Just bought a Bresser 8 inch Dob and a BST star guider 8mm eyepiece. This will sound stupid, but will the telescope come with dust caps?

[Stardaze]

Welcome to the Bresser dob club, love mine! 

I've cut out a piece of 18mm ply and added 3 castor wheels to help move it on some ground and also acts as a barrier against wet ground. The best thing about being a dob owner is the unlimited amount of tinkering you will inevitably do with it, plenty to add/upgrade as you go, enjoy! 

[Tiny Clanger]

1 hour ago, OptymsticAlpaca said:

Yep FLO. Great customer service though. From when I emailed them:

"I just had a look into this for you, unfortunately it looks like our supplier have said Bresser are having trouble with their supply chain at the moment which is delaying the 8" Dob I'm afraid. The latest estimate as of yesterday is that the telescope won't be available until the beginning of May at the earliest."   Lots of business for them with lockdown I imagine! And the fact that everything is shut down, including 'scope factories I think...

Oh,  that's bad news !  😞    

Good job you are an optimistic alpaca , hope you are a patient one as well .

Heather

[johninderby]

Will be worth waiting for though. 👍🏻

[Tiny Clanger]

2 hours ago, johninderby said:

Before I built a custom base I fitted steel bolt on furniture legs to the base to keep it out of the wet. Cheap and easy solution.

BTW what hapoened to all the snow we were supposed to get? No snow at all here.

Nice solution, for under my little heritage 150  I made a triangular table from scrap wood and similar tubular metal furniture legs (which cost under £10 for a set of 4 legs) because I was too cowardly  to drill holes in the dob base ...

Plenty of snow here in Leicester !

Heather

[Ricochet]

I've had a Bresser 8" dob for about five years now. My top accessories are:

1. Warm clothing, think ski gear levels of warmth/layering. I always say to dress for a season colder than it is, so in winter it is really cold to say the least.
2. An adjustable height observing chair. The scope is too low to stand (stoop) at for any real length of time. Being able to sit makes things much more comfortable and allows you to concentrate and see more.
3. Some sort of star chart or planetarium software so you can find things in the sky. Having Sky Safari on my phone is still a great help when I've forgotten where something is or need to check the star hop.
4. Additional eyepieces. My first buys were the 8 and 12mm Starguiders. I initially thought the 8 would be the one I got the most use out of but the 12 proved to be the one I used more often. Unfortuantely, the longer Starguiders do not perform well in this scope and so more expensive eyepieces will be needed for low power views. You will also want at least one 2" eyepiece in your collection at some point, either 20mm 100°, 30mm 82° or 35/40 68° depending on light pollution.
5. A good collimation tool. I bought the red FLO premium cheshire, which is an excellent choice and I don't think anyone should scrimp and use a cheaper cheshire. The only alternative I would be tempted by is the concenter collimation tool.
6. Baader clicklocks. The excellent focuser is let down by the eyepiece clamps, particularly the 2" clamp, which will tilt any eyepiece with an undercut. Clicklocks solve this and also make changing eyepieces a lot quicker and easier.
7. A 9x50 RACI finder. My MK1 8" Bresser came with a red dot finder so adding a magnifying finder made finding things a lot easier. The 4-5° field is significantly larger than the <2° field the telescope itself can show with a widest field eyepiece.  (The supplied 26mm will show somewhere in the region of 1.1°.)

[johninderby]

They seem to have changed the eyepiece clamps with the latest scopes. No problem with undercut eyepieces with mine.

 

[Neil H]

21 hours ago, Tiny Clanger said:

Sounds like you are all set 🙂 , just waiting eagerly for the delivery van now.

 And, of course, the clear skies  ....       🌨️☃️🌨️

Taking bets on what get here first van or clear skies

[Neil H]

16 hours ago, Tiny Clanger said:

Nice solution, for under my little heritage 150  I made a triangular table from scrap wood and similar tubular metal furniture legs (which cost under £10 for a set of 4 legs) because I was too cowardly  to drill holes in the dob base ...

Plenty of snow here in Leicester !

Heather

As long as the snow dont cover the top of the dob you should be ok lol

[wibblefish]

13 minutes ago, Neil H said:

Taking bets on what get here first van or clear skies

It'll be the clear skies, then you will get cloud cover for a few weeks because that is how the gods of astronomy like to mess with new telescope enthusiasm

[Ricochet]

14 hours ago, johninderby said:

They seem to have changed the eyepiece clamps with the latest scopes. No problem with undercut eyepieces with mine.

 

What is the depth of your 2" clamp? Mine is 2mm solid - 8mm compression ring - 2mm solid. 

[johninderby]

About the same as yours but don’t have anything with an undercut. Anything tapered is solid thpugh.

[Louis D]

I might have missed it being recommended above, but I highly recommend getting a bottom cap/cover for the tube.  It's surprising how much dust can drift onto the mirror from the gaps around it at the bottom end of the tube.

[Pixies]

Have just seen that the price of the Skywatcher 200p dob has gone up a hundred quid+. So now the Bresser 8" is only £30 more expensive.

[johninderby]

4 minutes ago, Pixies said:

Have just seen that the price of the Skywatcher 200p dob has gone up a hundred quid+. So now the Bresser 8" is only £30 more expensive.

In other words get your Bresser order in now before any price increases.🤔

[Louis D]

41 minutes ago, johninderby said:

In other words get your Bresser order in now before any price increases.🤔

I was thinking the same thing.  Bresser is sure to follow with a price increase in the near future.

C-19 in general has lead to rapidly increasing prices for both durable and non-durable goods across the board.  However, I have yet to hear of it being flagged as a concern by the media or politicians.

[Stardaze]

The issues are compounded by the supply chain keeping up with demand at this time but also the costs of shipments have increased 6 fold due to the pandemic (PPE taking up a third of all shipments imported and being prioritised) and so for large bulky items, those extra costs cannot be absorbed by retailers. We will see more price rises in the months ahead for certain. 🙁