Show Us Your Dobs

[John]

Great selection Shane

Each time I use my 12 inch dob, I say a little "thank you" to you

[bomberbaz]

Great selection there. Remember using the 6" F11 but didn't really appreciate it's qualities back then (8 years since).

[bomberbaz]

6 minutes ago, John said:

Great selection Shane

Each time I use my 12 inch dob, I say a little "thank you" to you

Yours being the 12" OOUK dob then John I think, great mirrors. 

[Chris33benoit]

Love my dob!  Never had a scope that big before.  My wife built me a custom shroud and I thank her for that!  Want to see more this summer.  

[John]

4 hours ago, bomberbaz said:

Yours being the 12" OOUK dob then John I think, great mirrors. 

The one Shane pictures is / was his I think. He made an identical mount for it after he had finished mine. Mine is F/5.3.

 

[johninderby]

Tall dob mounts are better. 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

For many dobs that is. 🤔

Edited July 13, 2020 by johninderby

[Stardaze]

Got a new click lock system turning up tomorrow for mine. Hope it proves worthwhile, added up given I needed an extension too. 

The planets last weekend looked superb in the Bresser. Still want a little grab and go scope to compliment the dob though. Two EP's first though.... it's a never ending money pit, huh! 

[John]

14 minutes ago, Stardaze said:

.... Two EP's first though.... it's a never ending money pit, huh! 

Too true ! 

 

[Stardaze]

19 minutes ago, John said:

Too true ! 

 

You can't want for much John 😆

[John]

16 minutes ago, Stardaze said:

You can't want for much John 😆

I ought to shed some stuff really ...... then I can get some more ! 

[Stardaze]

3 minutes ago, John said:

I ought to shed some stuff really ...... then I can get some more ! 

Over the years, I've heard myself utter, on occasion, "that's that then, I don't need anything else" but.... there's always something! 

[bomberbaz]

1 hour ago, Stardaze said:

Over the years, I've heard myself utter, on occasion, "that's that then, I don't need anything else" but.... there's always something! 

Up until recently my purchasing had stopped, "until recently" being the key words. Now I am actually at the end of my latest spending spree and I am actually shedding a few bits, mainly eyepieces.

However I will to soon be adding to this thread once I take possession of my new truss. 

Watch this space. 

Steve

[JamesF]

34 minutes ago, bomberbaz said:

However I will to soon be adding to this thread once I take possession of my new truss. 

Watch this space.

Hmmm.  That could be one to miss on the "what the postman delivered" thread

James

[Pixies]

On 30/06/2020 at 19:52, Dippy said:

Thank you! I am going to try this one out.

I found that they started to slip when the pads became smoother with use. I've added a couple of strips of draft excluder and that's fixed it.

[PaulM]

Started with an 8" and quickly acquired a 2nd hand 12" GOTO which was great. Sold both to fund getting a 2nd hand 14" flexi which will be making visits to dark skies location this year

If anyone has a dob 18" or larger for sale thats transportable or know of anyone selling please let me know/PM me

Edited July 19, 2020 by PaulM

[PraiseM42]

Greetings to you all, this is my first post here on Stargazer's Lounge, love being here!

This is my 'Big Dob', a RP Astro S-Star 16 inch truss dobsonian with GSO f4,5 optics. It was sold by a very well known shop here in Italy some years ago and I had the luck to find one on the used market to enjoy. I was considering selling this scope but I realized I like it too much.

Some peculiarities include:

- Foldable permanently attached alt bearings 

- Front collimatable primary mirror cell

- Single arm secondary mirror support with thin steel wire tensioning (resulting in six very thin diffraction spikes)

Hope you like it!

 

 

[Astroscot2]

I bought an OO CT10 a number of years ago with the intention of astrophotography, after a few years and many upgrades to get a decent image out of it I finally went back to imaging with a frac ond the CT10 went into storage, I knew from the few times I viewed through it that it was a very capable scope and decided I would one day mount it on a dob.  So recently I decided to get my finger out and sort out a mount, having little time, space or tools I started looking for an off the shelf solution, OO sell dobs which are very expensive, I decided to get in contact with  David Lukhurst and asked if he could help me. For some reason I thought he probably would not get involved in small projects like mine but David got straight back to me and offered to make the mount for what I concidered an excellent price. After 3 weeks the mound was delivered, the quality is superb and is silky smooth, I'm greatful of David's assistance and looking forward to looking at the sky and not a guide graph for a change. 

Mark. 

Edited August 9, 2020 by Astroscot2

[A McEwan]

As this thread includes "from our Dob history" -and I'm not sure if I shared this on here, here is my long-departed GSO 8" f6 Dob.

It started off basic enough, but after a while I stripped it all down, sent the mirrors for Hi-lux coating, sprayed the interior flat black, sprayed the exterior in Peugeot Blaze Yellow, added a "steering knob", added a Skywatcher electric focuser motor (later on I upgraded to a Moonlite with motor drive), added a proper flexi dew-shield, Bob's knobs, uprated collimation springs, had magnetic counter-balance weights instead of the tension-adjuster springs, did some work on the base to make it super-smooth with just the right amount of stiction.....and.... it was a GREAT performer! Had many great nights with that scope - but it always point blank refused to show me the Horsehead! 

It's one of the scopes I shouldn't really have sold, but I'd kind of tired of it and wanted something else, so it went. Later on I would get the 10" GSO and even a 12" Driven Skywatcher Dob, but both of those went fairly quickly as they were a bit too cumbersome for me to transport easily.  Oh well.

