5 hours with a 'new' Dob

[Owmuchonomy]

Well it's new to me but apparently 3rd hand and acquired a few months ago. Due to other distractions frac related it kind of got forgotten despite occupying a generous area of my office. Anyway, last night after being inside all day urging Philae toward to comet 67P I thought I should try it out. It's been out before but not for any length of time. It's the 300P Flextube (GoTo). It is remarkably easy to collimate and set up but then I've cut my teeth on a GEM and drift alignment. It takes seconds to align.

Also this is the first time I've had chance to try my birthday present; a 24mm 82' ES. I didn't try anything else in it because I didn't feel the urge. The sky was very very steady which was a bonus. So in no particular order I picked out, E and W veil, M27 which showed a larger shape than I can remember through my SCT, M1 big but faint, M38, 37, 36 (think jewellery) and then the Double Cluster. I stayed here for some time as I was totally blown away by the colours. I've never seen colours in the DC before with my old eyes. The best view was of a strikingly red/orange star in between the clusters which Sky Safari tells me is FZ Persei? Compared to the Garnet star, which I also checked out, it was pure Tango. My neighbour joined me so we did a 'big red' tour but we kept coming back to Perseus. So many stars!

Uranus looked sort of pale yellow/blue and then I had a cocoa. I came back and picked M81/82. How disappointing, the view was not nearly so good as my SCT. A quick head scratch then I relaised the EP and the 2ndry were covered in dew. Hairdryer fixed that (that EP is some heat sink) but it started clouding up so I called it a night 5 hours on.

I was pretty chuffed as I haven't had chance to give it my full attention. Thoroughly recommended.

[cotterless45]

Neat, sounds like a good tour,

Nick.

[Tinker1947]

I have a 300P GoTo there's nothing bab to say about it, the good things, it goes through a standard doorway, the GoTo is really accurate from a 2 star align, it holds DSO's in its FOV for 30 minutes or more, no nudging, quick to set-up, collimates easy and sometimes doesn't need any...

[Owmuchonomy]

I have a 300P GoTo there's nothing bab to say about it, the good things, it goes through a standard doorway, the GoTo is really accurate from a 2 star align, it holds DSO's in its FOV for 30 minutes or more, no nudging, quick to set-up, collimates easy and sometimes doesn't need any...

Yes, the GoTo is stunningly accurate for what is basically a rotating kitchen table. I forgot mention I also saw other planetary nebulae in Cygnus and Draco.

[Astro Imp]

Great report Chris, always nice to hear of people happy with their new toys.

[estwing]

Another happy dob owner nice read

[DeepSkyBagger]

I too am a happy 300P flextube Goto owner (see my avatar). Superfast to set up, quick alignment, astonishingly good optics and, perhaps best

of all, the scope is totally transparent, in the sense that it never gets between me and the sky. Other scopes I've had all had quirks that got in the way.

Glad you're as happy with yours as I am with mine.

[SteveB72]

Great report, I too am very pleased with my Skyliner goto a 400P, the colours in star clusters and some of the planetary nebulae are fantastic.

[todd8137]

You gotta love reflectors I do sounds like you had a great night there

Pat

[drshminky]

One day when I live away from a city and Mrs Shminky isn't checking my spend on all things astronomy I too will own something like this

Lovely write up

drshminky