Time to de-lurk & introduce myself

[lost_in_space]

Hi all,
What a great asset this site is! My name is Brian, and I live in Sheffield Tasmania . I am the owner of a gifted Tasco 114x900 reflector which has not served to dim my enthusiasm yet despite it's best efforts!

I am in the procrastination phase of buying a real 'scope.

As I live in a flat in the centre of town my inclination is to buy something that is portable such as an ED80, but I do not have too far to travel to get to some excellent dark sky sites in the mountain areas to the south of town, so the temptation is there to get something just a little larger, like a 10" or 12" dob! I won't get into my considerations so far re goto's, larger apo's, sct's, mounts etc!

The Meade Lightbridge range look like they may fit the bill for both size and portability, and they are in the right price bracket so I would be interested in any comments re these scopes from members who have experienced them.

My real interest is in DSO's so obviously a dob would be a better choice, but I am also enthralled by the wide field views that I have witnessed through an Orion ED as well.

Decisions descisions .

Eventually I would like to get into astrophotography, but I have a lot more to learn yet about telescopes, astronomy and photography before I take the plunge, and it's softly softly as far as the budget is concerned.

I have been spoiled by a friends 14" LX200GPS, which regretably is way out of my price range. I still get to play with it when I visit him though, but this is not often enough as he lives on the other side of the island and works offshore.

I would love to make it to the upcoming IIS astro camp, however I have just started a new job and will not have accumulated enough leave credit by then. Next one!

If there are any other members in Tassie, especially on the NW coast please make yourselves known, maybe we could organise our own star party.

Regards to all, and let the dob v refractor debate begin again!
Brian

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

Howdy Brian and welcome. It sounds as though you have done some good homework on scopes.

If your mate works off-shore you should look after his 14" LX200GPS scope for him while he is away at work all the time LOL!

There are several members in Tassie. Acropolite, davidpretorius, Vermin (Hobart) and others.

Enjoy your time here and good luck in the scope decision.

[Photon]

Hi Brian,
Great to hear from you. Near Sheffield would be immaculate viewing I'd expect. You'll get a lot out of IIS site too. I'm a launcestonian and 12 months into this challenging hobby!! I use a 200mm GSO Dob at this stage. I used to meet with Peter Sayers of Devonport at a farm near Latrobe where he introduced me to all sorts of things astronomical. He has a 300mm Dob and a 14" SCT I'm not sure of the brand. He also does photography you'll see his name on the site http://www.apstas.com/astrotas/ his email is included there, tell him I mentioned to contact him. He is into Honda road bikes and regularlly rides out your way too. I meet monthly with 4 others from Launceston at my place in Bridgenorth near Legana, nice dark skies mostly. We all participate in IIS and Moonman places a notice here when we meet. Kind regards Ian Gillespie.

[davidpretorius]

Hi Brian,

there are 4 of us in lton and we plan to get to devonport soonish to catch up with another astronomer in january / february.

two of us have 8" dobs i have a motorized 10" dob and there is 1 x 12" dob.

We get together every month when there is a new moon, and you are most welcome to attend.

I am trying to find a site for a 2007 tassie star camp and have thought of sheffield a few times, but not sure of the southerly aspect with the mountains.

Look at the end of the day, a dob is the best $ performance. With the light bridges, my initial thoughts are that the 16" will be great, but whether going to a truss design for 8" / 10" / 12" is really worth.

Eventually, i will go to the big end of town ie sct's etc, but i am wrapped in what i am doing at the moment.

To get to where i am today ie my dob motoized and doing planetary and rudimentary deep space imaging, i have spent the better part of $2000.

The dob is great for deep space and planets, but i will be buying a ed80 down the track for those lovely wider field of view images!

we have to catch up. I am going to a star camp in ballarat on the boat early march. Another tassie iis member moonman is flying over, so if you want to see a range of scopes, that will be a perfect time!

[acropolite (Phil)]

Welcome to IIS Brian, I'm one of the L'ton members as well. Lonny isn't that much further than Devonport from Sheffield, probably an extra 40 minutes. Depending on your needs and budget I would recommend either a 10 inch or 12 inch dob. Unless you have the need to dismantle for transport I would be inclined to go for one of the GS dobs as the difference in price between that and the lightbridge will buy you one or several quality EP's depending on your preferece. If you can go the extra money, GS are bringing out a 16 inch (truss??) dob in March, Andrews Communications are advertising them at around $2499 from memory. The deep sky performance of the 16 inch would be better than the 14 inch Meade.

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

Originally Posted by A croppa light

as the difference in price between that and the lightbridge will buy you one or several quality EP's depending on our preferece

LOL! Are you choosing the EP's for him Phil?

[lost_in_space]

Every time I go to post a response there is more to respond to! First off, to the Lonny guys, count on seeing me sometime soon, and in Devonport too.

David, I think I know the perfect site for a camp, I have a friend who owns an accomodation business in Staverton up in the high country. That is just up the road from the Promised Land, around the corner from Paradise, near the Village of Lower Crackpot just past Nowhere Else (for the benefit of you North Islanders) it's a 10 minute drive from Sheffield.

