My scope arrived this morning, a day earlier than I expected. I was at work and no one was home to take delivery so it is now back at the couriers depot in Devonport and they won't be up this way again until next week.
If I want it for this weekend (which I do), I will have to go and pick it up myself after work this afternoon. The big question is will the carton fit in my wagon? I have measured up for the scope itself and it will fit, but I don't know about the size of the shipping carton.
Does anyone know the shipping dimensions for a GSO 12" dob carton?
My scope arrived this morning, a day earlier than I expected. I was at work and no one was home to take delivery so it is now back at the couriers depot in Devonport and they won't be up this way again until next week.
If I want it for this weekend (which I do), I will have to go and pick it up myself after work this afternoon. The big question is will the carton fit in my wagon? I have measured up for the scope itself and it will fit, but I don't know about the size of the shipping carton.
Does anyone know the shipping dimensions for a GSO 12" dob carton?
get a slab of VB and bribe a mate to lend you his UTE...
VB... Do people actually that? I would prefer to keep my mates not alienate them!
I keep the good stuf for myself and give away VB on the drive-through specials...
as fro transporting scopes.
I'll post a pic later of my custom case I had made for my LX200. It is made from allie, has wheels, handels and six locks on it to keep everything inside and safe. It has flown to two continents already, with the tripod straped to the top.
but best I ever saw ( sorry to hijack your thread mate... send me the bill ) was a young chap back in africa, with his Dobb in a home amde side-car set-up, attached to a scooter... must try and get you a pic... talk about dedicated.
As for big scopes, well when I bought my crewman, the justification to the wife was...I NEED IT FOR MY WORK...!!! , butr later she found me measuring the scope box to see if it would fit under the hardtop and smacked me on the head!!!
Hey, Lost in Will Robinson, we expect a viewing report by 10:30pm tonight! No excuses!!!!
yeah it did,,,, but she punished me.
I had to buy her a Jeep to go visit her horses as punishment for telling a "fib"
Tony
ps how many of you have bought a new scope and then found out later it won't fit in the car!!!??? I know at least foru people. One even use to lower her dobb through the sunroof and drive out to the "dark skies" with her Bazooka sticking out!!! the top.
Well it's home! It fitted in the back with the passenger seat folded forward. It only needed about 10cm more room and I could have got away without folding the seat down. It will be fine out of the carton.
Now the fun begins. I've got it upstairs in my flat ready to assemble.
It will have a permanent indoor home downstairs in the (huge) laundry once I have finished assembling and admiring and playing with it.
The carton had suffered a fair bit of damage from freight handling, and it worried me when I saw it in the freight warehouse but with the OTA out of the carton I can't see any signs of damage to the scope itself. A few loose phillips head screws that need tightening but I guess that is to be expected.
Time to celebrate. Where's is the real beer? (Thats Boags to the uninitiated).
Of course there is 100% cloud cover now, with storms promised for tomorrow, but I will have fun in the meantime assembling, collimating, aligning the finder scope and Rigel QF etc.
S'pose I better change my profile now to reflect my ownership of this brute.
GF due up here any time now, and I can't wait to see her face when she clocks it for the first time!
Last edited by lost_in_space; 19-01-2006 at 06:41 PM.
Reason: 10mm should be 10cm
Congratulations Will Robinson! Welcome to the 12"er Club!!!!
So what if it's cloudy, it's a new scope. Try it out anyway. Look at the Cloud Nebula!
Now, if you are going to keep it in a Laundry, be aware of what moisture, dust, fluff and spiders can do to your scope. Cover it well! May I also suggest a huge shower cap for the mirror end. For this, go to a pet shop and get a plastic seed catcher for the bottom of a round bird cage. It looks just like a giants shower cap.
Well, it's built. There is a ding in the tube that was on the blind side when I unpacked it and carried it upstairs. I don't think it will affect the optics in any way but it spoils the look of it a bit. I might try a bit of gentle percussive maintenance with a rubber mallet on the inside of the tube to see if I can pop it out but I am not too concerned about it. If it doesn't go easy I will live with it.
Collimation is so far out that I will need to spend a fair bit of time adjusting it, everything is out of alignment from the spider to the main mirror.
When I mounted the Rigel QF I almost got it the wrong way round! I realised the error of my ways just in time, before pressing it into possy.
Initial inspection of the bundled plossls reveals a fair few 'dags' around the edge of the field stops. I knew they wouldn't be of the best quality but they will serve the purpose for now. The 2"rs that I bought look fine and I can't wait to put whole thing through it's paces.
Dave, sure thing for a trip up to Staverton when conditions are right, I am keen to check it out. I will try and organise my mate with the 14" Meade to join us if he is onshore at the time. I also plan to get him into this forum. He is another Dave. A very intelligent man, studying the online Swanbourne uni astronomy course during his slack times offshore.
Now I need to think of an appropriate name for the brute. It is sitting in pride of place in the centre of my lounge room, gf is gobsmacked as I knew she would be, but she is demanding my attention now. As you can see from the pics I think she feels somewhat threatened by it, I can hear her brain ticking over. All will be well after the big "wow" when she sees OC or M42 in all their glory though.
Gotta go now, better things to do than waste the evening chatting to you mob!
that? I would prefer to keep my mates not alienate them!
to keep everything inside and safe. It has flown to two continents already, with the tripod straped to the top.
, butr later she found me measuring the scope box to see if it would fit under the hardtop and smacked me on the head!!!
I know at least foru people. One even use to lower her dobb through the sunroof and drive out to the "dark skies" with her Bazooka sticking out!!! the top.
