Stargate 20" dob - first light tomorrow night hopefully...

[Ships and Stars]

Just got this beast fully assembled (my first scope since my Tasco 60mm when I was about ten!).  I will do collimation tomorrow afternoon and it is supposed to be clear up until 1am here.  GOTO and drive working well, haven't aligned it yet, but slewing like a naval gun ?  I'll update tomorrow if things go ok...

[mark81]

Lookin forward to reading some reports from this scope.  Hope it stays clear before the Moon steals your light....

[John]

Wonderfull looking scope 

Is that a 25mm stock 1.25" eyepiece I see in the focuser ?

Hope you have some nice eyepieces to let that beast show what it can do !

[Ships and Stars]

43 minutes ago, mark81 said:

Lookin forward to reading some reports from this scope.  Hope it stays clear before the Moon steals your light....

Ah yes, need to check that, but might be putting my sunglasses on for a lunar view. (No ND filter yet). I'll report back with some thoughts!

9 minutes ago, John said:

Wonderfull looking scope 

Is that a 25mm stock 1.25" eyepiece I see in the focuser ?

Hope you have some nice eyepieces to let that beast show what it can do !

Thanks John, it's quite a structure, surprisingly solid with the trusses, I was a bit dubious at first, but it is rock solid. I stuck the standard collimating eyepiece in there, I shall have to re-read instructions tonight! I didn't get too far with that. Hopefully tomorrow before dark!

[Guest]

#jealous  Enjoy

[Ships and Stars]

9 minutes ago, Sland said:

#jealous  Enjoy

Thanks! It was pure luck it came along for a good price, and some frantic selling on my behalf of many years worth of outdoor kit, camera gear and a kayak on eBay! Still can't believe I got my hands on it. 

[mert]

I saw that scope on the bay, nice price. I used some lube on my dayds Stargate and it ran smooth. Were the small wooden pads used to move it?

Watch out for dew on the main mirror when you store it, I kept a 22" in a large shed and had to garage it due to the mirror running with dew.

[Ships and Stars]

1 hour ago, John said:

Wonderfull looking scope 

Is that a 25mm stock 1.25" eyepiece I see in the focuser ?

Hope you have some nice eyepieces to let that beast show what it can do !

Hi again John, meant to add earlier I'm holding off on eyepieces until I do some more research and the scope checks out ok. I have the 2" 28mm & 10mm 1.25" SW bog standards at the moment. I'm looking at ES 82 deg or possibly 100deg eyepieces, I wear glasses so hear the 82s are more friendly for that. I picked up some cheap binoviewers, haven't arrived yet, may take some fiddling to get them to focus and still need a reasonable pair of EPs for those, but might get some 18 or 20mm cheapies just to try it out. Once I'm happy I have things collimated etc and I get a few more pennies in the pot, I'll start picking up some better eyepieces over the summer so I'm ready when things turn dark again.  I did order a moon ND filter and found a second-hand Lumicon OIII which I'll try for light pollution here. If it's too dark, I'll pick up a UHC. H-beta later in the year for the Horsehead as autumn approaches. As with other astronomy aspects, a lot to learn yet in that department.

[estwing]

Nice scope that....should give some great views and hoovering up those galaxies will be a joy...clear skies!

[Ships and Stars]

11 minutes ago, estwing said:

Nice scope that....should give some great views and hoovering up those galaxies will be a joy...clear skies!

Thanks estwing, it took some fast work to scrape the money together, it popped up online for a fair bit less than new, but was never used, the original owner fell ill unfortunately and never got to use it. I'll work on it this summer and get everything in tune and ready to roll. When we get some really dark skies again I'll be out the door. Tomorrow and Wednesday night look like 2, maybe 3hrs of moderately clear skies either side of midnight, so might get a quick blast before summer hits. Can't wait!

[Guest]

#StillEffingJealous!

[niallk]

Congrats & hope you have a great 1st light!

What a leap in aperture from 60mm 

I like your style!  Will be watching out for reports

[Ships and Stars]

3 minutes ago, Sland said:

#StillEffingJealous!

Once I get it set up, this autumn you can pop up for a look if you are in the shire. In the meantime, I hope we have another nice summer!

[Guest]

1 minute ago, Ships and Stars said:

Once I get it set up, this autumn you can pop up for a look if you are in the shire. In the meantime, I hope we have another nice summer!

Thanks old bean.  Had to sell my Sw250 a few years ago

[Ships and Stars]

Just now, niallk said:

Congrats & hope you have a great 1st light!

