What accesories for 10" GSO Dob?

[davewaldo]

Hello everyone!

After Saturday night out at Cambroon I have decided to buy a GSO 10" Dob (Deluxe).

I have searched this forum and found many helpful hints however I wanted to ask opinions about accesories.

A) What is the best method to achieve good colmination? A laser or a eyepiece? If so which one should I buy?

B) Andrews Communication are happy to swap around the eyepiece selection for me a little. The standard selection is 6,9,15 & 25mm 1.25" GSO Possels. I have heard that the 6mm is basically useless so I though of changing the 6 & 25mm for a 30mm 2" GSO SuperView. Which would leave me with a 9, 15 & 30mm eye pieces.

What do you think? Would this be a good way to start?

Cheers

Dave.

[[1ponders]]

Good for you Dave. Glad you found what you were looking for on Saturday night. You will have a ball with that 10".

[Lee]

Those EP focal lengths sound like a nice group, you could then add a Barlow one day to multiply them up - depending on what you want to look at. I mainly look at DSO's with my 8" and actually rarely pull the 20mm Plossl out of the focuser.... I do use a 10mm sometimes, and also a 32mm Plossl, but for me the 20mm is perfect.
The other thing I'd suggest up front is a Telrad - or other 1x magnification pointer. Worth its weight in gold.
Congrats on your choice too.....

[rmcpb]

As well as the eyepieces you listed I would think about a Telrad, plansiphere, red torch, cheshire eyepiece (the long one from Bintel), moon filter and a chair so you don't get dobber's back. Then spend heaps of time hugging your new friend before even thinking about more accessories.

Great choice :)

[ving]

hiya :)

ok here we go:

A. i use a cheshire. i dont know if lasers are any better or not, i have heard mixed reviews

B. although my scope isnt as big as yours i guess you could use similar EPs. the main ones i use are 15mm for DSOs and 7.5mm on planets. the 7.5mm is quite usable in everything but the worst seeing.

you might want to consider a good barlow, some star maps, a red torch, and a good seat. :)

[janoskiss]

It is not a bad selection at all. But I'd go all GSO Plossls 32, 20, 15, 12mm and a 2x barlow; from GSO either the 2" barlow (ED or non-ED probably matters not) or the long FMC 1.25" 2x barlow. No 3x and no shorties.

Reasons for above choice:

1) The 9mm is still okay, but the barlowed 20 and 15 will be much more comfortable. And the 20mm plossl will be useful for framing larger DSOs too.
2) f/5 is really getting too fast for the 30mm Superview. Way too much seagulling IMO. The 32mm Plossl will have as much or maybe more usable FOV.

[ving]

did a comparison between the GS SV30mm and a celsetron 32mm plosl once... interesting. the 30mm SV still had a touch more FOV but the celestron was crisp across the entire FOV. and that was at f6. at f5 you will get even more seaguls in teh 30mm SV :)

[mickoking]

An OIII filter is a welcome addition to fans of Nebulae and Planetery Neb's.

[davewaldo]

Thanks everyone for all your input.

It seems the 30mm Super view has a varied reputation. Maybe I will just stick with the supplied possels and get a barlow. And when I've got the cash saved up I'll get 1 or 2 Stratus EP's.

I've looked for the Orion cheshire eye piece on the bintel website but can't seem to find it. Do we know how much they cost?

Thanks again everyone.

[wavelandscott]

The Orion Collimating Eyepiece is located in the telescope accessories section...(about page 6 alphabetic order)...From memory they are around AUD$69...see picture below.


I would say that it should be high on your list...along with planisphere (or start charts), red torch...and yes, a good sturdy adjustable height chair!

Full disclosure time, I do have a vested interest in commercially availble adjustable chairs (Stellar Seats)...(also listed in the telescope accessories section on Bintel's website and at Astronomy OnLine...shameless plug ended :D )

Good Luck and Enjoy!

[GrahamL]

A telrad is THE most usefull accessory I've bought so far ,easily.
Finding objects ,judgeing angles, distances , comes with experiance I guess
As a tool to help you get there quicker .. this is it imho.

Those stratus eyepices do look nice ,very big though , the 8 mm is
huge .

take care:)

[CoombellKid]

I would go for a Chesire eyepiece over the laser. The laser assumes your
complete optical train includding the focuser (primarily) is aligned and
wont necessarily tell you where the errors are, where the Chesire will,
I then use my laser as a quick reference. Actually since aligning my
scope with a Chesire I brought in July and fixing a few overiding error
mainly the alinment of the focuser. I can now confidently use the laser.
I originally brought the laser with the scope, after becoming frastrated
with it, I simply made a cap to sit in the focuser with a 2mm hole drilled
into it and left the laser alone. The cap did a better job.

BTW, that was with a colminated, laser colminator... errr yup!! thats correct

regards,CS sunnydays

Rob

[jjjnettie]

Dave,
Here's how I would spend your money.

