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Old 22-04-2019, 08:33 AM
Lukedw (Luke)
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Skywatcher Dobsonian GOTO Telescope

Hi All,

I'm new to this community and astronomy for that matter.

I recently acquired a Skywatcher Dobsonian GOTO Telescope from a friend who purchased it several years ago and it's been sitting in boxes and never setup until he gave it to me!

I tried to set it up, only to realise that the base is wider (10") than the telescope (8") (please excuse my lack of proper terminology).

Can anyone tell me if there is an easy way to make these two pieces match up? If not, would anyone be interested in the 10" base and 8" telescope if sold separately?

I've attached a few images to help make a little more sense of all this.

Many thanks in advance for your help.

Regards,
Luke
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  #2  
Old 22-04-2019, 10:32 AM
glend (Glen)
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Some friend. That is weird, obviously they are for different scopes. You could possibly make two wooden spacers to fit between the tube bearings and the base sides. It should not be hard. I would be concerned about clearance of the base at the bottom, because if you lower the tube bearing to the same level as the mounting screws the end of the scope looks like it would strike the base at the bottom.
Second thought is to just build a new base. Those pressed chipboard bases don't last very well, and a marine ply base would be a stronger long term choice. You could probably reuse the hardware, bearings etc. You would need to be fairly handy to build one, but they are pretty simple.
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Old 22-04-2019, 12:38 PM
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xelasnave
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Hi Luke welcome.

I bet you could add some material to pack things out.

I certainly would try that as it looks a great unit if you overlook that small problem.

Maybe a couple of circular spacers... stability may need to be addressed but some small triangle supports that wont get in the way...place them each side..that couls should work and not difficult at all.

My suggestion may seem difficult but really it should be easy … do some drawings think long and hard and eventually have a go...bolt them on should be stable as you need.


I would go to a bit of effort to get it together as when its working it is a great set up...


If you sell it I expect sell it as a unit as someone will take on the fix I expect..
alex
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Old 22-04-2019, 12:43 PM
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Maybe remove both sides reposition them... it is particle board so just relocate the screw holes or back fill the old ones with a resin type putty.
alex
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Old 22-04-2019, 02:37 PM
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gaseous (Patrick)
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The 8" and 10" skywatcher dobs have the same OTA length, so that's not a problem, and the housing on the altitude motor side of the tube seems to connect OK between 10" motor assembly and the bracket on the 8" tube, so hopefully the size/spacings of the bearings are identical between the 8" and 10" models.



You wouldn't be able to pack out the side closest to the altitude motor, but the gap on the side you've highlighted seems like a simple fix. Remove the two small roller bearings, fit a suitably strong piece of packing timber, and refix the roller bearings so they're now supporting the tube. The tube won't be exactly centred on the base as such, but hopefully this would make little to no difference to the pointing accuracy if you get your alignment right.
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Old 22-04-2019, 04:06 PM
Startrek (Martin)
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If you fabricate some spacers each side make sure your OTA is exactly centered in the altitude support cradle otherwise your Goto may be off target
The centre axis of the OTA should line up with the centre of the azimuth turntable or lazy Suzan

My 2 cents .......
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