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Look at the size of that thing......

Astro_Baby

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Astro_Baby

Astro_Baby

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Me.....ummm quite a few, too many really.

Scopes

Skywatcher 200P - its very heavily modded, rotating rings, moonlite focuser, fan, flocking and additional finder shoe.

Skywatcher 250P - going up for sale when I get round to it.

Polarex Model 114 - Classic 1970s scope.

Unitron Model 114 - Classic 1960s scope - same as above but with different branding - will be sold as soon as its mount is ready.

Skywatcher Skymax Pro 180 - Never yet been used might be sold depending on how it performs.

TAL 100RS - The only scope I'll NEVER sell

Tal 1 - Undergoing rebuild, bought as a test bed for an idea I have.

Mounts

Skywatcher HEQ5 - Blackops special - :glasses1: Modded by me in a few ways and tuned to perfection - you wont ever find one as well behaved as mine. Quiet like a ghost and zero play.

Skywatcher EQ6 - The White Witch - she's being tuned at the moment and regulated to be as good as my HEQ5 after which one of the mounts will be sold off. Having a few issues with its DEC axis at the moment.

Unitron 114 Mount - under restoration

2x TAL mounts one with wooden tripod the other with a pillar.

Most of its been bought up on a whim but a lot of it will be sold off this year to make space. The flats too small for this many scopes.

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UTMonkey

UTMonkey

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I see no one has posted a photo of really big binoculars yet...

So here you go, folks - the legendary RB-10's from JMI Telescopes.

250mm f/4.5 for each eye. This baby easily goes from 28x to 170x with matched eyepieces. The handlebars have motorized focus, inter-pupil adjustment, and collimation.

The views are stunning, but it pretty much fills up the back of the SUV. The tube is about 40 kg, the small pier mount is about 10 kg. It pretty much takes two people to assemble/disassemble it, but it has wheels on the pier and a sort of tow-bar handle that lets you move it about from the garage to the patio and back easily.

I love it! :)

Dan

You would need eyes pretty far apart to see through those :o

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Bigdaddyjeff

Bigdaddyjeff

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Wow wow wow...what an awesome thread. I'm currently thinking of upgrading to a second scope real soon and thinking of maybe a 200P or a 250P....it's great to actually see the size of them in relation to something else and someone! :)

Thanks everyone :o

Gaz

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Zakalwe

Zakalwe

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Something else to consider is that the 'scope OTA and mount might just be the foundation for a complete system of add-ons and accessories.

Here's mine now mounted up with a guide-scope, guide-camera cables, camera shutter control. There's a plastic toolbox on the floor below it containing a power supply for the mount, power supply for the camera, USB hub and power supply and other bits and bobs. The extra weight means that the second counterweight is needed on the mount.

I can just about lift the complete assembly, but wouldn't consider trying to carry it out to the garden.

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Zakalwe

Zakalwe

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How long does that lot take to set up and align?

I wish that I had the clear skies so I could practice it down to a fine art!

Setup isn't too bad. It lives as it is in that photo, in what was a small dining room, right beside some french doors leading to the garden. I whip the dual mount bar (c/w 'scopes) and counterweights off the mount, carry the assembled mount out to the patio and polar align (using either a simple iPhone app or EQMOD). At this stage I am not using drift alignment (I can get 3 minute unguided subs without star trails doing just that setup).

Mount the scopes back in one go onto the mount (the correct position is marked on the dual-mount bar). The counterweight positions are marked on the bar to make balancing easier. By the time I have ran the USB cables back into the house, sorted the power out and hooked up the laptop the 'scope has started to cool.

Probably 25 minutes all in.

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yeti monster

yeti monster

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25 minutes, as a Dob user that would have seemed like forever. But now that I've moved on up/down/sideways to Autostar I can fully appreciate this is a reasonable set up time. I've not had opportunity to gain much experience yet, but I'm hoping to be able to get set up in short order, otherwise an obsy will be the next BIG purchase at Castle Yeti.

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Zakalwe

Zakalwe

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25 minutes, as a Dob user that would have seemed like forever. But now that I've moved on up/down/sideways to Autostar I can fully appreciate this is a reasonable set up time. I've not had opportunity to gain much experience yet, but I'm hoping to be able to get set up in short order, otherwise an obsy will be the next BIG purchase at Castle Yeti.

And with our crappy weather, 25 minutes can make or break an evening's worth.:)

I am trying to get into imaging, so I sorta need all that gubbins. For purely visual, I bung the 8" Nexstar out, do an alignment (all of 5 minutes worth) and I can be viewing in less than 10 minutes.

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spaceboy

spaceboy

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One thing that is very strange is that when seen in the shop, it really does look small or at least reasonable in size, but when it comes home, it really is massive!

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By the looks of those pics your gona get to see more stars in that 5" than I ever could in my 10" dob :)

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  • 3 weeks later...
Abb

Abb

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A lot of beginners are often amazed at how big scopes can be and recently there have been at least two threads I have seen where people have been amazed at the size of the box that arrived at their door after oredring online and never having seen what a scope looks like in its physical form...in some cases this leads to mighty disappointment when the would be astronomer realises the scope is so big he cant lift it, store it, transport etc.

You're very right! When I got my Celestron 120 Omni refractor last fall (got it before the Skywatcher 8" Dob ) I was shocked by the size & weight even though I had read thee specs before ordering. Even the 8" Skywatcher's size & weight surprised me. I was tempted to upgrade again to a 12" Skywatcher until I realized the extra 4 inches meant doubling the weight of the 8" one - I changed my mind. Besides, my wife thought I was moving too fast with this hobby considering I got my 1st scope (4.5" newton) late last July....

Perhaps AB it's time to get a super small scope, perhaps one you could stick in a large purse.....like a Coronado PST (I wonder if my wife would notice it :(:) )

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angusb1

angusb1

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What's the biggest scope I'd fit on the back seat of a VW Polo? I'm trying to gauge this from the pics, turning my head sideways isn't helping either..

I'm thinking maybe an 8-10" newt?

My F4.3 10" newt just fits across the back seats of a Ford Focus but only just. HTH

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Abb

Abb

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Most of its been bought up on a whim but a lot of it will be sold off this year to make space. The flats too small for this many scopes.

Nice collection!!!!! So get a bigger flat........ :o

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Si W

Si W

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brilliant idea maybe it would be possible to see some comparisons on meade and celestrons eg etx,nexstar etc please.

This is my Meade LXD75 sn10, with an ETX90 piggybacked , a bit weighty, these scopes have glass at the front and the back.

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Abb

Abb

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Just to add to the gallery, this is my Meade 6" F/8 refractor. I'm 6 ft tall - it's a hefty scope even compared to me !:

Nice!!!! Hind sight being 20/20 I wish I had gone a bit bigger with my refractor. Mind you, I've only had it since early fall....:o

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RobH

RobH

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Here's my old 14 inch Meade LX200GPS, just before I sold it.

It was at SGL4, and was the only time I took it into the field.

It took 3 of us to set it up....the tube and forks weigh 10 stone alone!!

Great scope though, and in retrospect I should have kept it.....ah well :o

Cheers

Rob

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JamesT

JamesT

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Bit late in posting this photo of me and my Celestron C10-NGT but ..... Also thought you might like close-up of my new Low Profile Crayford focuser and Celestron 8-24mm Zoom eyepiece :o

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