Dobs in tranquil surroundings (with bald chap to show scale!)

[justin138]

Me and my toys:

Justin

[GordonCopestake]

Nice toys! You need a chainsaw too by the looks of your observing location lol

[justin138]

Good for the ol' light pollution though............

[The Warthog]

Yeah, but I imagine that shiny object to the right of your scopes bounces ambient light all over the place. Nice scopes, though. :pirate:

[OXO]

Great looking scopes 8)

[gsjag]

And the smelly scope must give a real view of satisfaction! How do they compare Justin?

Gary

[justin138]

Well, so far, I've only used a 12.5mm eyepiece in the Smellyscope as it's the only 1.25" eyepiece I have so my only views have been at X105 magnification!

I tried it in anger last night and a few probs have come to light. The tube box is binding slightly on the base (not square methinks), the balance still isn't right and my homemade spider is truly c*** and doesn't allow totally accurate collimation. These are all teething problems though and the views are still pretty good through it with a nice Airey disk and sharp all the way to the edge of the (limited) FOV.

As for how it compares to the Revelation 10", I haven't done a side by side comparison yet but I will once I get a 25mm 1.25" eyepiece. First impressions are that the Revelation gives more satisfying views but that is 10" as opposed to 7" so I guess it should! For one thing, the Smelly is a good deal lighter which may help my ailing shoulder/neck problem which I've recently developed (another story!)

It's been a great experience though, building a telescope from scratch, and to show people and say "I made that!" is immensely satisfying and the fact it actually works is a nice bonus too!

Justin

PS: Actually WH, the shiny object is usually covered as it gets somewhat cold so no worries about reflections etc!

[gsjag]

Excellent learning experience and good progress to. At least you've identified the probelms and can sort them.