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Some plan.. :)

Piero

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Piero

Piero

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I am considering to replace my Newton 114 F8 with a Dob Skyliner 200 F6 in Italy. :) The house over there is a flat, so I have to study a bit the measures of the terrace, but the sky can be very steady and the air is sometimes transparent despite the light pollution. In the summer I could also take it for some days to the mountains and observe under a dark sky as I did last summer with the tv60. 

I guess the first question is 'why are you buying it there and not here where you live??' Well, yeah, in the 99% of the cases this choice is silly. The fact is that I don't feel comfortable with buying a large telescope here without having a car (for potential house moving or going to an observing site) or with the idea of having to move abroad in 2-3 years. Buying a car makes little sense as our research institute now offers a very cheap bus commuter. Therefore, buying a car for the sole astronomical purpose seems a bit expensive and pointless, particularly living here in Cambridge where you can easily move around by bike. In this current context my TV60 really fits all my boxes.  :rolleyes:

I would not use that Dobson like all of us would like to (basically every time!), but there are relatively cheap flights from Stansted Airport to Venice and I could go there more often for a weekend. Thankfully I am a patient person, so this should not be a problem! 

If the terrace over there allows sufficient horizontal and vertical movements, I will buy one after the 17 Dec in Italy. I would be very curious to see M42 with my OIII or UHC filters.  :rolleyes:

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Piero

Piero

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Thanks John for your kind words. :)

I have to say that a 200mm is a telescope I have always dreamt about. The possibility of buying one of these nowadays spending very little is a nice call. I thought about a 250mm of course, but under these circumstances a 200mm seems a much more sensible choice. There is time in the future for a 250mm or even a 300mm and thankfully the sky won't change much. :)

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Piero

Piero

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Thanks Iain :) I just got the exact measures of the terrace and will do a simple technical design to assess the altitude/azimuth movements work fine. The location on the dolomites is already fine instead. 

One lucky thing is that the Moon, Jupiter, Venus and Mars are all visible in these days so I could test some planetary observation too! :)

@ Skyliner 200 F6 users: 

Could somebody tell me the following information please :

- Does the focuser holds the eyepiece barrel using a ring or directly via the screw? Just to know whether I need to protect my Eyepieces barrels from scratches. 

- How long is the 200mm F6 tube exactly?

- Just a curiosity, is the 10mm stock eyepiece the same as the Orion Sirius Plossl 10mm? 

Many thanks in advance! 

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Piero

Piero

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Thanks everyone! 

I thought quite a lot about this particularly since my first choice was an OOVX10 F4.8. However, as this will only be a holiday telescope for the next 3 years, I cannot really justify the price for the Orion Optics. Regarding the SW250 F4.7, I cannot justify the weight as well as the fact that the main location over there will be light polluted. After reading many threads on comparisons between 250 and 200, it seems to me that the difference between the two lies under dark skies and on DSO only. Therefore, a 200mm seems a perfect choice for enjoying planets nicely, a bit of DSO from a light polluted place, and a few DSO from a dark place when I can go to the mountains in the summer. Still light-ish to be taken around, easy to set up, and gives views with very minimal coma. 

In the long term, this can become a grab and go telescope or just remain my telescope at my home over there. We are very lucky nowadays to have such powerful telescopes for so little price. An easy way to give people a nice insight of the sky without having to spend a fortune! 

Looking forward to trying it on the Moon, Jupiter, Mars, Venus and some of the winter DSO. Of course I am taking my eyepieces + filters with me! eh eh! 

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scarp15

scarp15

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The 200 whether Skywatcher or Orion Optics UK, will be a great performer, highly versatile and correctly stated 'grab and go'. I have taken mine to my dark site a couple of times, it is very satisfying, delivering excellent resolution on a variety of DSO's.

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Piero

Piero

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Piero, have you seen the "E" and "F" stars in the Trap? You will now :grin:

No Sir, I haven't! I have only seen A-B-C-D! I will certainly go for it!  :icon_salut: Thank you very much for your suggestion! 

Gerry, you have intrigued me with this now! I wonder whether my 60mm at 103x or 129x can reveal one of them.. Reading this (http://www.laughton.com/paul/rfo/trap/trap.html), it might!   :rolleyes:

.. Wow! What is happening??? The sky is clear with just little wind exactly when I want to test new things??

Nice one! :blob8:  I might likely comment on these two faint stars soon, and see whether a good seeing can do the trick! 

Good luck Piero - I had a solid tube 10" Dob, magnificent views every time, just too big to fit in the car with family, so it went...under dark skies one February M42/M43 breathtaking. 

Chris

Thanks Chris! I'm so looking forward to trying M42 and some of the winter clusters! 

I just hope the sky will be clear! 

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FenlandPaul

FenlandPaul

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Exciting news, Piero! Hope you enjoy it; I'm sure you will. And if you ever crave some aperture in the UK you're always welcome to head up the guided busway and use the 300mm dob here! Although we need some clear skies for that. It was beautiful on Tuesday apparently for the first time in ages, but I was away for work! Grrrrr......

P

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Piero

Piero

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Exciting news, Piero! Hope you enjoy it; I'm sure you will. And if you ever crave some aperture in the UK you're always welcome to head up the guided busway and use the 300mm dob here! Although we need some clear skies for that. It was beautiful on Tuesday apparently for the first time in ages, but I was away for work! Grrrrr......

P

Paul, that is very kind of you!

We could meet up some time, sure, and I can bring my Naglers over too, if you like! 

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Piero

Piero

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lol! Piero, I was this excited the other night when my new 15" dob got them @87x under avg seeing :grin: who says we need open tailgates on dobs... :huh::grin: I might be able to squeeze a bit more on this target yet.... yup I still get pretty pumped up myself :laugh:

It's nice to get very excited on hobbies!  :rolleyes:

87x on a 15"... Wow!! I cannot even imagine what sort of view you had..! :eek:   Were you using your E21?  It must have been really spectacular, particularly considering the nearby nebula details!  :smiley:

I just came back from a field, the seeing was okay, transparency improved gradually. Trapezium visible. I searched for E and F for 40 minutes at different magnifications. None. There were times where C reminded me of the two stars forming the double double when seen at ~50x. Said in another way, there were times where C seemed a tight coupled double, but it could have just been an artefact of my eye to be honest! If visible, I reckon the exit pupil should be larger that 0.8-1.0mm otherwise the Airy discs tend to be too large and the brighter stars forming the trapezium might cause issues. 

Still an interesting test though and I look forward to repeating it with the 200mm!  :rolleyes:

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jetstream

jetstream

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Good practise Piero, you will get much more out of your 200mm because of this, my 90mm helped me in this regard. Yes, I was using the 21E and I must be on axis with the fast dob to get tight splits etc. "E" was a piece of cake, "F" was tighter with the 21mm, with the 17mm both were very easy. On some stars and splits lower power is better IMHO, got to try everything lol! Some star splitters up the mag to get the Airy disks showing, I personally don't like the look.

Yes, those stars buried in that swirling bright patch of green is quite the sight, one of my favorites. :smiley:

ps- buy a Cheshire too...

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