200mm StellaLyra f5.9 Manual Dobsonian

[Lurcher]

Hi all!

Firstly, thanks to everyone who kindly replied to my earlier post on here where I was deciding which Dobsonian to go for.

I decided to go for the StellaLyra 200mm Dobsonian, and I had a great opportunity to get out and use it for the first (and at the time of writing, only time. grrrr!), on Tuesday the 15th August. 

I was immediately impressed with the view through the eyepiece. At times I've felt the view through my 12" Skywatcher were grey and unimpressive compared to my 20" Skywatcher, and I was worried that I'd therefore be even more disappointed with the views through this 8" scope, but it wasn't like that at all!! I was impressed how sharp the stars were, and just how many I was seeing and how pleasantly bright they were. I need to go back and compare with my other scopes again now!

I think it's going to take me a bit of time to get used to the right-angled finderscope which shows the view the correct way up. I find that at odds with the inverted view of the scope, and which is what I'm used to dealing with. Although I hasten to add it is alot more comfortable to use on a scope this size. Although I'm used to a 9 x 50 finderscope and I found the view through the 8 x 50 finder a bit small and dim, so I might change that one day.

I'm  a little disappointed with the adjustable azimuth mounts, (which you can slide back and forth to balance the scope to cater for heavy eyepieces etc). But the only way to move them is to lift the scope out of it's base and use an allen key to loosen two bolts which then allows you to move the position to where you think might be good, retighten and then put the scope back together and hope you got it about right! You can also adjust the amount of tension so you only have to get it about right, but I thought it would be designed in such a way that would enable the position to be altered while actually using the scope so you could feel and see whether it was balanced ok.

It might be that with a little more experimenting I find it's balanced to the eyepieces I use and I don't need to worry about it.

I need to get some batteries for the cooling fan. I've never had a solid tube dob before and so this is the first fan I've had, and am keen to try that out, although at the moment it's not cold enough to need it and the scope was ready to use immediately.

I really liked the roller bearings in  the base, and the whole scope was easy to move and position. I was also pleasantly surprised that objects seemed to stay in the FOV for quite a while without needing to constantly nudge the scope. (I was using the supplied 2" 30mm StellaLyra eyepiece but also a 14mm 82 degree Explore Scientific eyepiece).

Oh one other little grumble - I wish it had lifting handles on each side of the base rather than only one on the front and the eyepiece holder tray on the side. I feel I could have lifted the whole scope to move it if it had two handles.

So pleased with the optics though and the view which of course is the most important part! (It was also quick and easy to collimate with the large plastic handled collimation screws for the primary mirror).

I now need to learn how to find objects in the night sky without relying on GoTo, but that's long overdue! I've attached a terrible sketch of two easy to find objects!!

[JeremyS]

Excellent sketches and great write up 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

[Ratlet]

Ah.  Perfect.  A great report an some sketches.  Brilliant.

They make a good dob.  Got some foibles but nothing too major.  I'm a big fan of setting circles and a digital inclinometer on my Stellalyra, though I've just upgraded to Starsense (but lwaitng on clear skies to use that in anger.)

[bosun21]

Nice write on your new scope. Regarding the adjustable pivot points for the altitude movement on both my 8” and 12” I simply placed it in balance with my heaviest eyepiece inserted and haven’t adjusted it since. A good idea is to get yourself a magnet counterweight which you can simply move it up and down the tube to achieve balance. I have since fitted a starsense unit, multiple synta finder shoe adapter and simply re balance it with a movement of the counterweight. I bought my counterweight from Amazon and wrapped it in an old sock to protect the paintwork.