First light 16" Meade Lightbridge

[moonunit]

Well second light because I gave it a burl last night, but tonight was more prepared and lots less cloudy, I posted this in the beginners forum, because I still reckon i'm a beginner, used to have a 10" Dob but traded it to a friend and I made the splash and negotiated a deal with fok4tel in the classifieds section of this site and I am now the proud owner of a 16" Meade.
First impressions are it is a huge scope, heavy to lug around and was a little tricky to put together, but wow it is worth every cent, tonight I took in Orion neb, Eta Carina, Omega Centauri, Centaurus A, Sombrero Galaxy, Spent a lot of time on Saturn and a few other fuzzies and clusters until the Moon took away the dark.
Sombrero was awesome, would've been an inch long in the ep, dark lane(ring) clearly visible even with the 10mm pentax it wasn't washed out, mostly though I used my 26mm, Omega Centauri took up the whole field of view, as did Orion, eta Carina was massive, this scope is going to be a lot of fun, only downside I can percieve is I won't be able to lug it to a darker site, my backyard is pretty dark, apart from the neighbours kitchen window, but I am worried about putting it in the back of my ute, another thing is collimation, it does need doing but i'm a struggler with that task.
All in all a huge nights viewing, I had a lot of fun with the 10" but this has blown me away, would recommend it to anyone and that's after 1 nights viewing.
Movement was smooth only issue is lower targets made the scope drop a little, but anything straight up it was steady, plus I couldn't get Saturn focussed as I would like, maybe the smoke haze from woodfires, not sure but still able to make out the cassini division and cloud bands.
btw used to post in here under the username Jupiter.

[sn1987a]

http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbarchive/showflat.php/Cat/0/Board/reflectors/Number/810743/page/1/view/collapsed/sb/5/o/all/fpart/64

Hi Joe,

Click on this link and scroll about halfway down to a picture of a Lightbridge 16 I think you will find it interesting.

[naskies]

Congrats - that's a *lot* of scope! :D

[Draco]

Congrats MoonUnit. I am soo envious now ;)

[Gem]

I can relate to the size issues with my 16" GSO... It makes observing a two person event. Fortunately, my son (13) is just old enough to help me carry the scope. We have taken it to a dark site twice, but it is a bit of effort.

[AstralTraveller]

I've just taken my rocker box apart and cut about 10kg of (hopefully) excess timber out of it, including making it narrower. I also thoroughly painted all the cut surfaces three times to try to preserve the particleboard. It's certainly much easier to carry but I seem to have degraded the azimuth motion when I repositioned the teflon. There are a few things I can play with that (fingers crossed) should improve it.

I transport mine with the lower tube section in the cradle and the secondary cage on top of that. It's tall but not too tall for my troopie and it keeps the footprint to a minimum. I made a board that goes between the upper and lower sections that prevents sideways movement and also a top plate for the cage and he whole lot is held down and in place by a ratchet strap. Naturally I can't lift he whole assembly so I have to assemble the stack in the car and then strap it together. It's not too painful.

[skysurfer]

I also got a 40cm GSO recently second hand and solved the lugging problem (61kg) by making a whsel cart. Maybe an idea ?

http://skysurfer.eu/dobson.php

[moonunit]

Thanks for the replies, some good ideas for moving the scope.

[Barrykgerdes]

I had a 16" lghtbridge until my son "acquired" it because it became too big for me to handle. I equipted it with an Argo (a must for ease of locating objects).

From a darksite I had no bother with the Flame nebula (difficult because of Alnitak) and if you really persevere you should be just able to make out the Horsehead with averted vision.

Barry

[sn1987a]

My "Franken bridge". :sadeyes:

This is what happens when you start modifying Lightbridges.

[moonunit]

Crikey I could stare at that picture for hours, btw the cat isn't impressed.

[sn1987a]

If you go to the Yahoo Groups website you can join the Meade Lightbridge Telescopes group. Lots of photos and information there. Also groups covering other telescope types, mirrors, ArgoNavis, ServoCat you name it.

If you instal wheelbarrow handles and wheels onto the base you can also get folding aluminium ramps from auto stores (around $100) then you can easily load your Lightbridge into your car.

[Barrykgerdes]

To move my lightbridge I am able to lift the Optical assembly off the yoke (just). It then fits nicely onto one of those cheap hand trolleys that are often on sale at Bunnings and SuperChief for under $30.

To move the base I just turn it on its side and use the base as a wheel to move it to the set up site where I set it up and level it then place the optical assembly in it. All it needs then is to reconnect the Argo cables and fit the control stalk (wing nuts) and I am ready for business.

Barry

[sn1987a]

Some quick and useful mods to a Lightbridge.

Paracorr improves the view
Glatter laser collimator quick easy collimation
Plastic tab on top truss section opposite focuser aids 1 person uta assembly
Black plumbers pipe foam insulation darkens and protects truss tubes


Remove mirror from cell, strip away all silicon adhesives and double sided tape, drill and tap two plastic bolts at mirror center of gravity spread roughly 90 deg apart at bottom of mirror cell. Mirror free to float on metal contacts on triangles and the two plastic bolts.

[sn1987a]

http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/4334929/Main/4299099

Discussion thread, ideas and photos worth a look.

[moonunit]

Just packed up after a solid 2 hr viewing session, set up laptop with cartes du ciel running under the verandah, helped heaps with locating objects, once again blown away(figuratively), tonight swan nebula, triffid and lagoon, M10 and M12, M83 and ngc4945 which is a favourite, spent a lot of time around Scorpius and a little bit of time in the Virgo cluster, but they are positioned directly over the light polluted main part of town, clouds drove me back inside.

[moonunit]

Thought i'd give another update after I recieved a pm, haven't had the scope out for a while due to summer and now work, but I am considering putting handles on it and a set of wheels similar to pics in this thread, as it can be frustrating to put together and take apart, and if it always put together it will be better for collimation, the wheels and handles will have to wait a month or so.

[moonunit]

Finally put wheels and handles on this, made a big difference, although it's not perfect at least I don't have to assemble and disassemble it every night, and it should wheel into the shed after I use it tonight, otherwise it will be under the verandah, might finally be able to collimate as well.

[sn1987a]

That looks really good Joe, wheelbarrow handles makes a big difference. If you take the two round base pieces apart you will see the lazy susan bearing it rides on is 18 inches diameter whereas the round pieces are 30 inches (from memory). This means theres a big chunk of heavy useless chipboard on the base pieces doing nothing and stopping you wheeling it through a normal sized doorway. Before I went the full plywood base for mine I actually trimmed the wings off on each side, made it able to go through normal doorway fully set up. :D

[moonunit]

Thanks Barry, will paint all bits black on the weekend, the only issue I have had is that it sinks into the lawn a bit and the wheels don't have enough clearance so they drag, but I now park it on some clear ground in my backyard also I put a piece of masonite under the base, the handles were from an old Hills hoist and the metal struts which hold the wheels are from an old tankstand, thanks to my 80 year old father for his help and ideas too.

[moonunit]

Painted and bin lid fitted to end of scope