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Old 07-08-2019, 05:03 PM
ausastronomer (John Bambury)
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Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Shoalhaven Heads, NSW
Posts: 2,618
Quote:
Originally Posted by morls View Post
Hi Jeremy,

If your budget can include one or two quality eyepieces that would be good. The classified section here often has a selection of good ones. If you know what stock eyepieces are supplied with the scope, then you could complement these with one really nice one.
Excellent advice

Quote:
Originally Posted by morls View Post
In my experience with an 8" dob using a Telrad rather than the supplied finder scope was much easier. These are around $80 new I think?
That's a difficult one and he isn't really going to know the answer to that and whether he prefers an optical finder or a telrad, until he tries them both. School is out on that. Some people prefer an 8 or 9 x 50 Optical Finder and to starhop in the finderscope. Others prefer a Telrad and then starhop in the main scope.

On a scope I can comfortably get my eye/head behind/underneath the finderscope eyepiece, I much prefer a straight through finder to a Right Angle Correct Image finder (RACI). This allows you to sight along the centreline of the finderscope directly onto the sky, just like a TELRAD.

On my 18" Obsession I have an 8 x 50 Antares RACI and a TELRAD. On my 14" SDM I have a 9 x 50 Stellarvue Straight through and a Stellarvue Red Dot finder.

I definitely prefer the Stellarvue Straight through to the RACI finder, but put up with the RACI Finder. Conversely, I much prefer the TELRAD to the Stellarvue Red Dot.

This really is a case of "suck it and see"


Quote:
Originally Posted by morls View Post
Also worth investing a little in collimation equipment - this isn't hard to learn, and makes a significant difference to image quality with any reflector. I'm sure others with more knowledge could recommend the best way to go here.
Excellent advice again. I would recommend the Orion Collimating Eyepiece available from BINTEL. Once you learn and understand how to use it properly, it is more versatile and less prone to errors than a laser collimator. You could add a laser collimator at a later date as they do save a little bit of time when you just want to quickly adjust the tilt on the primary and or secondary and you know everything else involving secondary positioning and rotation is correct.

https://www.bintel.com.au/product/or...v=6cc98ba2045f

Cheers
John B
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