Digital inclinometer at LIDL now

[Zermelo]

I know that people have previously equipped manual Dobs with a home-made azimuth setting circle and an inclinometer on the tube.

LIDL are currently selling one for £12.99. It claims accuracy of 0.2 degrees, and it can be re-calibrated. The base is magnetic. Unfortunately, the backlight is green, not red. I bought one, now I just need to get the Dob to put it onto.

https://www.lidl.co.uk/p/diy-tools/parkside-digital-depth-gauge-inclinometer/p51249

 

 

 

[cajen2]

"Ooh!" I thought, " I'll get one of those for my dob." So I got on my bike and pedalled the three miles to my local Lidl, only to find that they weren't selling it. I should have known....😟

Ordered a cheap and nasty one from the river site as proof of concept! 😉

Edited April 12, 2022 by cajen2

[Zermelo]

14 minutes ago, cajen2 said:

"Ooh!" I thought, " I'll get one of those for my dob." So I got on my bike and pedalled the three miles to my local Lidl, only to find that they weren't selling it. I should have known....😟

Ordered a cheap and nasty one from the river site as proof of concept! 😉

They were supposed to have been on sale from the Sunday just gone, but I know my local LIDL doesn't always stick to the dates, and being a smaller one it doesn't always stock everything that's on offer.

[cajen2]

Yes, mine's the same. EVERY time someone has posted about Lidl selling something useful, mine doesn't sell it, so I was half expecting my trip to be a waste of time!

[vlaiv]

2 hours ago, Zermelo said:

I bought one, now I just need to get the Dob to put it onto.

So this is not about the device - it's about you needing an excuse for a new telescope

 

[Zermelo]

29 minutes ago, vlaiv said:

So this is not about the device - it's about you needing an excuse for a new telescope

 

I was thinking that it was about as convincing as "now that I bought that bag, I need an outfit and shoes to go with it"

[jjohnson3803]

My Wixey has a green backlight.  I covered it with a couple of layers of red tail light repair tape to cut down the amount of light.   Under $5 US.  I imagine it would be inexpensive in the UK as well.

Edited April 21, 2022 by jjohnson3803

[Zermelo]

The new dob is still way off, but I tried out the inclinometer when I was levelling my Newt last night.
It works very neatly. Sticks like glue to the tube, and the digital display (with the arrow to indicate direction) is a nice complement to the bubble level. I like that you can just walk the tube around a full turn and watch what happens.

[callisto]

That's the thing with Lidl/Aldi, they are hit and miss at different stores 🙄