SW 150P CLASSIC DOB STARSENSE EXPLORER MOD AND FIRST LIGHT.

[paulastro]

I chose to do this as I needed a more manageable Dob to use as a 'buddy' to my 10 inch Starsense Explorer Dob. I have a minor heart procedure and hip replacement to undertake and at times I am unable to use the 10 inch until both procedures are completed. 

The SW was delivered Tuesday and modded on Wednesday ready for first light Wed evening.

The pics below show the modded scope.  A multi-foot finder device is used to mount both the Starsense phone holder and finder on the single Vixen finder base on the telescope.

The orange ' T ' adapter was made by another SGL member.  Four weights I made from four Neodymium Magnetic Bases with an M6 thread and four plastic knobs with a female M6 thread screwed onto them.

These are partly to make up for the weight of the Starsense phone holder, smart phone, finder, multi-finder foot adapter and an eyepiece that are at the other end of the tube when the scope is in use.

In practice, it was useable by tightening the two handle tighteners on each axis, but there were limits.  No  problems  with a medium size single eyepiece, but very awkward with a Maxbright 1 binoviewer, two Ortho eyepieces and a barlow lens at low altitudes - unless you have the grip of Desperate Dan!

Of course, Celestron take this into account when designing their Starsense Explorer range of telescopes, positioning the phone holder more toward the middle of the tubes so it will all balance.  Be aware of this if you are planning on modding a scope.  

In this case, I can make some more weights, depending how much I use the binoviewer with it.  With the 10 inch Celestron Starsense Dob, there are no such problems of course.

First light was on Wednesday night from 11.00 pm to 00.50 am.   In summary, it all worked well in practice, the Starsense system pointing me, without any problem, to all my targets - as it always does.

Optically the scope performs extremely well.  It had arrived with the secondary perfectly aligned with the mirror a tad off.  This was easily fixed before I went out. I have had several 150P Dobs over the years and to my eyes none of them ever had any issues.

I used an ES 24/68, Morpheus 17.5, Celestron x2 X-Cel LX barlow. the Maxbright binoviewer and 24 and 16.8 Orthos.

Objects observed inclued M13, M27, M57; M11  M45, Double Cluster, ET Cluster and a few double stars plus Jupiter and Saturn.  The transparency was quite good though the seeing was poor, so it wasn't really a good night for doubles and planetary.  None the less, in my view the scope performed as I expected from a good six inch scope in the prevailng conditions.

It did pass another test I hadn't planned for.  I was observing one of my favourite objects - Caroline's Rose/NGC 7789 at 12.45 when it started to be dimmed by some cloud arriving.  Looked over my shoulder to see some alarmingly large, dark clouds racing toward me.  Got the endcap on and my phone removed from the holder just as the rain came down. I managed to get all the kit into the observatory (garage) before anything was really soaked.

I wouldn't  have been so lucky, with my lessened physical prowess if I had been using my 10 inch Dob.

Good choice!

 

Edited September 21, 2023 by paulastro
Typo

[RobertI]

Looks great Paul. A six inch F8 dob is a is a very versatile and hugely capable instrument. I’ve had some tremendous views through my 150PL, particularly DSOs and close doubles. And of course it’s really quick to cool down.