First light with SW 10" (250) Flextube Auto

[solarwallace]

I received my scope on Wednesday from FLO after ordering on the Monday. I've been waiting for the clouds to go away ever since, although not as long as some people on here.

When the clouds did eventually go I was of course elsewhere at a BBQ, so my preparation wasn't ideal as I came back about 11:30pm to get the scope out in the back garden. It's best moved in two parts as it's quite heavy although I'm not a large build so it should be ok for most people. The scope itself is easily dropped on to the mount although this was more difficult in the dark as I'd forgotten to put my red head torch on at that point. then a tweak of the collimation was needed, just one turn on one of the primary mirror adjusters.

As mentioned, preparation wasn't ideal and neither is my back garden at this time of year. Everything seemed to be behind a neighbouring house or street light other than the plough which was directly overhead. I thought I'd spend some time looking at some of the galaxies around that but then I encountered a problem. The finder scope. How do you stand up but lay back horizontally when the scope's point straight up? This made it impossible to find anything. I need to purchase a right angle finder. I've read elsewhere that other people have had this issue but not having coming across it with my previous EQ based scope I didn't realise the extent of the problem. An EQ based scope is much higher so the angle of the finder has never been such a problem for me before.

After about 40 minutes of trying to get myself into impossible positions I realised Saturn had probably now moved around the neighbours house. So I moved the scope, worked out where it was and voila! There was Saturn and it's moons. I could even sit down and look through the scope so I sat there mesmerised for some time until high thin cloud rolled in and turned it into a mushy mess. Until this happened the clarity was fantastic. I used a 6mm plossi that came with an eyepiece set my wife bought me when I got my first scope.

So I'm very pleased with the optics and the ease of setup but the finder scope - which is a lovely piece of kit - is destined to be changed. There's also the question of wanting another eyepiece. And a barlow for my webcam.

It's looking clear for tonight so I'll be out again, a bit more prepared this time.

Steve

[RogerTheDodger]

Good report, and yes, finderscopes are a pain in the neck

[solarwallace]

I forgot to mention how smooth the focuser was compared to my SW 150P which used to have a fair bit of wobble in it. The focuser on the Flextube is smooth smooth smooth! The mount is also very stable whereas my EQ3-2 had a fair bit of wobble in it whenever I went near it.

Steve

[Space Cowboy]

Finderscope is not too big a problem with my auto dob as I use a goto handset so only need it for initial alignment but I can imagine its pretty impossible for those zenith areas. Will be interesting to see how you get on with the webcam that's what I'm mostly using mine for at the moment. I can recommend the 3x tal barlow.

[Spikey]

Nice one Steve !

Looking forward to hearing some more reports after tonight if it clears up.

I think the TAL x3 Barlows' are out of stock with FLO until the Autumn.

I'm toying with the idea of purchasing a TV x3 instead.

[Astro Imp]

Hi Steve,

Nice report.

Hope it stays good for to-night, look forward to reading all about it.

Good luck.

[solarwallace]

Thanks for commenting

Good to here the Tal's worth having. I've got to get a netbook to run the webcam although I should be resolving that this week or next with any luck. I'll let you know how I get on.

Steve

Finderscope is not too big a problem with my auto dob as I use a goto handset so only need it for initial alignment but I can imagine its pretty impossible for those zenith areas. Will be interesting to see how you get on with the webcam that's what I'm mostly using mine for at the moment. I can recommend the 3x tal barlow.

[solarwallace]

Hey Spikey

It's raining then sunny then raining then sunny so we'll see. I did wonder what was going on with the TAL's as there's no price on the website so thanks for that. Let us know how you get on with a TV x3 if you get one.

Steve

Nice one Steve !

Looking forward to hearing some more reports after tonight if it clears up.

I think the TAL x3 Barlows' are out of stock with FLO until the Autumn.

I'm toying with the idea of purchasing a TV x3 instead.