Grab and go beats the dob. First light sort of.

[Joseki]

A while ago I thought I'd finished putting together my 10" F6 dob but in the end it was a bit of a disaster as I've found it rather frustrating to use (I still need decent finder rings for the finder which hasn't helped..).  Anyway I just haven't been using it and when I've tried it's not been much fun.  

  So I convinced myself (and more importantly, my wife) that I needed a small refractor - aka the grab and go.  I saw a nice one on the classifieds here so I went for it - a star-sky 90mm achro http://www.opticstar.com/Run/Astronomy/Astro-Telescopes-Ascension.asp?p=0_10_1_6_110.  I didn't actually have a mount for it, or the funds to buy an AZ4 or portamount but I bought the star-sky anyway (shiny shiny).

  In the end I did a semi-diy job, inspired by michael.h.f.wilkinson's mount http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/184699-building-an-alt-az-mount/ I made it a little less heavy duty and screwed & glued it on top of an old wooden tripod & and tripod triangle I had from a Prinz 100 telescope I bought a while back and added a mount plate from 365astronomy.com to attach the dovetail.  Ta-da! The result is what you see in the photo.  It's a bit lightweight, but that means it's very grab and go (as in grab the scope + mount in one hand and carry it around).  

 
And the result is it's been a whole lot of fun so far.  I probably need a small mountain of little things (like a 3mm eyepiece, or baader wonder fluid to clean the cheap & dusty eyepieces I already have) but the mount performs well enough for me as far as I can tell and I'm pretty happy with the views I've had so far.  My red dot finder hasn't been properly aligned but at low magnifications I can hit my target in seconds.  On the dob it seems much more sensitive to the alignment (and I'm a bit lazy) and can be quite frustrating when it's cold.  In the week I've been able to use it, I've viewed Jupiter more times than I have through the dob in total.  Sure the views of Jupiter through the dob are nicer but with the star-sky it's fun and quick (and better eyepieces and possibly moving to 2" diagonal and eyepieces could help that).  Our house is pointing in the wrong direction generally but with the star-sky I've set up on the drive at the front of the house whereas I'd never do that with something bigger - and was rewarded with my first ever view of the phase of Venus (pretty amazing) - when there was only a 30 minute window of opportunity to do so.  

I had a sheet of Baader solar filter film so I made a white light filter for it and it appears to do well at white light observation, I'm looking forward to buying a Baader continiuum filter (though I should probably be saving up for a better mount) but I was happily sketching sun spots at noon today.

I also had a slightly longer observation session with it a few days ago, spending time observing Jupiter, the moon, the Pleiades and Orion's nebula.  I've seen all of them through the dob, though that's also about the limit of my experience - I've got a lot to learn.  Orion's nebula was definitely more wow through the bigger scope but nice anyway.  The Pleiades was probably the highlight as I really appreciated how nice it was this time round.  Tonight I set up both scopes next to each other targeting Jupiter but all I really learnt was I need to fix the dob and align the finderscope, clean my eyepieces and get a decent high power one or barlow (though the dob gave better views as things stood, when I got it in view).

and as a bonus my wife was even suggesting we go off stargazing somewhere now we've got a portable scope - Dalby forest is close by so that'd be obvious or Sutton Bank.  Plus the lower height means it's more child friendly and both of ours have had a go looking at the moon through it.

As for the dob - well I plan on remaking it as a solid plywood polygon tube but I reckon the star-sky will still get a lot more use than it, given how lazy/busy I am.

So was it a mistake to go for the 10" dob? I'm not sure.  Before I got it I had read the very good advice http://www.chuckhawks.com/big_telescope.htm "don't buy a big telescope" and I'm pretty much living out one of his examples:

" A friend purchased, after listening to the advice of supposedly knowledgeable amateur astronomers, a 10" aperture Newtonian, also on a Dobsonian mount. That scope got used about three times before the owner realized that he was spending more time assembling and collimating his scope than observing with it. He soon switched to a 90mm APO refractor and has never looked back. He later told us, "No one told me that the 10" Dob was a pain in the knees, back, neck and patience; it gave brighter, blurrier images than the 90mm APO." "

probably, but I'm not sure I'd be happy with just one scope.    It's probably a good time to go back to reading my copy of TLAO too.

[Joves]

Great post Joseki.

I'm going through the same sort of epiphany at the moment, also. I have had a 10" LX90 for almost a year now. I love it to bits, but setting it up is such a pain in the neck. I find that I really need to be committed to spending a number of hours observing to warrant the effort. That being said, it has had a heap of use, considering, but not without at least an initial amount of daunt at the idea.

Recently I decided to add a Televue-76 APO refractor on a simple alt-AZ Gibraltar mount for quick grab and go, nice wide-field views. I can honestly say that it has been out under the stars literally every clear night we have had since. Sometimes for half an hour, but more often for several hours at a time (even though I only intended to head out for a quick 15-30mins). What I love is that, on the occasions where I've "overstayed my welcome" at the eyepiece by numerous intended hours, it was because I was having such a darn nice time, not because of the dreaded thought of having to pack up what I had just set up. To me, this difference is just priceless!

Don't get me wrong, I adore my LX90 and would definitely not part with it, as it has it's place for particular objects. But, if I'm just wanting a fix, between the cloud breaks, I'll be reaching for the APO every time!!

[cotterless45]

Brilliant and full of the main element...fun !

Very often this year it's been just an hour or so between cloud banks and any grab and go is really worthwhile,

Nick.

[happy-kat]

How can it have a 500 fl with a 400 long tube?

Curious :-)

[Okeydokey]

Sharing the same experience, revisiting the bino route at this point.  I am looking at a 12x50 set with a tripod small and light enough to sit in the corner of the pub garden which I have convinced my better half is alot less light polluted than ours! 

[Moonshane]

How can it have a 500 fl with a 400 long tube?

Curious :-)

the diagonal and drawtube take up some of the focal length. this makes for a shorter overall tube for stiffness and easier transport (plus presumebly cheaper materials bill).

[andrew63]

Great post -  could be very informative to others.  After all, is about being under the skies with your telescope and enjoying the view.

andrew