Part of the property is a sports ground that has a concrete based basketball court covered in astroturf, a perfect flat base for telescopes. It is at the top of a hill and the highest point around for quite a way. About a 200 degree land view, and pretty well the whole sky. As you know the tourist trade dies after Easter, and he has many weekends without any guests exept when there is rowing on at Lake Barrington. My mate with the Meade wants to take it up there sometime as he reckons it would be a great observing site. Other facilities include a games room, spa, sauna, Internet kiosk, bbq, gym equipment, etc etc etc. PM or email me for a link to his website if you are interested.


If you like what you see I can contact him and sound him out. Let me know
.

Thanks all for the great responses.

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

and Lost

[hogly52 (Graeme)]

Lost in Space ,

And before gaa_Ian gets in:

GO THE DOB ,
GO THE DOB , & in case there's any doubt
GO THE DOB .

They're a great instrument, minimal set-up, instant gratification . I'm glad I started that way .

,
Graeme

[acropolite (Phil)]

BTW Brian, if you are considering astrophotography, it may also be worth considering coming over to the dark side and looking at a go-to setup.

[davidpretorius]

Originally Posted by acropolite

BTW Brian, if you are considering astrophotography, it may also be worth considering coming over to the dark side and looking at a go-to setup.

naaaaaa

check out my dob with motors!!!!

any way for great astrophotography sell the house or get a ed80 with tracking and a canon 350d!!!

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

naaaaaa

check out my dob in an EQ mount!!!!

At least starting with a basic dob you get the option of leaving it as a push-to, motorising it, Argo-Navis'ing it, EQ'ing it, fork mounting it, etc etc.

Very versatile scopes the old Reflectors! And of course, the bigger the better!!

[davidpretorius]

actually, the extra 2" is worth the $$. If you have a wagon ,then transporting is easy. If you have a tiny car, then 8" is probably the smallest.

Ken is right, you can't really go wrong.

Get the 12" if you can afford it, Ken and I compared the 10" and 12" and the extra focal length 1.5m to 1.25m and also the extra light made saturn extra special.

[Rodstar (Rod)]

Welcome Lost in Space! Great to have another Tasmanian join the Forum!

As you can see already from the response, our forum is fabulous in how it links people up to observe together. That is the biggest benefit I have gained from being on the forum. I strongly recommend that you follow through in the invitations and get out there observing and making friends ASAP.

To put in my two-bob's worth, I'd suggest you go on a few observing sessions with the others on this thread before you decide which scope is for you. There are so many different considerations when chosing a scope. It is simply not possible to work out by reading stuff on the 'net what will work best. In particular, the logistics of getting the scope out to a dark site with the actual physical size of the scope, the set-up procedure, what EPs will work best etc, are all best assessed by meeting with others and playing with their scopes and equipment first.

I did not follow the above advice about trying before buying. I bought my scope just around the same time as I joined this forum. I have been very lucky. I love my scope. But, I must admit that if I had my time again (this is strictly "off the record") I might get a Dob, rather than the SCT, because of a dob's superior performance inch for inch when viewing DSO's, and because with a Dob, you have more change left over for what will become the most expensive aspect of the hobby in time....eyepieces.

As for your interest in astrophotography, as you will see from the threads where people have posted their images, you can do just about anything with just about anything, given the know-how and necessary add-ons. I'd focus more on feeding your immediate interest in observing, and tackle the imaging issue down the track!

Good luck, and welcome aboard.

[davidpretorius]

Originally Posted by Rodstar

But, I must admit that if I had my time again (this is strictly "off the record") I might get a Dob, rather than the SCT

your secret is safe with us.........

[ving (David)]

lol rod

welcome aboard :lost in space" aka brian was it?


get what you can afford... thats what i say. if at the mo all that is is a small dob then go that way... you can put it on an Eq mount later

if you can aford goto right now you might as well go for it

[asimov (John)]

Welcome to IIS mate. I won't give my opinion on what sort of telescope you should be buying lol, but I will say aperture wins in the DSO 'visual' department.

[Robert_T]

Welcome to IIS Lost,


I thought it rained 300 days of the year on the NW Tassie coast - maybe you should get a radio dish - sorry, I couldn't resist

Trying to decide on that first real scope can be a confusing and sometimes frustrating experience - bit of a pleasure and pain thing - it's fun to consider and dream all the possibilities though.

There's lot's of good advice below. I've never owned a Dob, but if DSO's are your thing it's hard to argue with the aperture per $ and as several have said it can always be made drivable later for photography. Perhaps Tassie could become "Dob State" (sorry Phil)

cheers,

[davidpretorius]

Originally Posted by Robert_T

Perhaps Tassie could become "Dob State" (sorry Phil)

cheers,

phil doesn't count any more, he is a moderator!!!

[lost_in_space]

I have just come back from a jaunt to Strahan on the West Coast, 60 - 70 kmh winds with horizontal rain whipping up from the Antarctic, and I couldn't see the other side of the road, never mind the sky!

I took my little reflector and my bino's, and never got them out of the car. We had intentions of spending the rest of the xmas break there but...

As for where I live, I haven't seen a patch of clear sky here since well before the silly season started, and it does not look like improving this side of '06. At least it's not raining and the BOM are threatening fine weather for 1/1. I will believe them if it happens.

There must be too many new scopes out there for the weather to be this bad for this long!