Anybody made a Dobsonian mount for a "standard" Newt?

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

After another night of holy sky, I was wondering later how easy it might be to make a Dobsonian type of mounting for my Skywatcher Newt. Have any of you guys done this yet?

Captain Chaos

[Naz]

There are plenty of designs around for the base Capt, I should imagine a set of rings or cradle with a suitable bearing would do, after all the Dobsonion is a type of mount for Newtonian reflectors, not a scope design.

Type in Amateur telescope making on Google, or dobsonion designs, I am sure you will find the info there

naz

PS, the wife likes your jokes :shock:

[Naz]

Two links that may help Capt. now three

naz

http://members.aol.com/sfsidewalk/dobplans.htm

http://www.starastronomy.org/TelescopeMaking/Links/index.html

http://www.bbastrodesigns.com/cot/cot.html

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

Thanks for the input Naz, I was hoping not to get a "ooooo, you can't do that, because **** will happen.

Now that that's out of the way I can go on to the design. Gepetto's design, that he describes as "a poor man's goto" is actually "an intelligent man's goto" as most of us (especially the imagers here) have a computer to keep us company, either with access to SGL, or just some deskmates to help with the 90 second countdown on each frame until we can start waiting for the next frame to start counting down.

With Starry Night, it's very easy to get AltAz co-ordinates for stuff, and even better, with a Gepetto mount you can line up on a hole, move the SN screen and find a target. All you have to do then is move the 'scope to exactly line up with whatever was close to the hole in the cloud.

The more I think about this, the better the Gepetto mount becomes. I hope that he gets fame and plaudits for his system.

Captain Chaos

[geppetto]

I hope that he gets fame and plaudits for his system.

Trouble is, like most astronomy projects, my DOB tweaks come from ideas which are pinched from other people and reworked in a slightly different way so

a collective fame to all the folks who have great ideas and then unselfishly share them is the order of the day. 8)

I love all this tinkering and wish you well with the DOB mount CC.

What would be nice to see is that DOB's start being produced with these circles factory fitted.

Lots of newbies buy a DOB and I reakon it would be a great help to searching the sky on a budget.

So back to the point, have you started sawing wood yet for that mount

[lunator]

CC

I have been looking for plans for a dob mount for my old 4.5" newt.

There are several on the web. I will look them up again ( I have lost all my links at present)

Geppetto - Although you may have used other ideas, your execution of the overall solution is excellent.

Cheers

Ian

[GordonCopestake]

I was looking at one of those new fangled skyscout thingies. Very expensive but can convert any scope to goto by just strapping a skyscout to the OTA. Has anyone used one of these yet? Are they as good as they seem?

[Naz]

I was looking at one of those new fangled skyscout thingies. Very expensive but can convert any scope to goto by just strapping a skyscout to the OTA. Has anyone used one of these yet? Are they as good as they seem?

I don't think it is a goto, the skyscout will only tell you what your looking at, it will not drive your scope to a point in the sky, which is what a goto does. It's only a clever skymap in electronic form.

You point it and it tells you what you are looking at, you cant ask it to find an object and then have it control the scope, it will give you co-ordinates but you have to move the scope your self, also it only lists 6000 objects visiable to the naked eye, there for a lot of the DSO's won't be listed or outer planets etc.

Thats my understanding from the blurb I have read so far, your copy of starry night,or any other sky maps will not be replaced by this "expensive toy" just yet, may be mark 3 or 4, unless somebody hacks into it and produces outputs to your scope for you.

naz

[GordonCopestake]

My appologies, i didn't make my self clear. I should have written "push-to". You can ask it the position of an object and then as far as im aware red arrows appear at the edge of the FOV and tell you which direction to move until the object is centered. Strapped to the telescope you can push your dob until the skyscout tells you it's there. I didn't know it was only restricted to 6000 objects though. Although to be honest 6000 would keep me good for a long time!

[geppetto]

Seems to suggest that it is upgradable for say quote"passing comets" etc.

If this thing turns out to be accurate, it will be fantastic. Its just too expensive

Anyway, my plywood disc and cheapy inclinometer found M81/M82 first go night before last

for a cost of £12.50 8)

[Naz]

Sorry Gordon, I also got it wrong, easy when I don't read the full posts

naz

[Albireo380]

Anyway, my plywood disc and cheapy inclinometer found M81/M82 first go night before last

for a cost of £12.50 8)

£12.50 Geppetto - wow !!!! That is some piece of kit for £12.50. Excellent.

Tom

[geppetto]

That is some piece of kit for £12.50

Scope not included