GSO Newt first light.

[adamsp123]

I took the plunge and bought a GSO 200mm F4 Newtonian "astrograph".

Although I was very pleased with my purchase of a secondhand Meade F4 10 254mm SNT for imaging there were a couple of things that were getting to be bit of a problem.

As I don't have an observatory setting up the Meade everytime was getting tiresome, especially as often as not the clouds would roll in, and as I am getting to be at that certain age I was going at a 10 GPM (grunts per minute) hefting the thing around.

Secondly, dewing of the front corrector plate was getting me down.

I also wanted a fast short tube scope, so..... the GSO.

I ordered it from Bern at Modernastronomy, they come from TS germany BTW, ordered Wed, dispatched from TS Thurs, at my work by Friday, not bad eh, courtesy of UPS.

Comes in a simple sturdy cardboard box with only expanded polystyrene blocks at each end but they do the job fine as the scope is not heavy . It comes with a larger secondary mirror, finderscope, cooling fan and scope rings but no dovetail. The stock focuser is a low profile dual speed crayford and seems quite seviceable with a nice extension ring included so Cameras and EPs should focus OK. Although I intend to swap it with the JMI electric focuser I have on the Meade, so I did not go for the imaging alternative Bern sells with the Baader steeltrack focuser.

It is well made and should have a better than average mirror, time will tell on that front I am sure. Collimation was well out but using astro_babys excellent guide I got it reasonably collimated using a cheshire collimator, later star test showed it slightly out. Now F4 mirrors are very sensitive to collimation or more to the point lack of! One advantage of the meade is the secondary is part of the corrector plate and is for all intents and purposes fixed.

The scope seems tiny when compared to the SNT as you will see from the photo, and was a scoosh to setup.

Sorry but I hardly used an EP, only to align my gotos as I have virtually gone fully over to the darkside of AP, the photons be with me!

A quick look though did show nice optics with the usual coma at the edges, again the SNT wins here due to the corrector plate, but I use a coma corrector for imaging so that will not be a concern.

Bottom line is I am chuffed to bits with it now and I hope it will be a keeper. Early pics using it show real promise.

Picture below shows Meade 10" SNT at 15 Kgs on the right, my cobbled together 50mm finder-guider with QHY5 in the middle and the GSO 200mm Newt at 9 Kgs on the left.

Cheers Pete

[philsail1]

The "GSO" 200mm Astrograph looks very nice Peter!

Very fast at "f4." (Looks similar to my Orion Optics 200mm f4.5 "Europa" Newtonian).

It looks like it's going to be a lot lighter in weight than your 10" Newt. Much easier and quicker to set up.

All we need is a few more clear nights - it's been a poor summer up to now!

Best wishes,

philsail1

[adamsp123]

Cheers for that Phil,

It is a lot lighter, I now need to work out what to do with the 10", it is a great "little" scope so I might keep it for visual but I haven't decided yet as I nearly do all AP these days and I got the excellent 120ED for visual/AP.

Hope you got all your kit sorted, which scope are using most.....oh that's a stupid question as we haven't had more than a couple of nights of clear skies.

best rgds Pete

[Rossco72]

Now you have had this scope a while Pete, what are your thoughts?

It is a tempting price and f4 seems appealing.

[yeti monster]

Build a Dob mount for your SNT and return to the bright side of life, Visual!

[Coco]

Now you have had this scope a while Pete, what are your thoughts?

It is a tempting price and f4 seems appealing.

Ditto, I would like to hear more news?

[Tim]

Pete's swapped it for a MN190 IIRC.

I have the F4 GSO though. Its the same more or less as the other f4 cheap newts on the market.

You get what you pay for really. I have modified mine, stronger springs, flocked etc but I dont use it. The MN190 costs a lot more but is worth every penny of the extra

[derekm]

It's worth checking out Telskop Service's website. When I bought my 8" Pyrex Skywatcher around 2005, I saved £80 on the UK price and the shipping was the same (less than some!) as shipping within the UK. Scope ordered pm Monday, arrived 10am Wednesday!! Someone there speaks English and they are great to deal with.