Edited August 9, 2020 by A McEwan

[John]

1 hour ago, A McEwan said:

As this thread includes "from our Dob history" -and I'm not sure if I shared this on here, here is my long-departed GSO 8" f6 Dob.

It started off basic enough, but after a while I stripped it all down, sent the mirrors for Hi-lux coating, sprayed the interior flat black, sprayed the exterior in Peugeot Blaze Yellow, added a "steering knob", added a Skywatcher electric focuser motor (later on I upgraded to a Moonlite with motor drive), added a proper flexi dew-shield, Bob's knobs, uprated collimation springs, had magnetic counter-balance weights instead of the tension-adjuster springs, did some work on the base to make it super-smooth with just the right amount of stiction.....and.... it was a GREAT performer! Had many great nights with that scope - but it always point blank refused to show me the Horsehead! 

It's one of the scopes I shouldn't really have sold, but I'd kind of tired of it and wanted something else, so it went. Later on I would get the 10" GSO and even a 12" Driven Skywatcher Dob, but both of those went fairly quickly as they were a bit too cumbersome for me to transport easily.  Oh well.

My first dob was one of those. Mine was white and branded "Revelation" but it was the same scope. I bought it for just £100 used and was rather surprised when it performed as well if not a bit better than the 8 inc Celestron SCT I had at that time.

 

[Rob_UK_SE]

Like so many, I also started with a 10” solid tube Sky Watcher. It was my first ‘manual’ large scope having moved away from a Celestron CPC925 that I was finding too heavy to regularly move to a darker observing location (it wasn’t really possible to observe from home at that time). Considering the price I paid for the SCT setup,  I couldn’t believe how well the 250px resolved detail and gave views with, perhaps, slightly improved contrast too. I sold the Celestron kit a few weeks later. The only things upgraded on the 250px were the azimuth bearing to a roller type, some Bob’s knobs for the secondary and stiffer springs for the primary. I still think that they are terrific telescopes - especially for the price. However, this was also around the time that I joined Stargazerslounge (2011) and started to discover the great lure of larger telescopes. Amusingly, I thought my 10” Sky Watcher was a really big scope, but after my first experience of Steve’s old 16” lightbridge it well and truly left me with aperture fever!  

After almost moving up to a 14” Sky Watcher (consulting with many helpful people on this forum at the time), I ended up realising that it would be too heavy -for me- to comfortably move around and transport in the car. Instead, I purchased a 12” lightbridge. The 12” really did take things up a level and gave me breathtaking views which I will always fondly remember. My first time seeing M13, at higher magnification, from a dark location was particularly memorable. The lightbridge was supplied with a reasonable focuser, roller bearing and decent collimation screws. All that was required were some Bob’s knobs for the secondary and a Telrad... or so I thought! I had not realised the challenges of balancing a lightbridge when using heavy eyepieces. My 31N and 17E made it impossible to observe near the ecliptic without the scope becoming an unintended goto and deciding to ‘reset’ back to the horizon! Powermating any of my eyepieces was not an option at lower altitudes. This led to all sorts of attempts at securing counterweights with my preferred solution being taxi magnets holding dumbbell weights ... all very ‘low tech’ stuff.

A few years past and we started a family. Observing took a bit of a back seat - sleepess nights continued, but not under the stars. I kept some of my eyepieces, but sold the telescopes due to the spare room being converted into a nursery. In addition to parting with the 10” and 12” dobs, I also foolishly sold my much loved TeleVue 102 refractor and I still very much regret it now!

Anyway, moving forward a few years and I returned to the Astro game deciding that it could be a shared family experience too. A 300p flextube was purchased and I was delighted with it (as were the family). A couple of enhancements to the focuser and a homemade dew shield (which did indeed look suspiciously like a camping mat) and I was set. However, the weight proved a little too much for me to comfortably move around (following an injury) and I found myself purchasing my current dob - a 12” Explore Scientific ultralight II. Apart from the weight, I thought the 300p flextube was an excellent telescope for the money. It would often not even require collimation adjustments between sessions - even though I always checked. The flextube stems is very well designed. 

I don’t see too many of the ES ultralight dobs around. This is a shame because I have been really pleased with mine. I consider it to be the answer to many common issues with mass produced dobs - even though it is, itself, a mass produced dob. The first ES ultralights were probably released too early as they were littered with problems, but ES appear to have resolved most of these now. This scope can go in the car boot without having to put down the rear seats and this has been a real game changer. If only the ES 16” ultralight was slightly less expensive.

As I read this back I can see that my attempt at a brief summary has turned into a right old ramble. Thank you for the trip back down memory lane and for letting me share a bit of nostalgia with you all!

 

Edited August 25, 2020 by Rob_UK_SE

[niallk]

You've had an interesting dob journey @Rob_UK_SE!  Your 12" ES looks the biz

[guillaume320]

[guillaume320]

So above is my OOUK VX12 f4 on the same brands base. Focuser is a Baader Diamond Steeltrack, and sticking out of it a Televue PC 2 and an Ethos 13mm...

[Matt01]

6 hours ago, guillaume320 said:

So above is my OOUK VX12 f4 on the same brands base. Focuser is a Baader Diamond Steeltrack, and sticking out of it a Televue PC 2 and an Ethos 13mm...

Very nice... How heavy is the Paracorr?

[guillaume320]

10 hours ago, Matt01 said:

Very nice... How heavy is the Paracorr?

According to Televue it’s 500g, or 1,1lbs. But I haven’t weighed myself...

The nice thing about this kind of base is that I can slide the scope on the rings and have it balanced for whatever I use in the focusser. Therefore I don’t need any counterweights!

Regards,

Guillaume