First scope, first light!

[Solanum]

My first 'scope turned up yesterday, a 10" Guan Sheng Dob (thanks to everyone on here who gave advice on that). It has tried my patience somewhat as the bearings and bearing plate were missing, one email to Lee Andrews later and I discover that everything that was said about the instructions were true, it doesn't have bearings anymore, it uses teflon pads instead. Also, unfortunately, the glue used by the manufacturer to stick on the ring in the centre of the primary has dripped almost right across it, hopefully we'll get that sorted...

Still I got it assembled yesterday, spurned the idea of collimating it before having a go and took it out tonight. My first time ever out with a 'scope rather than binoculars. Wow! I'm totally blown away, I found M42 almost straight up, and virtually by accident, was just browsing there. It was amazing to see all that detail in the nebula, not to mention the stars in the middle of it. Then before coming in I spotted Saturn had just made it above the roof of my house. Seeing was poor and there was glow from a streetlight, but I was still awestruck. Resolving the planet and seeing the rings (well, one big ring!), I stuck in the 2x Barlow (not sure I'm using it right though) and a 9 mm eyepiece and I could see the shadow of the rings (or thought I could) and at least three moons!

Sorry about the rambling on, but from going out not sure if I could even focus the thing to seeing all that was incredible.

[iceman]

Congrats on first light, sounds like a great typical first light experience.. one you won't forget!

The 10" dob is a beauty and you'll get many years of joy with it.

[leon]

Glad you had a great fist time with your scope, it will only get better from now on, and now your hooked.

Cheers leon

[chunkylad]

Hi Sol

Congratulations on your purchase. Your dob will give you many, many hours of pleasure.

WRT the 'poor' seeing conditions you mention......if your newtonian isn't collimated, it will be impossible to bring anything into sharp focus. So get to work, and I'm sure you'll be blown away by the views you'll get of Saturn and the other planets, once your 'scope's optics are properly aligned.

Cheers

[Solanum]

Thanks for the comments, I will indeed collimate the scope at the weekend, but I wanted a look through it before then! There was a streetlight directly under Saturn and with he naked eye you could see a light haze that extended over the planet. Still, I could see the gap between the rings and the planet itself.

Is it possible to see the Cassini division with a 10" scope?

I learnt a lot in my first night (aligning the finder for a start!), but I have plenty of questions for the forum already!

Everard

[iceman]

Most definitely! But it requires altitude and fairly steady seeing.

Wait until the planet is up higher, generally over 30°.

If the seeing is bad, the rings will all mush together and the globe will have no banding definition. When the seeing is average, you'll see bits of the cassini division popping in and out of view on the edges. When the seeing is great, you'll see the cassini division (almost) the whole way around the rings and they'll be visible immediately. The banding on the globe will be very sharp and evident.

It does take some time for your eyes to be trained to see what you're looking at. Observing is a skill, and you will get better at it.

Try observing Saturn at 120x or over, and push with higher magnification depending on the seeing.

[Omaroo]

Great stuff Solanum - and welcome.

It's a pity to hear about the glue splatter on the mirror - but I think that this is very a-typical. Every GS scope that I've seen to date have been a great instrument. I hope you sort out that little niggly and enjoy your new machine thoroughly. I run the 8-inch version as my travel scope and really respect the views it gives me.

[astro_nutt]

Hi Sol!!...congrats on your new scope!!...I have a Saxon 10'" dob..but I built another base for it and keep the original to store the scope away...I viewed Saturn last night using a 3x barlow and a gso 20mm plossl..the Casinni ring very clear indeed!..enjoy!!
Cheers!

[jjjnettie]

Congratulations!
We all know the elation you are feeling.

May I offer some advice, it was given to me and I didn't follow it, worst luck.
All the laminate joins on your base, around the rims and curves especially, and anywhere that the chipboard is exposed eg. underneath the upright supports. Give them a coat with some clear laquer. You don't want any moisture ie. dew, affecting the chipboard.

[ving]

i give it about 2 years and then he'll want an eq6 mounted 12 inch ;)
:P

glad you liked your first light. the cass div shouldnt be too hard to get if you allow saturn to get a little higher :)

[Solanum]

Aha! Had time to collimate the scope today - another learning process. It didn't seem too far out, but was definitely out.

Been watching Saturn again (don't see how one could tire of that) tonight, and wow the difference it made! The seeing tonight was much worse than the last couple of nights (with the naked eye it must be two magnitudes less), as it's been windy so there is a lot of dust in the air (we get that often, makes up for having such dark skies I guess). But despite that the collimation has made a huge difference, I could see so much more detail: clearly see a fine black shadow where the rings pass in front of the face, could see darker banding about half way down the face below the rings, could see Dione, Tethys and Rhea (but not Enceladus), and some of the time even part of the Cassini division was visible (at the ends of the rings).

A question: preceeding Saturn as it (rapidly) swam across the view were two 'stars', one significantly brighter than the other. Looking at the moon positions in Xephem I suspect that the brighter was Titan, is it likely the less bright one was Iapetus, bearing in mind I definitely couldn't see Enceladus - but Enceladus was much closer to Saturn's disc. Or were one or both actually stars? Anyone else viewing about 11pm?

The wind was a nightmare though, can't wait to have another go on a better night now!

Also saw what I suspect was the Tarantula nebula in the LMC, looks almost scary!

[chunkylad]

I was viewing Saturn at around the same time last night. I beleive the one you mention is Saturn's moon Hyperion.

Cheers