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NEW Skywatcher FlexTube truss Dobsonians

FLO

By FLO
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daz

daz

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We had the opportunity to look through this at Kelling. No doubt a full review will be forthcoming....

It was pretty well collimated out of the box

It held collimation despite being moved several times, extended, lowered, extended, lowered, etc. and swung all over the sky

Smooth bearing action on both axis

Can be moved by one person (there is a photo to prove it somewhere...)

Smooth Crayford focuser

Good quality optics

The views we had were damned good even though a tweak to the collimation was probably needed.

If you are in the market for a new dobo, this is it!!!

Come on SW - lets have that 16" !!!

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FLO

FLO

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No doubt a full review will be forthcoming....

I spent most of yesterday/today unpacking and catching up with inquiries. I will at least post some pix later tonight. After saying that, it seems already to have received the forums seal of approval so anything I add would be superfluous :D

Here's a compilation from yesterdays posts:

As we sat round chatting, I slowly became aware of a small white R2D2 crouched in the corner that wasn't saying anything. I decided to introduce myself and discovered that R2D2 was in fact a Dobsonian, but not just any Dobsonian - the only example in the country of the ridiculously named FlexTube dob - but more about this little fellow later. Steve and James had brought him along and to keep him company, had also brought four other scopes and mounts plus lots of other goodies for us to try out. Sadly, as we listened to the rain pelt down and the wind blow, there didn't seem much hope.... We dragged out R2D2, slid the top bit up, tightened the bolts and shoved a lazer collimator into his focusser to see how he liked it. What a star, despite only having been assembled by ham-fisted amateurs in a field the day before and certainly not collimated, the lazer was almost spot on the centre of his 12 inch mirror. The so-called flex tubes were tugged at, the mount spun round and swung back and forth but the spot didn't move - very impressive. As we carried him back into the tent, one of our members - an imager no less, was looking at him very lustfully....

We got so used to the wind and rain, that when it stopped, we didn't notice until someone shouted to us that there was a clear(ish) sky. I have never seen a tent empty so quick. All our scopes had been put away, the only one available was R2D2. Two of us carried him out - an easy one handed lift even for an old bloke with a bad back like me. In 30 seconds we had the tubes extended and the GOTO (Graham) was searching for the first Messier of the night.

What followed was the most magical, productive hour or two of observing I've ever experienced. Graham clearly had a depraved childhood, since his ability to find Messiers in no time flat was uncanny. Mind you Daz and (the still lustful) SteveL distinguished themselves too. We must have managed 15 or more galaxies and globs in the time. Considering this had to be done by skipping round to take advantage of gaps in clouds and there were about a dozen people queueing up to look, it was an immpressive feat. I have poor night vision yet I could see every object - in some cases not the first try because of the variable seeing or the scope moving a bit in the high winds. Thanks from me to Graham and Daz for helping me with them.

I think it was M13 that SteveL looked at and said "my God, it looks just like the image" - that really cracked me up, but there were ooohs and aaahs from everyone. I loved the galaxies - many were ones that are too low down for my home site, so they were absolute firsts. We had mainly used a 24mm eyepiece (don't know any more details) but tried 10mm Pentax XW on some of the smaller objects and we also had a go with the 5mm Pentax XW on Saturn. Not a night for steady viewing given the wind, but Saturn looked its normal beautiful self.

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we did manage to get a couple of hours on Saturday night with the new Skywatcher Flex-Tube 12" truss dob FLO had with them. Racked up the Messiers with the help of Graham's (coatesg) rather classy celestial navigation skills

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The views through the 12" Skywatcher dob were just stunning, M13 specifically. Of course, our humanoid GOTO (coatseg :shocked:) was working well, whizzing from target to target between the clouds.

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As above a great weekend topped off with a couple of hours looking through the new Skyliner Dob Cool (Now i predict it will sell loads)

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So the flex-tube doesn't live up to its name, I hope!