What a leap in aperture from 60mm 

I like your style!  Will be watching out for reports

Thanks niallk, I don't really remember the little Tasco much, the focuser screws fell out and were lost after a few nights, and I think I saw the moon through it maybe twice. I've had some big DSLR lenses with teleconverters over the ensuing years and picked up some 25x100 binos a few months ago which really got me going again, but the stargate should be a proper eye opener.

[Ships and Stars]

1 minute ago, Sland said:

Thanks old bean.  Had to sell my Sw250 a few years ago

We'll have to find you another one! I was thinking the other day how big a dob I could take on a train, lol there are a lot of second hand ones on ebay quite cheap, but everything is quite far down south, hence the train journey collection idea?

[John]

52 minutes ago, Ships and Stars said:

Hi again John, meant to add earlier I'm holding off on eyepieces until I do some more research and the scope checks out ok. I have the 2" 28mm & 10mm 1.25" SW bog standards at the moment. I'm looking at ES 82 deg or possibly 100deg eyepieces, I wear glasses so hear the 82s are more friendly for that. I picked up some cheap binoviewers, haven't arrived yet, may take some fiddling to get them to focus and still need a reasonable pair of EPs for those, but might get some 18 or 20mm cheapies just to try it out. Once I'm happy I have things collimated etc and I get a few more pennies in the pot, I'll start picking up some better eyepieces over the summer so I'm ready when things turn dark again.  I did order a moon ND filter and found a second-hand Lumicon OIII which I'll try for light pollution here. If it's too dark, I'll pick up a UHC. H-beta later in the year for the Horsehead as autumn approaches. As with other astronomy aspects, a lot to learn yet in that department.

You may also want to consider a coma corrector if you are going to go for wide angled eyepieces. The scope is F/4 and will generate a lot of coma in the outer half of the field of view. Well corrected (and you will need well corrected) eyepieces will show that coma - it makes stars look comet shaped with their tails pointing away from the centre of the field of view.

 

[Ships and Stars]

51 minutes ago, mert said:

I saw that scope on the bay, nice price. I used some lube on my dayds Stargate and it ran smooth. Were the small wooden pads used to move it?

Watch out for dew on the main mirror when you store it, I kept a 22" in a large shed and had to garage it due to the mirror running with dew.

Hi mert, sorry, missed your post earlier. Yep it's the one off  the bay, it was definitely a gamble, but so far, so good. Kind of a sad story regarding the original owner, he never got to use it. I've shot a little spray grease very carefully on a few bits well away from (and underneath) the mirrors, but will sparingly use some 'red and sticky' Lucas grease on the tracks. The storage container is just temporary, no way I'll leave it in there, I can see the humidity wreaking havoc on it in short order, so will clear a space inside (er, somewhere?!). The wooden pads were not included, but I'll probably make a wheelbarrow-type fork to move it around, or at least something with inflatable tyres that can handle a little gravel and offroad travel for my dark sky spots away from home. Speaking of which, I bet Glencoe is superb!

[Mr niall]

Amazing looking scope looking forward to seeing a report.

I took delivery of my heritage 100p today, similarly excited. They're basically the same scope....

[Ships and Stars]

4 minutes ago, John said:

You may also want to consider a coma corrector if you are going to go for wide angled eyepieces. The scope is F/4 and will generate a lot of coma in the outer half of the field of view. Well corrected (and you will need well corrected) eyepieces will show that coma - it makes stars look comet shaped with their tails pointing away from the centre of the field of view.

 

Thanks John, that is on my list - the paracorr 2 coma corrector looks the one, but is definitely pricey. When you say 'well corrected' do you mean high quality eyepieces? Any ideas on what make of eyepieces you might use for this scope wearing eyeglasses? I can also wear contacts, but then need reading glasses to see anything within 30cm. I'm mainly going for DSOs but planets are certainly on the list as well. Cheers

[mert]

19 minutes ago, Ships and Stars said:

Hi mert, sorry, missed your post earlier. Yep it's the one off  the bay, it was definitely a gamble, but so far, so good. Kind of a sad story regarding the original owner, he never got to use it. I've shot a little spray grease very carefully on a few bits well away from (and underneath) the mirrors, but will sparingly use some 'red and sticky' Lucas grease on the tracks. The storage container is just temporary, no way I'll leave it in there, I can see the humidity wreaking havoc on it in short order, so will clear a space inside (er, somewhere?!). The wooden pads were not included, but I'll probably make a wheelbarrow-type fork to move it around, or at least something with inflatable tyres that can handle a little gravel and offroad travel for my dark sky spots away from home. Speaking of which, I bet Glencoe is superb!

