bigger battery accessory- the little battery has lasted months now- just remember to switch it off when you aren't using it.

Thanks David, I'll be trying it tonight hopefully if skies hold up.  Interesting comments about the pulse, The reason I say why I think I would like it. If you are on the border line of not seeing something or seeing it  I feel it may be useful when under light polluted skies, or of it falls on one of the rings.    I have noticed for example with the  the RDF when I switch it off, immediately something may pop into view ( only just ) when with it on it will just appear that much harder to see.  My RDF does have a brightness control but the pulse would be another option I may like .. or not as the case may be.   

I only went for the little battery since they are so cheap to buy, so hardly worth it to add the battery pack. I investigated this and you can get such a battery pack as a non astro item dirt cheap, attach it to the rigel if I decided I wanted one.  Even the 8 quid one sold as an astro item it is not exactly a break the bank addon.

Edited October 23, 2013 by AlexB67

[AlexB67]

This rigel rocks, oh yes baby. Now if only the clouds would go away and my neighbour stops having a shower and switches the bathroom light off I'd be a lot happier   Now targets are there in seconds to half a minute, back to the good old times, that in combination with the finder this really works.

I'll write something about it in a later post  and the smaller negatives that are sometimes referred to, I say smaller, because IMHO because they are rather ..  small things IMO.  Some of it has to do with the small buttons at the front for example when finetuning it, but once done that is unimportant, and I presume it will not need readjusting  often once aligned.  Also the distance you have to play with in terms of how far you eyes can be away from it, but it works so accurately and the brightness control is great on it compared to my RDF. You can have the faintest of red rings if you want. This will do the job just fine for a long time to come. Easier targets the finder scope is not needed at all, but I'll keep it for sure, because that will not be always the case.

Edited October 23, 2013 by AlexB67

[AndyWB]

Thanks, I think I'll order one later. It's good that they sound like they go really dim...

[AlexB67]

I had a good session with it last night Andy. FWIW, I do like the pulse feature for the reason I thought I would. I wanted to centre on a star and it was very faint.  The pulse did exactly that to allow me to see it. In fact you can adjust the timing of the pulse so it goes on/off slowly. When it pulses slowly enough the see through window  goes dark enough so you can just see the star pop into view briefly.

Also surprisingly slow to dew up compared to my RDF on the heritage, and for sure compared to my finder on the  big scope, though I'll make a small dew mod for them anyway.  To give you an idea how easy and accurate these things are, Jupiter at 300x last night I was able to center on it in one go no bother at all.  Yes the skies were that good last night    amazing views. 5 new targets bagged in a short time with it and when I visited M35 and its little companion NGC2158 nearby I instantly thought, I can only respect the sketchers out there, get 2 boxes of  2H pencils, because there are more dots to draw before you run out of them

Edited October 29, 2013 by AlexB67

[Raph-in-the-sky]

On 21/10/2013 at 00:27, AlexB67 said:

I agree Ed, this is the conclusion I've come to. In the end weighing up the pros and cons I think the rigel is for me. The advice was great. I'd almost committed to a telrad, but just as I ended up buying 10 inch Flex Dob instead of a 12 inch solid tube that I almost could have ended up buying, the last minute decisions force you to think that little bit harder to ensure that I know whether it the right thing for me. I feared the rims would be an issue, and hence I started asking the questions on the forum. 

The pics James provided nailed that home how careful you have to be picking something like that, obviously it is doable, but all the same.  Hopefully it will be good advice for anyone else fixing a telrad to the 10 inch flextube DOb, because interestingly I could not find a thread asking about this particular issue, which is rare on SGL that something hasn't already been posted about a particular topic, or for that matter elsewhere on the net.

You can never be careful enough, buying and decision making is an enjoyable part of the hobby, going through the process before eventually deciding with great help from SGL. 

To turn it all on its head for the price and size I was briefly enamoured by the Baader Skysurfer III dot finder, John seems to rate it highly too, and seeing I seem to get on with a dot finder on my small scope so well, but anyway, the Rigel it is and will be ordered tomorrow.

James has given me another great idea. I swear my nearly empty plastic buckets of spare paint may well fit that size as spare dust covers, I would almost have thrown them away as I was clearing my room today, they may well just fit

You re right. Even 6 years later this tread is still helpfull!