Hello from New Jersey!

[Viktor_L]

Hi all,

Viktor here, just started on the path of amateur astronomy 2 months ago with the purchase of an Explore Scientific Hybrid 10" dobsonian, pictured below. I sewed a basic shroud for it (not going to spend 80 dollars on a piece of cloth!), rotated the upper tube 45 degrees, and added a custom digital setting circle for it with 3d printed encoder mounts. Altitude encoder is the device mounted on the side bearing; the circuitry, built around an ESP32, is that blue thing at the back (wrapped in painter's tape for now)

 

I've used the telescope a fair bit, and intend to use it a lot more! Sharing a photo I took of the moon early this month, using a DSLR attached to the focuser with a Baader MPCC and a T-ring adapter, and using prime focus:

 

Looking forward to contributing to and learning from this forum

 

 

 

[Mr Spock]

Hi, welcome to SGL 

[Norris Adams]

Welcome Viktor,

That's one chunky piece of kit for a start-up!

You obviously don't believe in taking a gentle climb to the summit!!

Norris

Edited July 30 by Norris Adams

[Sunshine]

Boy, you’ve jumped right into the deep end! Welcome to SGL!

[Tony Acorn]

Hello and welcome. That's pretty clever as a start Viktor! I find my 10" dob is a bit too much to drag about these days so have gone down to a 6" reflector on an HEQ5 mount - the joys of getting old.

Tony

[Floater]

Welcome. Hope you have lots of fun. 🙂

[paulastro]

Welcome Viktor.  Nice scope to start with, and the digital setting circles will certainly help.  I 'cheated' and bought a Celestron Starsense Expolorer Dob😊.

[Coco]

Welcome Viktor,

I'm sure you'll enjoy it here,  greetings from Preston England

 

[Viktor_L]

Wow, I didn't expect such a warm welcome, thanks so much!

I do recognize I may have overdone it with this telescope, and my wife was trying to convince me to start smaller as I've been known to abandon hobbies :D. This one is different though. The first time I had the scope out I was up all night trying to find as many as I can of the objects in Sky Safari's Tonight's Best list. Then a couple of hours before sunrise, Saturn came up, and seeing it for the first time is probably the second best nature experience of my life, second only to seeing the April 2024 total eclipse (which is actually what started my interest in the celestial). A crescent moon followed shortly after, and seeing the craters in such detail was just incredible. Nothing prepares you for the experience.

Since then I've been quite addicted. I would use the scope daily if I could but because of weather, and the fact that I have to drive quite a bit to get reasonably dark skies mean that I could realistically only do it every couple of weeks. Wish there were darker skies close to me - had to drive 12 hours total to get to Bortle 2 at Cherry Springs State Park in Pennsylvania and 7 hours total to get to Bortle 3 (I think?) in the Catskills in New York. Just last weekend was the first time I saw Jupiter and Mars. I think I saw Neptune and Uranus too but could not resolve the disc using 10mm eyepeice, so I couldn't be sure.

I am sure you guys understand the feeling when you started out!

 

[Viktor_L]

@Tony Acorn I understand - even for me this 10 inch dob is right at the limit of the weight I'm willing to deal with! This telescope gets taken to a lot of different places so I have to carry it in and out. I think any larger aperture is out of the question for me!

 

@paulastro I read about many people buying smaller StarSense telescopes and moving over the StarSense module to a Dobsonian. I originally thought of doing the same, until I read about people making DIY DSCs. In reality it was a lot of trouble and time spent, and I probably did not save much with this route compared to buying a small StarSense scope

[paulastro]

4 hours ago, Viktor_L said:

Wow, I didn't expect such a warm welcome, thanks so much!

I do recognize I may have overdone it with this telescope, and my wife was trying to convince me to start smaller as I've been known to abandon hobbies :D. This one is different though. The first time I had the scope out I was up all night trying to find as many as I can of the objects in Sky Safari's Tonight's Best list. Then a couple of hours before sunrise, Saturn came up, and seeing it for the first time is probably the second best nature experience of my life, second only to seeing the April 2024 total eclipse (which is actually what started my interest in the celestial). A crescent moon followed shortly after, and seeing the craters in such detail was just incredible. Nothing prepares you for the experience.

Since then I've been quite addicted. I would use the scope daily if I could but because of weather, and the fact that I have to drive quite a bit to get reasonably dark skies mean that I could realistically only do it every couple of weeks. Wish there were darker skies close to me - had to drive 12 hours total to get to Bortle 2 at Cherry Springs State Park in Pennsylvania and 7 hours total to get to Bortle 3 (I think?) in the Catskills in New York. Just last weekend was the first time I saw Jupiter and Mars. I think I saw Neptune and Uranus too but could not resolve the disc using 10mm eyepeice, so I couldn't be sure.

I am sure you guys understand the feeling when you started out!

 

Viktor, I still have that sense of amazement and awe, after over fifty years observing the night sky.

[paulastro]

4 hours ago, Viktor_L said:

@Tony Acorn I understand - even for me this 10 inch dob is right at the limit of the weight I'm willing to deal with! This telescope gets taken to a lot of different places so I have to carry it in and out. I think any larger aperture is out of the question for me!

 

@paulastro I read about many people buying smaller StarSense telescopes and moving over the StarSense module to a Dobsonian. I originally thought of doing the same, until I read about people making DIY DSCs. In reality it was a lot of trouble and time spent, and I probably did not save much with this route compared to buying a small StarSense scope

Viktor.  As well as my Starsense Dob, I have another Starsense 'module' I bought from another SGL member some time ago. I can use it on any telescope with a Vixen finder foot with the aid of a 3D printed adapter by another kind SGL member. Hence, I can, and do, use Starsense with any of my scopes.  It works so well, I wouldn't want to be without it. 🙂.

[bosun21]

Welcome to SGL 👋. Nice big scope to start out with. I also have a 10" go to dobsonian among my scopes. A small word of advice is that maybe you should think of putting tensioning cords on the DIY shroud as it appears to be sagging into the light path in the photo. Good luck with your new hobby.

[Coco]

Viktor

Those thousands of double stars are light pollution resistant,  I have a 12 inch dob and have transitioned away from imaging due to frustration from clouds, LP, limited time.  Double stars are spectacular, seeing tiny points of different colours are fun and easily found, I have a Nexus II  but now hardly use it, I find a Telrad gets me close and 30 or 40mm eyepiece on target quicker. maybe one day I will motorise it and get some binoviewers for a more relaxing experience. 

So settle in with us, its not like CN here, less boasting more banter, lots of highly experienced members here to entertain you.

 

 

 

[Pete Presland]

Hi welcome to SGL from Pete in Bedfordshire 🙂

[orion25]

Welcome, Viktor. I'm south of you in Georgia. Nice rig!

Reggie

[wookie1965]

A warm welcome to SGL