What setup do you have?

[iceman (Mike)]

What telescope/equipment do you have?

It's easy to see what i've got, in the gear section..

But what do you have, and where do you buy your stuff from?

I've only bought from Bintel so far, but Andrews Communications (in Sydney) are a bit cheaper for some gear..

What do you plan to buy next?

Next on my list is a solar filter (white light filter), a telrad finder, a UHC/OIII filter, and I want to make a camera adapter too so I can do away with the damn tripod method of photography

[Starkler (Geoff)]

G'day Iceman !

You know of me from your GA rtcw playing days.
Im sure that my nickname here wont leave any doubt as to my identity

I have been into astronomy for about a year and half now, and having the luxury of not having someone to tell me how to spend my pay I have collected the following :

GSO 250mm f5 dobsonian ,just like yours iceman and with the following enhancements:

: Orion RACI 9x50mm finderscope
: tube fully flocked (well almost) with adhesive black velvet from Bunnings.
: teflon azimuth pads and the plastic milk bottle washer trick to improve the azimuth motion.

Digital setting circles composed of encoder kit from Kendrik USA, David Ek decoder box http://home.earthlink.net/~david.ek/digicircles/
and plugged into that is an el-cheapo palm pilot running PalmDSC.
http://palmdsc.dougbraun.com

Other stuff:

Pentax smc XL 10.5mm eyepiece
Pentax smc XL 14mm eyepiece
Teleview Panoptic 27mm eyepiece
Celestron Utima 12.5mm eyepiece
Celestron Ultima 2x barlow
Lumicon UHC filter

[iceman (Mike)]

Starkler! You were "Starker" back in RtCW, right?
anyway nice to see you here too

Where do you buy your gear from? Is your 10" exactly the same as mine, from Bintel? Or did you get it from somewhere else?

Nice mods you've got there - explain to me about your azimuth mods? Did your base not have teflon pads originally? And what's this milk bottle washer trick?

Did the flocking make much difference, in your opinion? I've read heaps of threads on CloudyNights about it, and would like to do it one day, but I haven't learnt how to collimate my scope yet, and so I need to be able to put it all back together properly before I decide to pull it apart

How do you find the DSC's? How much did that cost you to setup?
Have you considered an EQ platform, or putting your 10" OTA on a tracking EQ mount?

I like the ease and convenience of the dob, but I sure would like tracking.. especially since I've gotten into astrophotography a bit (with my limited equipment).. Problem is, I know that anything to do with astrophotography just blows out the budget..

Where did you buy your EP's from? Did you sell off the standard Plossl's that came with the scope?
I'm wanting to expand my EP collection but i'm unsure what to get as there's so many differing opinions etc.

Do you know of any places to buy them 2nd hand in Aus, or do people you know just buy from Astromart or ebay in the US?

Thanks mate, i'll hopefully learn from your experiences!

[Starkler (Geoff)]

Whoa! so many questions !
I'll answer them in point form as each one could require an iceman sized essay to adequately cover them

Yep you know me as Starker. Is there anyone else from the gaming community here also ?

My scope I bought from Andrews Comms in Sydney and had it freighted to me in Melbourne. They are considerably cheaper than Bintel ( I think most dealers are). I got mine for $899 with a choice of four plossls from their range plus shipping. The plossls were pretty crappy though.

Azimuth mods: I added teflon furniture glides to the ground board which are a little higher than the original pads and seemed to give a small improvement to the Az motion.
My reference to milk bottle washers is about washers cut from 2 litre plastic polyethelene kind milk bottles. Place about 6-8 around the centre bolt between the base board and the rocker box and this very much improves the az motion by taking some of the weight off the outer pads. All is explained here :

http://www.tomhole.com/Motion%20Tips%20and%20Tricks.htm

Flocking - Im not sure if I can say there was a huge improvement as I wasnt able to do an A-B test, but when viewing certain objects contrast is everything, so it certainly cant hurt !

DSC - makes finding objects as easy as SK killing noobs with a panza i used to constantly run in to the pc and back out to the scope trying to find objects and starhop etc.
I remember once spending close to an hour trying to find four globs around scorpio. Now with DSC im done with them in 5 minutes and could have toured 25 messiers in the same time.
The DSC cost me about $400 in total to build compared to close to a grand to buy one!

EQ platform. I got halfway through constructing one and then bought the pentax xl eyepieces. After finding out how much easier is it to track objects at high power with a WIDE field eyepiece, I no longer saw the need to continue building it.

About purchasing equipment.
Anything that isnt Chinese made carries a 50% markup minimum in Australia compared to what the lucky folks in USA pay.
I bought my two pentax xl's new from a dealer in the US for $229US each . Compare that to $550 Aus !

I bought a Celestron ultima 12.5 in Aus from York optical for $245AUS. i later found out americans pay something like $90US for the same item. *******s!

Astromart is a great way to get gear at a good price. The hard thing is finding a seller willing to sell outside of the US.
Im currently seeking a 21mm pentax XL and then im done buying eyepieces.
A word of warning. Once youve looked through a pentax or other premium eyepiece, you'll never look through a plossl again without feeling like your viewing through a drinking straw.

