Noobie Diary part 6 - yes, it has arrived!

[davidpretorius]

Thursday 28th July

Excuse me whilst I dust the container dust off my boots, but this little black duck has harrassed "Patrick Logistics" and they allowed me to go and get my two precious bundles out of the container.

Hmmm.... early lunch hour required....

15.4 minutes later.....Right here we go....

First impressions:

Packaging:
Very good, in cardboard and everything seems to be in one piece. This was my major worry that it would be in one piece. Lee said to send back if any hassles, but no doubt at my cost!!! Was ready to reject delivery and not sign the connote if there was any sign of exterior damage.

Boxes are now open and again very well packed, everything supported well.

I know that this is a $800 odd purchase, but I am impressed with initial sturdiness of design. There is no percieved initial "cheapness" about it.

Only down side is that Lee has not sent (but has not charged me, simply missing from order) the 32mm ultra wide or cheshire. Will wait until I am back in the office to re fax to him and get him to sent pronto!!!

Here are some pics guys. I will start to put together and update you all.

How do I feel, very relieved and excited at the same time. I may even use an asimov smiley :rofl: Yes i am now the proud father of a dob.:love:

Drinks are on me, we are wetting the baby's head tonight!! Cigars are on ice!!

[toetoe]

Good on ya Dave, enjoy the new toy :). Guess were in for bad weather now :poke: :thumbsup:

[ballaratdragons]

WOOHOO! Onya Dave!!!!!!!!!

Now pull yourself away from your new toy for 2 minutes and answer my PM! Sorry.

[ving]

its... its broken....

congrats! :)

[asimov]

That's GREAT Dave!! Congratulations!! What's the chances of making your pics 800X600 so's I can 'biggy size' em' ? I want to see the famous DOB mount! C'mon! Where is it!?

[Striker]

Just remember Dave its a Dob...you take off the black end cap and throw all your accessorie's in for easy transport.....lol

Then you buy a C11.

[davidpretorius]

Asimov, Ken and I are already in the naughty corner, I would not want to upset Mike any more. I will put higher resolution images on my website

http://www.precons.com/iis/downloads/

later tonight.

thanks for all the help.

[asimov]

Ummm. What did you guys do wrong? Off-topic, or what? If it is, dont answer that! lol

Ok, looking forward to seeing higher rez pics on your site.

Have fun!

[stringscope]

Congratulations Dave. Looking good!!!

Cheers,

[ving]

yes, yes i am! :ashamed:

nikce of you to notice tho! :poke:

[davidpretorius]

yes me and ken were posting high quality shots of saturn and the moon ( i drew them by hand )

[ballaratdragons]

And they were lovely.

Dave, don't glue your base together. Make a template of all the parts first (or later) so if any panels get damaged you can make a new one!

[slice of heaven]

And I would say DO glue your base together as their rather flimsy without doing it.
I dry fitted mine first, tested , then reassembled it with glue.
Theres a definite difference.

[ballaratdragons]

Glue by all means if you want to, but make templates first!!! before any permanent assembly. That's what I meant. :doh:

[elusiver]

iceman gave me the bext advice when i first got my dob.. and that was to KEEP THE FOAM BITS! the ones off the ota. they're good for supporting the ota when you're doing work on it.

el :)

[asimov]

Well, I knew what you meant Ken.. Good idea bout them templates mate!

[atalas]

Feels good It does Dave !

Louie :thumbsup:

[ving]

i didnt glue my base together... its sturdy enough... :confuse3:

[acropolite]

Congratulations on the new arrival Dave, you're halfway to your IIS experts badge (a bit like a boy scouts award..... dib dib dib; dob db dob), ask Mikee and he'll forward your new cloth IIS X-Spurt sew on patch to you....or will he.... No...I don't think you get one if you've been sent to the corner. Never mind, ask and he'll at least give you an IIS sticker for the new beast. :whistle:

[RAJAH235]

Welcome to the DOB club, DAVE. :2thumbs: We need more members.....we were starting to lose our DOBinance... err.. dominance. :D L.

[asimov]

You could have fooled me Laurie!

[davidpretorius]

feels good alright, here i am, in my driveway, not one cloud in the sky, about 8 degrees, littlest daugter in bed and the other next to me looking at Jupiter and moons I believe. I ended up with all series 500, 6.5mm, 12.5mm, 25mm, 40mm

Lee did forget ultrawide and cheshire. I must admit that if i take jupiter (yes jupiter i hear you say) and un focus it, i get a lovely round ball of light

comments:

need to learn how to carry this thing? scope buggy

all eye pieces great but 6.5mm hard to focus?

telescope itself - wonderful.

being able to share it live with you guys over the internet via adsl wireless - price less!!!

time to look at toucam!!!

[asimov]

Hi Dave & daughter! 'This is coming to you LIVE from DaveNdaughter.com!"

Ok.. enough of that....Allowed for scope cool-down? (of course you have)

6.5mm EP maybe ok for later in the evening...whats the conditions like? stars twinkling a lot, some or none at a 45 deg above horizon?

