First Light report for 12" Lightbridge

[dobserver]

We unpacked and assembled the beast in next to no time, with great excitement. The base was already put together as it is an ex-showroom model (bargain). We then spent a while getting the feel of how it moves and setting the tension to our preference. As darkness fell we kept our fingers crossed as the wind carried on blowing clouds over, but by the time we had finished dinner our prayers had been answered and the sky was clear!! Woot!!

Carl carried the scope out and I lugged the base into position. Although it is big it is not too heavy in the separate parts. I was then allowed! to insert the 26mm wide angle eyepiece and take my first look…..I struggled to get it into focus – all I could see was a white blur, until Carl pointed out that I’d see better if I took the dust cover off the mirror! Doh!

Carl then adjusted the red dot finder, which took a few minutes but seemed fairly easy from where I was standing (cheers for that hun). First we looked at Vega as it was easy to find, being so bright. Then Jupiter obliged us and came out from behind the neighbour’s tree. Focusing on this we could tell the collimation was out as the right side was in focus, but the left side flared out. We could make out two moons on the left and one on the right. We decided to move the beast further up the garden so we could look at Polaris and try to sort out the collimation. Carl fiddled while I looked through the eyepiece, until we were happier with things. Bringing it back into focus brought a series of Ooohs and Ahhhs from both of us.

Cassiopeia was well visible, so I asked Carl to look up something interesting in there for me to find. He looked on Stellarium and came up with the open cluster M103 and told me where to look. I shot outside and quickly used the red dot finder to get to the approximate area, and was totally blown away to look through the eyepiece and see a triangle of bright stars with a concentration of other stars within its boundary. One lone star on the top left of the outer triangle spoiled the symmetry. I described what I was seeing to Carl and he confirmed that I was indeed looking at M103. Wow – my first night’s viewing and my first Messier object, found with ease by me, myself, and only me, with my very own telescope! What a feeling!!

The night had its frustrating moments (like the time we wondered if we could ring Steve the 4 minute collimation king and drag him down from Gloucestershire to help) but we had persevered and were rewarded for our patience (not my strongest suit, I have to admit). A bit more fishing on Stellarium and Carl decided on M32, another quick shufty about with the finder and WOW – there it was! The Ooohs and Aahs were coming thick and fast, and only a little bit of shoving the other out of the way to get another look. Carl then went back in to look on Stellarium again, and when he came back out I was still there wowing over the Andromeda Galaxy – a first in our astronomical relationship! He then nudged the scope just a little and we could see M32 and M110 in the same field of view. A-maz-ing!!!

After a good while on these objects I decided to move on to the Pleiades, as I noticed they were rising. I got them straight away and spent a long time trying to count all the stars I could see. I got up to over 50 before Carl pointed out I was only seeing half of M45. A little nudge of the beast and the other half came into view. I gave up counting! Lol My first night’s viewing and 4 Messier objects already – I am so hooked I can’t begin to tell you. We decided to call it a night as we have visitors and didn’t want to be too hanging in the morning, when we noticed the very annoying street light outside our neighbour’s house had just gone out – must have been 2am. So we set up again outside our front door to have a look at Jupiter. This time it was much more in focus with no glare to the left and the banding was very apparent. Not only that but we could now see 5 moons, the original two on the left and the one on the far right, but now we could see two close together just to the right of the planet.

How easy is this? No stressing about polar alignment (although I’m sure I will progress to that in the future) or wondering if we are on the right star. Simplicity, beauty and fantastic viewing all rolled into one. I am a very lucky girl!

Steph

[John]

Nice 1st light report Steph !.

I'm very pleased with my 12" Lightbridge. I've done some modifications to it to make it a bit more usable than it is "out of the box" - there is a very useful Yahoo group on the Lightbridge's which is worth joining - loads of advice on there about how to get the best out of the scopes.

I can't be too far from you if Steve is north of you in Gloucestershire - I'm based at Portishead, North Somerset.

I've had some wonderful views though my LB12 recently - I've posted a report in the observing section on my recent session with the Veil Nebula - simply wonderful . Wait until you see a globular cluster through it - just like the photos !.

Have fun with your Lightbridge

John

[Doc]

Dobs are so simple to use it's unreal.

Four DSO's in your first night is awesome Steph.

But I can feel Doc's Doofer is calling.....

[dobserver]

John I was lucky enough to see a cluster galaxy (M33?) through one of the 16" dobs at SSP - I think it was yours, Mick. That was one of the things that made me want to get into the game myself.

I am hankering after a Doc's Doofer already Mick, I think Carl has the program we need. We'll pick your brains when it comes to fitting it though....

[Doc]

It was Steve's dob you saw M33 through

[The Warthog]

Nice report! You are a lucky girl.

[vlebo]

Brilliant report ! I got all excited reading it and it reminded me of the time last year when I got my Flextube out for the first time.

May your enthusiasm never wane.

Vlebo

[michigander]

Fun, innit?

Traded my goto for an 8" dob a few days ago and tried it out last night. No set up; just plunk it down and wait for it to cool down. wonderful!

Dana

[Mikea]

Nice report! Glad you enjoyed yourselves - I can just imagine Carl running in and out to find new things for you to look at . Obviously the oooh.aahh factor was quite high - always a good sign!!

[dobserver]

Fun, innit?

Traded my goto for an 8" dob a few days ago and tried it out last night. No set up; just plunk it down and wait for it to cool down. wonderful!

Dana

How true - I am just loving it

So I won't be tripping over your wires next year then? lol

[michigander]

How true - I am just loving it

So I won't be tripping over your wires next year then? lol

I might put some out there just for fun...

Dana

[albedo0.39]

Hey Steph - great First light report and well done on bagging a few DSO's on the first outing - with a simple dob and a good map, the "ooo's and aaahhh's " will come thick and fast (and even quicker with one of Doc's Doofa's)

Coming to the collimation and tweaking, then as John mentioned, there are some "top tips" on the yahoo lightbridge forum

see here for more details

One thing you can do right now, is to consider getting stronger collimation springs for the primary mirror. The word on the street is that they are quite weak as std, although by now, Meade might well have done something about it.

If you really do need some help collimating, then I'd be only too pleased to make a house call. Just drop me a PM and we can arrange something (and I'll make sure you get some practise in as well !) - it's not hard - honest !

Congrats !

[dobserver]

Aww....bless!

We need a cloud free night to test what we have done already, but if we are still struggling then look to your inbox, we may just take you up on that offer....

A thousand thank you's for the sentiment......

[G4YVM]

Nice report. I hope you continue to enjoy!

David

[mdstuart]

WOW you are really enjoying the Dob. It is so easy to move around and point isn't it.

I think it is so rewarding to find things using this method...

There is just so much out there for your 12 inch you are going to have years of fun. Always look up the objects after you have looked at them to find out about how far away they are whether they are in our galaxy or beyond as well as that adds another diemnsion. I always like to come in and put the object in to google images to see how my view compares to photos and others views...

Enjoy!

Mark from North Bristol....