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In the market for a dobson


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10 hours ago, alanjgreen said:

You remove nuts from fixed threads and the poles lift off. The bolt thread is a fixed part of the mirror box.

The poles just have holes in to push onto the threads. Each side and pole is numbered so it’s easy to get them on the correct side.

You can see the attachments and the fixed bolts in one of the pictures in this post

http://www.fjastronomy.com/reviews/18-inch-f4-3-david-lukehurst-dobsonian-with-nichol-optics/

(It’s the last picture of the collapsed scope)

Alan

Thanks Alan.

I should manage to contact Dave on Saturday to see whether my requests are not too demanding for him.

Early April I'm going to Italy for a few days and bring the Moonlite CR2 and glatter collimator back to the UK.

Edited by Piero
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7 hours ago, Piero said:

David

I spent nearly 6 hours with my 14" DL dob at my dark site on Friday night. It blew my mind. I've owned 12" dobs in the past, not a lot of difference between 12 & 14 but the optics in my DL simply destroyed all previous experiences. I'm very interested in your specification requirements. David is a great bloke, you won't be disappointed. 

Al

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7 hours ago, Ally8446 said:

I spent nearly 6 hours with my 14" DL dob at my dark site on Friday night. It blew my mind. I've owned 12" dobs in the past, not a lot of difference between 12 & 14 but the optics in my DL simply destroyed all previous experiences. I'm very interested in your specification requirements. David is a great bloke, you won't be disappointed. 

Al

Thanks Alli. What are the specs of yours if you don't mind?

 

Update: David replied that the requested specs should be fine. I'll post more about this when the project is confirmed.

Edited by Piero
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1 hour ago, Piero said:

Thanks Alli. What are the specs of yours if you don't mind?

 

Update: David replied that the requested specs should be fine. I'll post more about this when the project is confirmed.

It's a 14" F4.6 with Hubble Optics 1/14th wave mirrors. 

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  • 2 weeks later...
50 minutes ago, Piero said:

After a lot of messages, I finally placed an order for a 12" F6 (20% CO) Lukehurst classic dobson with John Nichol's optics! ? ? 

Congrats, Piero. Any idea on the delivery time?

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4 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

Congrats, Piero. Any idea on the delivery time?

About 4 months. Not really a problem considering the long daylight time in the coming months. :) 

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1 hour ago, Piero said:

After a lot of messages, I finally placed an order for a 12" F6 (20% CO) Lukehurst classic dobson with John Nichol's optics! ? ? 

Congrats, Looks like a very nice scope. the weight of it is even significantly less then my 10 inch Skywatcher Flextube ?.  Even got the curved spider vanes design, nice thought, and a friendly F ratio.  My only deterrent  would be the assembly time if you have to do that each time,  taking it out of the house, or fitting it in car.   The main reason  l love the flextube design is for travel in a small car , yet it is very quick to setup each time. The tube is build like a tank too which make it quite heavy, but you'll not dent it  .... unlike the much more expensive Orion UK Dobs I saw last year at a party. ?

Edited by AlexB67
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2 hours ago, Piero said:

After a lot of messages, I finally placed an order for a 12" F6 (20% CO) Lukehurst classic dobson with John Nichol's optics! ? ? 

Here's my DL 14" F4.6 with Hubble Optics @Piero. It's fabulous. You won't be disappointed I assure you.

Ally

20180630_203519.jpg

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I asked David not to paint it as I prefer the wood colour on dobsons.

Other things I asked are: black RACI finder 9x50, telrad, glatter sling, hand knobs instead of wingnuts for attaching the poles, my Moonlite CR2 focuser to be installed on the right (instead of left) side of the telescope, 4-vane spider for the secondary, wheelbarrow handles to take it around without disassembling the telescope, light shroud, black satin anodised truss poles. Finally, I asked him to balance the telescope for heavy eyepieces.

It was nice to discuss these features with him. Really nice gentleman.

My docter will give 2mm exit pupil and almost 150x with that telescope. 

Looking forward to it. :)

Edited by Piero
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54 minutes ago, niallk said:

Sounds superb :thumbsup:

I went up by an aperture diameter factor of 1.5x too, and was "wowed" ;)

I bet you were/are! You've got a great scope! 

I thought about getting a 14" f5, but the 12" f6 is a better match for me and my eyepieces. Coma is also minimal, so no need to add a coma corrector in the future. Testing the impact of a TV powermate on my docter, made me realise that I didn't want that extra TV layer between the mirror and my eyepieces. Different story if one predominantly uses TV eyepieces of course.

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You've put a lot of thought into your decision :thumbsup:

I used my 10" eyepieces for the first year with my 15" f/4.43: Pan24, N13T6, N7T6, PM2.5x - with no Paracorr. It was fine, but I then tried a 20mm 100deg EP and really liked it.  I had been thinking of a N9T6... but took a punt on a 10E - my 2mm exit pupil EP!  Unfortunately, I really, really liked it... And fell down a slippery Ethos slope which included the Paracorr2 over the next year or two.  But with the P2 it did require re-balancing the scope with a fixed counterweight for minimum fuss.

I'm done now though - no more EP purchases... ;)

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1 hour ago, niallk said:

You've put a lot of thought into your decision :thumbsup:

I used my 10" eyepieces for the first year with my 15" f/4.43: Pan24, N13T6, N7T6, PM2.5x - with no Paracorr. It was fine, but I then tried a 20mm 100deg EP and really liked it.  I had been thinking of a N9T6... but took a punt on a 10E - my 2mm exit pupil EP!  Unfortunately, I really, really liked it... And fell down a slippery Ethos slope which included the Paracorr2 over the next year or two.  But with the P2 it did require re-balancing the scope with a fixed counterweight for minimum fuss.

I'm done now though - no more EP purchases... ;)

100 deg AFOV fever! :)

More seriously, I think you made a good investment. At that focal ratio, I would also have purchased a coma corrector.

For some reason it seems I don't get the 100 deg bug... although I enjoy my 20mm Lunt, I wouldn't mind if it had an AFOV of 70-80 deg. 

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8 minutes ago, Piero said:

100 deg AFOV fever! :)

More seriously, I think you made a good investment. At that focal ratio, I would also have purchased a coma corrector.

For some reason it seems I don't get the 100 deg bug... although I enjoy my 20mm Lunt, I wouldn't mind if it had an AFOV of 70-80 deg. 

I keep trying to catch the 70 degree bug so that I can get rid of my Ethos's and stick to my lovely 1.26" eyepiece set. The trouble is, when the 12 inch dob is out and I compare the views, the 100's steal the show every time :rolleyes2:

 

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5 minutes ago, John said:

I keep trying to catch the 70 degree bug so that I can get rid of my Ethos's and stick to my lovely 1.26" eyepiece set. The trouble is, when the 12 inch dob is out and I compare the views, the 100's steal the show every time :rolleyes2:

I will report back on this after I will have tried my 2" set on this new 12" dobson. 

So far, what I wrote holds for my Tak and 8" dob. Not sure but I think it has to do with the shape eye-face. For instance, the docter and APM UFF have just perfect ergonomics for me...

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