[davidpretorius]

ok using jupiter as a reference, which skycafe says is at 30 degrees, i can see to the south from say 5 or 10 degress right up to the zenith (straight above????)

Through the 25, 12.5 and 6.5 the bottom pointer star looks to be a double??? beta centauri??


toucam has just been inserted

[asimov]

Yep...Alpha & Beta...it's apparently a triple (I think?) But too hard to see the third....What I meant was...the 'seeing' conditions..MY reference is, if the stars are twinkling a LOT (with naked eye) It's terrible seeing conditions.(at 45 degrees above the horizon) zenith straight up yes.

[jackenau]

Dave its good to hear that your Dob has arrived and you have it assembled in double quick time ready for viewing.

Reasonably clear skies too by the sounds of it. I hope your daughter is equally enthused as you are are with your glimpse at Jupiter

Good luck with your new scope

Ken M

[davidpretorius]

not much twinkling at 45, very still

[TidaLpHasE]

:thumbsup: Congrats on the new addition Dave.

[davidpretorius]

i pulled the car out of the garage, put my seat back and she sat in there chatting away. next minute asleep.

they are so cute, when you carry them to bed. must have been a hard day at kindy!

[asimov]

Your in luck then. That's what I would call 'good to very good seeing conditions'.

I would stick with the 12.5mm EP for Jupiter. (visual) I know nothin' bout the toucam...do you take the EP out to use it?

[davidpretorius]

both the 6.5 and 12.5 offer good seeing of jupiter, can make out moons and brown bands

[davidpretorius]

not having much luck with the toucam. i bought the 1.25" threaded adapter. I have a 2" crayford. i am taking the eyepiece out and putting adapter in. it has a thread to screw on to something, maybe a filter???

http://www.telescopes-astronomy.com.au/toucam_philips.htm

i bought the top adapter, it does say for filters. my gut feel is the eyepiece projection adapter is the right one. not sure if you then want to barlow or superwide the shot. Might have to ask Mike for help

[asimov]

Yeah. No advise from me on that camera. Sounds like the collimation is still reasonable if you can view ok with the 6.5mm. With the 12mm You should be able to pick out more detail than just 2 brown bands. But this comes with practice.

[ballaratdragons]

Come on Dave, . . . pics please!!!!

[asimov]

He's still trying to work it out Ken. Give the guy a break!? :D

I still reckon Dave is jumpin' the gun!?...It's too early to be takin' damn pics!

But thanks for trying to keep us forumers entertained Dave....*sigh*

[ballaratdragons]

Give him a break? He's had the equipment for a couple of hours already!!! LOL

We should be getting posts from him of the Moon, Joop, Nebs, Globs, all sorts.

Dave, don't try and work it all out, you'll blow a brain vessel, just bung the Toucam in and click away, Hurry up!! :poke:

[asimov]

:doh: :rofl:...

[asimov]

Yeah ok....I'm putting in my order of the lagoon nebula...50 stacked images...(dont forget the darks!) 30 min exposures too...QUICK QUICK!

[slice of heaven]

Dont forget the monthly imaging challenge, only a couple of days to go.

[ballaratdragons]

He's still trying to work it out John. Give the guy a break!? :D

My order is for Sombrero!

[ballaratdragons]

Dave should have hundreds of pics by then. Won't you Dave!! :thumbsup:

[asimov]

I think Davo has forgotten all about us, & he's 'lost in space'

[ballaratdragons]

Yep, and good on him.

Could be tangled up in all those cables too! :P

[davidpretorius]

ok. my wife has just got home and i was able to show her jupiter just before it went down in the west. She loved it. Smoke from the wood fires made sure no bands were there, but the moons of jupiter were.

After my first night, I would have to say, it is what I thought it would be and more. With a great night to start with good to very good seeing (see asimov you have taught me something). I saw more than I expected.

Jupiter on 6.5mm and 12.5mm
Vega
Antares
Beta centauri
Fomalhaut

I also had a scan around for Uranus & Neptune. Wrapped, i was able to navigate around this area.

The 6.5 and 12 were able to distinguish the double star at Agena, but later in the night, I could not.

I have not collimated due to the missing Cheshire.

Disappointed in the toucam as the adapter i have does not seem to fit anything. I am about to read Mike's astrophotography reference and see if i can find an answer.

I will have a crack at mars later tonight and see if i can get mr toucam (who is in the naughty corner with me and ken) cracking.

My office works telescopic chair worked well.

Scope had a slight tendancy to keep moving near the zenith (see asimov - two things you have taught me).

Mike's buggys will be the way to go. Carrying a 10" dob complete is scary.

I want to be able to wheel it in and out of the garage.

All in all, a great start. A 5 yr old daughter who can't wait until the weekend to fall asleep again in the car, whilst watching me scope. A genuinely pleased wife who is showing more than just a fleeting interest.

[ballaratdragons]

Great Stuff Dave!!!!

Pity the missus didn't get to see Saturn. That would've hooked her!