Finally, a fantastic resource for users of our particular scopes can learn a great deal about mods, what gear is good and getting the most from your scope is this yahoo group:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/skyquest-telescopes/

Searching the archives first will provide many answers and save the embaressment of asking the same noob questions that appear weekly there. That ought to keep you busy for a while

Geoff.

[iceman (Mike)]

Thanks for replying to all the points

There's a few from the gaming community that have signed up, mainly cause I spammed the URL in the General Chat forums on GA So far they're all staying quiet except for Soldant.. I dont' know how many people come back and read these forums..
I'm hoping more people sign up and start posting, but the Aussie astro community doesn't seem to congregate anywhere particular in aus.. I've seen half-a-dozen or so aussies posting on CloudyNights.. I'll have to try and lure them here too

Bintel was very expensive at list price, but I played them against Andrews, and they gave me a better deal.

I got the:
10" scope
4 bintel branded (GSO) Plossls (9, 15, 25, 32)
2x bintel branded (GSO) Barlow
ND96 filter
Astronomy 2004 magazine
all for $949, when their original list price of the 10" alone with the 3 eyepieces was $1099.

So I got a pretty good deal, plus they centre-spotted the mirror and did the initial collimation.

Are all your eyepieces 1.25"? I'd like a widefield 2" but i've heard mixed reports and then you'd want a 2" barlow etc.. More $$$.

On cloudy nights though a lot of people are saying that the 2" GSO 32mm are pretty good for the $$.

Thanks for the link about the washers and furniture pads, i'll probably do that to mine cause the az motion is a bit stiff sometimes.

I've had to disengage my springs for the time being, because I think i've stretched them by storing my scope on the trolley with the springs still engaged. When I lifted the alt direction, it dropped back down marginally :/ So i'll either have to put an extra ring on the springs, or get some new ones.. But for now, I can use it without the springs cause I don't have any heavy EP's etc.

I'd love to hook up DSC to my scope, but I always have to move it around to different places in my backyard depending on which direction I want to view, because of trees etc.
Do you have an area where you can set it up and forget it?

Do you have to realign it or something every time you bring it out?

~$200 each for a single EP is pretty darn expensive I just don't know if I can justify the cost at this stage. I'm sure they make a big difference though, and after going to the starparty and (hopefully) trying more expensive better eyepieces, i'm sure it'll make me want them.

My problem at the moment is, I'm torn between buying stuff for VISUAL use, as opposed to buying stuff for astrophotography use. I want to be able to take better photos, but without a tracking EQ mount, i'm sooo limited in what I can do..
I need a laptop with a TouCam or something, that will still limit me to planets and the moon, but it would still be better than sitting my camera on a tripod next to the eyepiece.
I also want to make an adapter to attach the camera to the eyepiece, that'll be better than the tripod until I have a laptop/webcam.

But for visual use, I want to get a telrad, a UHC/OIII filter, better eyepieces, a cheshire collimater, a solar filter (white light), etc..

And add to that, I don't have the money to buy ANYTHING so it makes it very difficult

I have signed up to that yahoo group, about 3 months ago, and read the daily digests for a while, but now i just delete them without opening them. I suppose I should start reading them again

I hate astronomy as a hobby because it's so damn expensive!

[Starkler (Geoff)]

Originally posted by iceman


I hate astronomy as a hobby because it's so damn expensive!

Ah but unlike a lot of other hobbies, once you have bought the gear , you can indulge your hobby as much as you like for $0 extra Just about any other hobby has ongoing costs.
If you become an equipment junkie, disregard the paragraph above

Well done on beating down Bintel to a competitive price.

All my eyepieces are 1.25" except for the 27mm panoptic which is a 2 incher. Whilst the panoptic is a great eyepiece, I find its an annoyance to keep swapping out the 1.25" adapter when I change eyepieces. What I ended up doing was buying another adapter and keep the other 1.25 eyepieces with adapters attached so that Im swapping around 2 inch components.

My eyepieces are 10.5mm, 14mm and 27mm. The first 2 do double duty with the 2x barlow, which in reality i measured at 2.2x and give me mags of 196x and 260x, which give me perfect planetary powers for average and also very still conditions. The seeing in Melbourne generally sucks.

What i reckon are the must buys in order are:

A cheap plastic eyepatch from the pharmacy ( Opiate would be proud )
Cheshire colimator. A necessary tool if you want your scope to perform as it should.
Telrad or Rigel quikfinder, i have the rigel but the telrad is better.

The eyepatch makes a big difference if you can save the dark adaptation in your viewing eye if you have to turn a light on or go into the house. Best $5 I ever spent on astro gear.

My scope lives in the garage covered by an old bedsheet loaded onto my two wheeled trolly that looks the same as yours. When i want to observe I wheel it out into the backyard and try to find a spot shielded from the streetlights. Im plagued by them from many directions. If I get time on a clear sky night, I bundle it all into the car and go for a 20 minute drive away from the lights to a nice spot with a comparitively dark sky.