I had a few messages from the seller and heard part of the story, looks pretty much brand new, nice buy

I had a place at Loch Rannoch which was nice and dark. I’m in Edinburgh just now and moving to Glencoe very soon. 

At this time I don’t have a scope and only my eyes to stargaze ?

 

 

[John]

I don't wear glasses when observing so I'm not an expert but from what I've read from those that do, you need 15mm - 20mm of eye relief to be comfortable with an eyepiece and see the full field of view.

Tele Vue eyepieces are designed and tested to work well at F/4 but they are expensive of course. In your shoes I might be considering their Delos range. I use the Ethos's myself and they are superb but the eye relief of 100 degree eyepieces tends to be limited to 15mm which might be tight for a glasses wearer. Some 82 degree eyepieces offer enough eye relief such as the Tele Vue Nagler Type 4 17mm and 22mm and the Type 5 31mm "Terminagler". 

The Explore Scientific 92 degree eyepieces seem to have combined longish eye relief with a very large field of view and excellent optical quality. These are also expensive and heavy !

It will be interesting to see what others who wear glasses and use large aperture and fast dobsonians suggest. An F/4 newtonian is very demending on eyepieces, there is no doubt about that. The optical design, materials used and manufacture needs to be first class and the prices will reflect this.

 

 

[Ships and Stars]

44 minutes ago, Mr niall said:

Amazing looking scope looking forward to seeing a report.

I took delivery of my heritage 100p today, similarly excited. They're basically the same scope....

I'm actually very intrigued by the 130p heritage! Looks like the ultimate in ease and portability. I think when the dust settles from this purchase, I'll pick one up for camping trips and when I'm working away in rural areas. I wonder if you could take two of them and make some kind of relatively inexpensive observation binoculars?? Could 3D print a holder to keep the tubes parallel? That would be cool.

[Paul73]

16 minutes ago, Ships and Stars said:

Thanks John, that is on my list - the paracorr 2 coma corrector looks the one, but is definitely pricey. When you say 'well corrected' do you mean high quality eyepieces? Any ideas on what make of eyepieces you might use for this scope wearing eyeglasses? I can also wear contacts, but then need reading glasses to see anything within 30cm. I'm mainly going for DSOs but planets are certainly on the list as well. Cheers

Wearing glasses? Televue Delos all the way! £200 max second hand....... 

One step at a time though. You may find that you don’t need glasses for observing. I wear glasses, but find that a judicious twiddling of the focuser turns everything pin sharp ?. Saddly, I still need the glasses to point the scope in the right direction.

I have an f4 Scope (only 16”). Having tried to live with a set of 50° eyepieces, you will want to go wider at some stage. It is well worth asking advice here before buying. The advice from SGL members has saved me a small fortune over the last 5 years.

Paul

[Ships and Stars]

30 minutes ago, John said:

I don't wear glasses when observing so I'm not an expert but from what I've read from those that do, you need 15mm - 20mm of eye relief to be comfortable with an eyepiece and see the full field of view.

Tele Vue eyepieces are designed and tested to work well at F/4 but they are expensive of course. In your shoes I might be considering their Delos range. I use the Ethos's myself and they are superb but the eye relief of 100 degree eyepieces tends to be limited to 15mm which might be tight for a glasses wearer. Some 82 degree eyepieces offer enough eye relief such as the Tele Vue Nagler Type 4 17mm and 22mm and the Type 5 31mm "Terminagler". 

The Explore Scientific 92 degree eyepieces seem to have combined longish eye relief with a very large field of view and excellent optical quality. These are also expensive and heavy !

It will be interesting to see what others who wear glasses and use large aperture and fast dobsonians suggest. An F/4 newtonian is very demending on eyepieces, there is no doubt about that. The optical design, materials used and manufacture needs to be first class and the prices will reflect this.

 

 

Lucky not to have to bother with eyeglasses John! It looks like I will have to slowly add the premium eyepieces to get the full potential out of this. I'll have a look at what is out there second-hand and see what dob owners who wear glasses prefer as well. My piggy bank is pretty much empty at the moment, but fortunately work is looking very busy this summer. Slowly building up a selection of quality eyepieces will keep things interesting. I'll probably start out with middle magnification eyepieces, the 2" one in particular are going to be very dear from what I've seen. Champagne tastes on a beer budget as they say! I was lucky to afford the 500p (as new but second hand), but things seem to have worked out well thus far. Thanks again for your input, I may well have a few more questions for you down the line. Cheers