Naughty Mr.TouCam.

[asimov]

Hmmm...The mount moving, bearings too loose?

Antares is a double...did you split it?

Beta centauri....The brightest one is alpha centauri

All sounds good so far dave..Just some little bugs to be ironed out mount wise it seems.

[asimov]

Did you by chance notice, or look for collimation, or lack of when you were not in focus? Do you know what to look for?

[elusiver]

if the ota has a tendancy to move up it's probably a balance issue.. are you using it with the tension springs on? Mine also has a tendancy to swing upwards without the tension springs attached, it was slightly off balance out off the box but the balance has become abit worse from the 120mm fan.. but with the tension spring attached she stays still.. I'm waiting til i redo my car speakers to sort it out :D You can still star test collimate :) which asimov is probably the best person to ask for advise.. he thinks cheshires are evil ;) :P :D Does the cap that goes on your focuser have a little hole in the middle? u can use that as a sight cap.. just look through the hole and make sure everything is concentric, then do the star test.. well.. at least i think thats how ur supposed to do it without the cheshire.. asimov.. :help:

what do you mean the toucam adapter doesn't fit? it looked right in the picture of it.. you just slot it into the focuser.. it was a 1.25" right? you should be imaging prime focal.. or is it afocal.. can't remember which one it was.. but it's the one where you put the camera straight into the focuser without the eyepiece.. i think. could be wrong though..

el :)

[davidpretorius]

http://legault.club.fr/airy_collim_1.jpg\
i got these when focusing jupiter

i noticed later in night after moving unit around a couple of time to chase jupiter around the rooflines, that focusing was a little harder on say vega

[asimov]

El...I 'cross' myself even when I think the name...'CHESHIRE' He-he-he! But I DO like my sight-tube though.:D Kicking myself I didn't make one sooner!

Ummm, very nice attempt with the collimation pics Dave....;) Woops! Just pulling some wool outa my eye here! Wonder how that got there!? :confuse3:

The peep hole cap is better than nothing for getting your diagonal centred I guess.

[davidpretorius]

yep, got springs in. It was only noticeable through the scope, that the sky was moving slightly faster than normal when looking close to straight up

have included picture of my girls and the scop saying hi to the forum guys. The scope box has now become a barbie doll hotel!

also included picture of the focuser and adapter. They fit together well, just had trouble focusing at all

Mike calls it prime focus.

[davidpretorius]

sourced the collimation pics from http://legault.club.fr/collim.html as a reference

[asimov]

Sorry Dave...ummm that ain't the focuser? I can see the adapter, I got no idea what that black thing is on the right? Is it the adapter that goes on the camera...then fits into the adapter on the left, yes?

[davidpretorius]

black thing on right screws into camera instead of the lens. then it fits nicely into 1.25" thing on left which slots into the crayford focuser. Is the thing on the left the 1.25" to 2" adapter? THere is thread on the other side and the outer diameter there is 2"?

[asimov]

I sense a disturbance in the force.............There's no WOW factor coming forth from you Davo! Are you dissapointed in some way??

[asimov]

Yep! thing on left is the 1.25-2" adapter. I've got the same adapter, 2 of em' actually...No threads on mine, so I dunno..

[davidpretorius]

there is most definately a wow factor. Like when i got married, when the children were born, there was a calmness and rightness about those situations. Same with the scope. It simply feels right.

I am venturing back out now to look at mars, but before that will try prime focus setup of the webcam in the garage to see if can focus the bugger, and then take him out and point him at mars.

[asimov]

oh, ok! Glad we got that one established! I was getting worried there for a second! Dont expect much out of mars....it's miles too close to the horizon for decent views! (unless mars is a lot higher up above the horizon than it is here, compared to Tassie!? :confused: ) If you can see it's white polar cap, you'll be doing ok! :thumbsup:

[asimov]

My suggestion is to check out the lagoon nebula, using your lowest power EP.. & the omega centauri globular cluster! THAT will give you the WOW factor mate!

[elusiver]

better be careful dave.. next thing u know they've turned u'r dob into the barbie space ship ;) :P

don't know what the chread on the outter side of the 2" - 1.25" adapter could be for.. :shrug:

but yeah prime focusing is the way to go :)

go for jewel box... easy to find! and it's pretty :)

el :)

[RAJAH235]

FWIW, Info. on our nearest neighbours. Alpha Centauri & companions. Alpha 'A' 'B' & 'C' or 'Proxima'.
http://www.solstation.com/stars/alp-cent3.htm
http://www.glyphweb.com/esky/default.htm?http://www.glyphweb.com/esky/stars/alphacentauri.html
& on Beta Centauri. Another double system.> http://en.mimi.hu/astronomy/beta_centauri.html
http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/H/Hadar.html
Check out the orbits links. Very interesting stuff. http://www.solstation.com/orbits/ac-absys.htm
Easy for you Dave. Children will like it. :D L.

[asimov]

'This is asimov in iceinspace calling Dave....over.......Dave!?.......... it's time to report in...over?'