A 2x barlow is pretty well essential.
Andrew's usually throws in a set of colour filters as well as a Moon Filter. So to get full use of your moon filter, you'll need a set of "Moon Phase Maps" . You can order them from www.astrovisuals.com.au.
An O111 or UHC filter would be nice, but you can get along without it for a little while.
A shower cap. You can buy them in packs of 4 for about $2. You'll need one to cover the mirror end of your scope. Otherwise you'll have spiders moving into your scope, then the frogs will move in to eat the spiders.
A sheet of solar film. Then you can use your scope day and night. An A4 sheet costs about $40. You'll only need half that size, and I'll buy the other half off you next time you're at Rons.
A red light torch, a log book, a copy of Astronomy 2007.
A card table to put all your stuff on.
A water proof cover for your scope.
A tarp to set up your scope on, in case you drop an EP, you don't want it falling in the dirt.
8 Rechargable AA batteries with charger. For your battery eating cooling fan.
That's all I can think of for now.
Oh yes,
Red celephane, sticky tape, cable ties, plumbers tape, lengths of elastic or velcro to stick and hold things together and in place.
Scissors to cut the above.
Small tool kit, both types of screw drivers and a small spanner.
Lens Pen to clean EP's
Old towels to wipe the dew off your scope before packing it away.
A sturdy plastic case to pack your EP's into.

[Gargoyle_Steve]

Hi Dave - glad you enjoyed the night at Rons so much! I know it was great to have you there with us the next morning chasing Saturn between those cloud patches. Trust me, as great as it looked, when seen with a proper BLACK sky behind it (not a blue sky as we were seeing it) and with a bit more magnification / less atmospheric disturbance it looks simply AWESOME!

You have already seen, sat on, and observed using one of WavelandScott's chairs as mentioned above. That's what the black chair is that I had at Ron's, and trust me for using a dob height having adjustable comfortable seating IS an essential. They aren't cheap at close to $200 but before that chair I used to carry a foldable timber chair AND a bar stool (which did NOT fold away) to try and cover all necessary viewing heights. The Stellar chair is SO much better!

There are a couple of different sets of free star charts (here (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=6323) and here (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=1878)) you can find on the "Beginners" thread page, try them first. There'a a couple of different sets, both good - download the files, put them on a cd, flash drive, etc, and take to a local print shop to have them laser printed on A3 paper. Inkjet ink will run when wet, and A4 size is too small to read the detail. I paid 50c a page to get mine printed, then I had them laminated to keep them dew proof (back to back to save on costs). One of my local video stores has a print shop that does all this kind of stuff in house, you don't need a professional printer. Office works does similar stuff.

You WILL need to collimate a reflector as you saw Randall and I doing at Rons. Get the Combination Cheshire & sighting tube (Orion brand at Bintel iks good) again you've seen one of these, thats what we were using. We also used a laser collimator (return beam type, never get the simple "non return" type) to "check / fine tune" it, but the Cheshire is the more important tool I reckon.

Any eyepiece under 8 to 10 mm will get used much less than anything "higher" due to the fact that lower focal length ep's need better and better seeing (ie atmospheric conditions, etc) to give you a clean image. Especially in f5 10" dobs like ours forget the 6mm, when you are ready for one of those you'll be ready for a better quality brand anyway. My 9mm GSO plossl never got much use originally, but I do manage to use my 8mm Orion Stratus a fair portion of the time, and that is still my shortest ep.

Do try and get one fairly wide angle low mag eyepiece - it wil help you to find objects SO much easier while you are learning your way around the sky (as I still am), plus some objects simply NEED a bigger field of view to really appreciate them, ie Orion Nebula, Eta Carina nebula, the Pleiades and numerous other open clusters, etc. I use a 30mm 80 degree Ultra Wide Angle ep (2 inch barrel) from Andrew's Comms (regular price $149, occasionally on special). It does show some visual aberation in the outer field of view in an f5 scope like ours but despite that I love it for the wide views and it is still one of only 3 mains ep's I use all the time, along with my 17mm Hyperion and 8mm Stratus.

Other things you will pick up along the way as you need them - I'm sure you already have a small torch somewhere, $2 worth of red cellophane (make sure it's dark red, not the pinkish red one someone bought by accident :whistle: ) to make an effective low light torch.

I know what it's like when you start out, budget is everything but you still want to buy as big a scope as you can and making allowances for other add-ons is difficult. You can use my collimating tools, screwdrivers, etc (lessons inc free) at Rons anytime I'm there, ditto star charts.

A small folding table IS very very handy, I use a cheapo "plastic" table cloth to cover mine and kep the dew off everything.

With summer slowly coming along very soon we will all be getting out our Aeroguard, Rid , etc to kep the mozzies away - get a can, essential in warmer months! (I think Rid still has the highest percentage of the chemical DEET - the active "chase them away" ingredient - of any brand of repellant.)

Finally as Jeanette said get a copy of Astronomy 2007 as soon as it somes out. There is a thread here (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=13285&highlight=2007) where Iceman Mike is sounding out how many people would buy it through this forum. Register your interest, grab one whenthey become available, it is the best possibly book you can get at 20-something bucks and it is very good value.

Hope to see you again soon!

Steve

[davewaldo]

Thanks very much for all the help. My scope should be arriving today or tomorrow!! :D Like someone mentioned I spent most of my money to get the 10" rather than the 8" and have some money left for accessories. So I will be poor for a little while.

So when are we all going back out to Ron's? I'll be keen to meet up with you all again now that I have a scope of my own to learn with.

I let you all know when my scope arrives and how I go with it.

Going halfs for some solar film sounds like a great idea jjjnettie! Where do you buy it from?

Cheers

Dave.

[Lee]

Then, like me - you'll need a trailer to carry it all in! :D

[davewaldo]

Well it arrived! It only left Andrews yesterday and it arrived today in Brisbane at 11am!

And lots of little goodies to play with too.

Now if only the clouds will co-operate and disappear for the next few nights.

Thanks everyone.

Dave.

[janoskiss]

Enjoy!!! If you get the scope out early in the evening so you can still catch Jupiter at a reasonably altitude. :)