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Nooooway !!!! James and I put a Baader laser in the focusser and tried to deflect it by twisting the trusses. We didnt manage it :shock: !!! First impressions were that it holds collimation really well.

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That and it was also pretty much collimated out of the box :lol:

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I was amazed that simply "extending" the dob, it just worked! - that's pretty impressive on it's own, let alone the other testing it went through. The views were very good in skies that were steady (amazingly - given the wind), if not really dark - I'm sure this scope should sell well and kudos to Steve@FLO for bringing it along to be "field tested" :lol:

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Yep, another great fun weekend and the views through that dob were very, very nice!!

Can be moved by one person (there is a photo to prove it somewhere...)

It'd have to be a BIG person (I'm the little guy to the left of the pic :()

Come on SW - lets have that 16" !!!

Seconded!

Hear! Hear! :thumbright:

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James

James

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So the flex-tube doesn't live up to its name, I hope!

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Nooooway !!!! James and I put a Baader laser in the focusser and tried to deflect it by twisting the trusses. We didnt manage it shocked !!! First impressions were that it holds collimation really well.

I should point out that we did this whilst Steve wasn't looking and we both put some real muscle into it. The three trusses hold the secondary assembly pretty rigidly.

James

PS Put me down for a 16" too! :(

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FLO

FLO

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Yes, the base has a handle and can be easily carried. The OTA can also be carried single-handed using the two side handles. One person can carry both base and OTA out into the garden and set it up in a couple of minutes.

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barkis

barkis

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What a classy looking piece of kit that is. I can think of nothing better than have a permanent Observatory, kitted out for imaging, and one of these baby's for taking to a star party. Collapses to a manageable size, and looks easy to move about.

Looks like another save up for project. It's taken me twenty minutes to write this, the wife has been popping in and out asking questions.

Ron. :(

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James

James

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... wont this kind of tub design present more alignment problems when setting up and constant collimation? Thanks Ken

That was one of the first things we wanted to check with the scope at Kelling. As you'll see from other posts above we gave it a pretty good twisting, pulling (and a mild thump when no one was looking) and it held its collimation very well. In fact the collimation was pretty close straight out of the box. The three poles hold the top section very firmly. Based on this unit and my experience with solid tube reflectors the requirements to keep the FlexTube collimated will be only a very little more than you'd expect with any reflector.

James

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kennyboy

kennyboy

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Thanks Jame's...I have a equatorial Mount with the 200mm Skywatcher Newt but really fancy a DOB for quick set up reasons. I fancy a 10 or 12 Inch DOB but wonder if you really can keep on target manually when looking at sky objects. Just how manageable are the DOBS for looking at Planets? Thanks. Ken

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FLO

FLO

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Ade Ashford has begun reviewing the Skyliner 300P FlexTube Dobsonian

Some excerpts:

Regarding the FlexTube mechanism

Initial concerns that the tube extension rods would not retain collimation proved unfounded. Despite repeatedly collapsing and extending the 'scope in the course of a prolonged observing session, the FlexTube's optics remained in perfect alignment.

Regarding Saturn

Saturn is often described as the jewel of the Solar System, but to see it in all its 24-carat splendour you need a 12-inch FlexTube. In recent memory I haven't seen such a sharp and richly rendered image of the ringed planet as that delivered by the 'scope on the night of April 8th, 2008. Mars, just 6.6 arcseconds in diameter, revealed its 90% gibbous phase with ease. But what surprised me was plainly identifying the Syrtis Major near the planet's meridian at such a distance from Earth.

He concludes

It would be easy to pigeonhole the 305mm FlexTube as an innovative, transportable Dobsonian for the deep-sky enthusiast, but it's much more than that. Its stunning planetary prowess will have many observers redefining what larger aperture, short focal ratio Newtonians are capable of. In short, it's a precision instrument that breaks the stereotypical Dobsonian mold to deliver stunning planetary and deep-sky performance in a compact, readily transportable package.

Like it? I love it!

Full review HERE

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