Taking delivery of GSO RC12

Paul Haese · #1 10-05-2011, 10:29 PM

Did the deal today for an GSO RC12. I plan on doing another review of this scope. The scope I am taking delivery of is a run of the mill one straight out of stock from Bintel. I will be interested to see if this scope performs as good as the 8".

Some things I will be looking for in the scope are as follows:

Optical star tests.
Packaging
Build quality
Focusor stability
Any possible reflections

To be honest I have not seen much about this particular OTA except the sales pitches. So stay tuned for what I think of this scope.

allan gould · #2 10-05-2011, 10:50 PM

I for one will be following this with interest. Best of luck with the scope, Paul. Any idea when the scope will be delivered?

Paul Haese · #3 10-05-2011, 11:06 PM

Delivery is most likely Monday or Tuesday next week. I would prefer it to be this week but that is highly unlikely.

dugnsuz (Doug) · #4 10-05-2011, 11:10 PM

Best of luck Paul - I'm sure you'll have it purring like a kitten in no time.
There'll be heaps of people interested in a decent review of this scope.
Cheers

Doug

gregbradley · #5 11-05-2011, 12:30 PM

That sounds like a hot scope. How much does it cost?

Greg.

Paul Haese · #6 11-05-2011, 02:10 PM

Hi Greg, the usual deal for this scope is very good with prices ranging from 3500 to 3800 in Australia. I got it for a little better as part of the deal of doing a review (my last review helped sell lots of units for GSO and establish them in the RC market).

The price will not influence my opinions though of the build of this OTA. I will be giving a full and unbiased look at what they purchaser can expect. Feedback will be sent back to GSO also to help in development, should there be any issues. I am pretty certain though that this model will be as good and most likely better than the RC8" and I am really looking forward to using it.

sadia · #7 11-05-2011, 02:22 PM

Hi Paul,
Have you considered any flattener for future if your initial test results are positive?

Regards
Sad

TrevorW · #8 11-05-2011, 02:52 PM

The PME should handle it easily, nice step up from the 8", all the best

Paul Haese · #9 11-05-2011, 03:04 PM

Sad,

Not looked at flatteners yet, I am hoping that I will not need it given the size of the sensor I will be using. That said though I will try the Tak flattener first and see what effect that has before making any further decisions. It would be good if GSO produced its very own flattner or reducer specifically designed for these telescopes.

Logieberra (Logan) · #10 11-05-2011, 03:18 PM

Exciting times. Looking forward to the details. Thx Paul.

Lester · #11 11-05-2011, 09:28 PM

All the best with your new purchase Paul. You don't stay static for long do you? I can feel the excitement.

gregbradley · #12 12-05-2011, 06:57 AM

12 inch aperture is serious aperture and you should be able to go really deep.

I'm looking forward you your results as well. You did great with the 8 inch.

Greg.

Paul Haese · #13 12-05-2011, 09:49 AM

Well the package is on its way. The trace shows that it was lodged last night so we I will see how fast it gets here. I bet it will be next week.

Lester I did use the RC8 for 2 years. This will be the last upgrade for a while though.

Greg that is the plan. The RC8 was good but it meant doing subs for 15 minutes to go deep. I am hoping that 15 minute subs on this will mean more detail being visible on really faint object. More resolution will hopefully provide more intricate detail too.

Been investigating the possibility of changing the focusor over to a 3" feather touch with Robofocusor. It will need to be a rack and pinion job to work properly. Part of the plan to automate focus. I have been using a bahtinov mask to the last couple of years for focus and this has worked really well, but now think it is time to automate that part of the process.

Satchmo · #14 12-05-2011, 02:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul Haese

(my last review helped sell lots of units for GSO and establish them in the RC market).

The price will not influence my opinions though of the build of this OTA.

I think a full disclosure is in order then

gregbradley · #15 12-05-2011, 05:50 PM

This will be the last upgrade for a while though.

.[/QUOTE]

Is that what you told your wife??

15 minute subs is probably good anyway. If you have dark skies then I would go as long as tracking and cloud allows. 15 minutes is more to invest if its cloudy and you may wind up with less data than if you used 10 minutes.

Optimum exposure length is an interesting topic. SBIG has a calculator on their site for that as I recall.

Although it may not be 100% accurate for you as your read noise etc may be a tad different.

Greg.

Paul Haese · #16 12-05-2011, 06:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gregbradley

Is that what you told your wife??

15 minute subs is probably good anyway. If you have dark skies then I would go as long as tracking and cloud allows. 15 minutes is more to invest if its cloudy and you may wind up with less data than if you used 10 minutes.

Optimum exposure length is an interesting topic. SBIG has a calculator on their site for that as I recall.

Although it may not be 100% accurate for you as your read noise etc may be a tad different.

Greg.

The beauty is my wife has no interest in how much I spend. I pay my way and she pays hers. We both have our own little empires and she does not want to know how much I spend on astronomy. She is a great woman for many reasons but this is one of them.

I could go 20 minutes but I wonder about star saturation?? I will take a look at SBIG though.

Paul Haese · #17 12-05-2011, 06:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Satchmo

I think a full disclosure is in order then

We know you won't be buying one Mark. It is not a Newtonian.

Like I said the price I paid will not influence my review. It will be honest and frank.

leinad (Dan) · #18 12-05-2011, 07:04 PM

Be interesting to see your review Paul.

Im a bit sceptical about GSO and their RC scope. Design is one thing; mirrors are another.

Paul Haese · #19 12-05-2011, 07:25 PM

Daniel, nearly every image I have seen come out of these units is pretty nice, so what is there to doubt? There are several members here using them and each seem to have good images from them. What are your concerns?

allan gould · #20 12-05-2011, 08:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul Haese

Daniel, nearly every image I have seen come out of these units is pretty nice, so what is there to doubt? There are several members here using them and each seem to have good images from them. What are your concerns?

Some of the images I have seen coming from the 10" GSO RC have been nothing short of spectacular. They just seem to have a real edge in saturation and detail. Made me almost spring for one but then the 12" became available and there in lies the rub and I'm really hanging out for your review of the 12".