Dob platform first light.

[GazOC]

I used the platform last night to take some images of the moon last night.

http://stargazerslounge.co.uk/index.php?topic=7360.0

Even with just putting the platform roughly northwards the image stayed in the 8mm eyepiece for 15-20 minutes at x200. Plenty of time to get enough frames for stacking. I'd guess much longer is possible with even a quick drift alignment. I think this is going to be a good combo for Jupiter and Saturn (and maybe brighter DSOs) with the 14" Dob.

There was absolutely no vibration even at x350. The only downside for me was that there is no "off" button on the handset only "faster" and "slower", this means you have to turn the platform of and on at the base which kind of defeats the main point of having a handset.

All in all though, for ~£500 delivered its highly recommended of you've got a big scope that needs tracking, most other platform cost twice as much and more.

[russ]

Gaz, that sounds superb.

How is the 14" performing? I bet the deepsky is something else!

Russ

[GazOC]

How is the 14" performing? I bet the deepsky is something else!

Russ

The two things I noticed straight away is how easy it is to see mag 8-10 galaxies, no more "I know its in this FOV somewhere" and also how globular clusters look, they look better visually than most of the pictures you see online (that no exageration honestly).

Shoulda done it years ago!!

[geppetto]

Wonderful!

What a great bit of kit 8)

[Saso]

Very nice equipment. Where did you buy this platform?

Saso

[Astronut]

I'm looking into getting a dob. at the moment but I didn't realise there were tracking platforms available.

I'm intrigued. Have you still got this platform? Does it fit only certain OTA's? And finally, any links to it, please?

[GazOC]

A Dob platform will fit many different sizes of scope, but a small platform will not take a large scope (I hope that makes sense!). I still have the platform and it does everything it claims to, ie. keeps an object in the FOV while I'm looking at it.

http://www.roundtableplatforms.com/

[Astronut]

Thanks for the link - interesting product.

I'm having trouble visualizing how it works though. I can see it working if you're observing something north or south near the meridian where the tracking angle isn't steep but what about east or west - surely at UK latitudes, the angle required would be significantly more than the 7 degree angle mentioned on the site. I imagined it would be something like a wedge but it looks essentially level :? I'm probably missing something here.