Aligning the dsc only takes about 1-2 minutes if I move the scope and then I normally spend a bit of time observing before moving again . One really cool feature of this dsc is you can push a button and up pops a list of all the ngc objects within 5 degrees of current position.

I personally never had an interest in astrophotography as I know the cost to do it well doesnt bear thinking about.
For the cost of a modest SCT scope with tracking mount, you can kit yourself out with top notch eyepieces and have change left over. Ideally you want a fixed mount that cant be moved.

[kats]

I bought A Six inch Newtonian from A place in brisbane.

Its called York optical and its in the Valley. Right underneath the Chinese and Korean Resturant. Pretty hard to miss.

[CSHumphrey]

How is the GSO gear? Seem to be popular in AUS.

[Starkler (Geoff)]

Originally posted by CSHumphrey
How is the GSO gear? Seem to be popular in AUS.

Not just in Aus, but worldwide many dealers rebadge them with their own brand. In Nth America the word is that Celestron now have exclusive importation for the new Celestron Starhopper.

http://www.celestron.com/prod_pgs/tel/dob_index.htm

To put it simply, they make the best mass produced optics for newtonians and to buy better means buying a premium brand for way more $.

[Late_Cretaceous]

I have had a 10" F5 Sky Mentor (GSO) that came with 9mm & 25mm GSO eyepieces for 2 months now. So far I have been very happy with it. I have had excellent views of a few DSO's along with the moon, Uranus, Saturn and a number of double stars.

The only negative thing I have to say is that the eyepieces have a little coma towards the edge of the FOV.

I have made a few minor modifications:
* "Luggage straps" to act as handles for carrying
* a small knob near the end for positioning (as in the Orion Skyquest)
* thicker teflon pads on the rockerbox for smoother horizontal movement
* I am currently experimenting with a fan setup to improve cool down time.



As far as affordability and quality goes, I would recommend a GSO telescope to anyone. It seems that with a permium DOB you need to spend twice as much for 5 % better performance..

[rumples riot]

My gear

Telescope:

Meade 10" Lx200 GPS
Kendrick focusing mask
Meade dew shield
26mm super plossel
20mm super plossel
12.5mm super plossel
2 x meade barlow
1x Waeco battery
1 field derotator
1 tube counter weight set
1 off axis guider
1 illuminated reticle ep

Cameras:

1 x 5700 Nikon (for sale)
1 D70 Nikon DSLR
1 Meade LPI

Associate Gear:

Dell 8600 inspiron Laptop for imaging

Future puchases

Meade dSI imager
5x barlow

Hope that covers it. I purchase most of my equipment from Adelaide Optics, best range but not the best price.
Paul

[seeker372011 (Narayan)]

I have an ETX70, and an Andrews 5 inch Newtonian on an EQ2 mount with a drive I bought from Astronomy on line.

I have an Atik 1 c (modified phillips Tou cam) for imaging. I bought this from Perseu in Portugal at a time when the dollar was reasonably respectable earlier this year

Prior to buying the atik, I bought a cheap webcam in the markets and ripped of the lens and glued a film canister on to get an imager that works fine for lunar planetary imaging. cost $30.

i also did something similar with a Dick Smith board security cam-cost about $50 including a power supply.

In addition I own an Oberwerks 20 x 80 LW binos which I bought from the US on the internet, and I made myself a 70 mm refractor with surplus shed optics which I use for solar observing (i have a home made Baader filter for this purpose)

its ridiculous we have to pay the prices we have to compared with the US prices we see advertised in Sky and Telescope or astronomy but I suppose the dealers here have to make a living

[Saturn%5 (Graeme)]

Hi All this is what i have.


12" Gso dob.
4" Vixen reflector an a Sp Mount.

And that is about it not much of a set up but keeps me busy for hours and hours.

[mch62 (Mark)]

Mark Hodson Glenore Grove S.E. QLD
Newly completed 12.5"f6 Equatorial Newtonian with conical cross section mirror onTemporary EQ6 mount.
80mm ED Celestron refractor on it's way.
11x80 Celestron Binoculars
70mm f13 guide scope
ToUCam 740 and numerous M42 screw mount camera lenses
Permanent Observatory and mount in planning stage

[Saturn%5 (Graeme)]

Originally posted by mhodson
Mark Hodson Glenore Grove S.E. QLD
Newly completed 12.5"f6 Equatorial Newtonian with conical cross section mirror onTemporary EQ6 mount.
80mm ED Celestron refractor on it's way.
11x80 Celestron Binoculars
70mm f13 guide scope
ToUCam 740 and numerous M42 screw mount camera lenses
Permanent Observatory and mount in planning stage

Hi Mark well nice to see someone so close,Im inlaidley hope to meet you soon.

[Mick (Michael)]

Hello everyone, I have a 12" Gso Dob and a Meade Lx 90. I've had the Lx for nearly 4 years and love the goto, but I also like hunting with the dob.