My new 10" GS is here!

[dhumpie]

Hi Guys,

X Mas came early for me in the form of a poster prize for my PhD research. Gave half of it to the wifey and spent the rest of the 10" GS Dob from Andrew's. It came in this morning and I rushed home, unpacked and assembled it in half hour. I now have a nice looking white GS dob sitting in my living room waiting for first light (possibly tonight since it is going to be clear for the next few days...hot but clear). Came with nice fully multicoated 1.25" 9mm and 25mm GS Super Plossl's, a green moon filter (generic) and a pair of 10x32 rood prism binoculars. I was expecting some crummy ep's and was surprised to see the super plossl's, though I might sell them as I already have a whole suit of SWA and 1 UWA ep and cannot go back to 50 degree FOV's...

Anyway just though I share my joy.

Darren

p/s: Its going to be a great astro X Mas. Wifey is getting me a long focal length (80mm f/11) refractor from WOW...cool.....

[iceman]

A white one? ooh nice, I bet it won't get rust on that surface :P

Well done Darren, you'll love it!

[asimov]

Congrats Darren!! Some pictures mate! Hurry up! (he-he!)

[janoskiss]

Congratulations Darren! I'm sure you'll love the scope.
What's your PhD on?

[ving]

white? mine came in pink... i thought they only came in pink!!! :eek:

congrats :)

[Striker]

Congrats Darren,

I also love getting new stuff....but weekly....lol

I'm sure you will make good use out of your new set up.

[Robert_T]

and an 80mm refractor from the wife for Christmas - you lucky duck:)

good luck with first light on the 10inch!

[davidpretorius]

congrats on the prize and well done on the scopes!!!

[dhumpie]

You might have read about our research in the news and seen it on ABC and channel 9 recently. We work on the insect rubber resilin and our group was the first to produce some synthetic versions of it in the lab...a first for CSIRO Livestock Industries and a first for Australia too!

Anyway here is the first light report I wrote to Andrew (astro_south) unedited:-

"here is goes. had the dob out from 9.30pm till about 10.30pm. did not have much time to cool the primary mirror but it was surprisingly good at high power. looked at m42 and the trap, m78 and m46 as i have restricted access to the skies from my yard with all those pesky trees (we actually went and got some outdoor tiles make a platform for observing :) will have to do something about those damn trees (and those freaking mozzies). no glob access (what a bummer as the one in lupus was at zenith and in the dob hole!). skies to the north and south are all blocked by trees. i only have access to objects rising from the east to zenith. all eyepieces came to focus with and without the barlow including the 20mm widescan III (which was nice). collimation looked spot on as stars were tight pinpricks of light at higer power. at low power i detect some spiking reminiscent of astigmatism much like in the C6 and the orion 80ST and i suspect that it is my eyes. i only have this problem with the 24.5mm meade SWA (and the 32mm super plossl before that). the 20mm expanse and the 20mm widescan gave night tight pinpoints so i doubt that it is a collimation issue. i tried the following eyepieces in the dob (did not get to try all the eyepieces in my kit out)....the 24.5mm SWA, the 20mm expanse, the 20mm widescan III, the 9mm expanse clone as well as the supplied gs super plossl's. the 26mm (very nice eyepiece this one with very good contrast and sharp pinpoint stars to the edge). the 9mm plossl was very good as well although it was very tight in the eye relieve department. will have to try my 15mm expanse and the 6mm radian in this at some stage. also used the DGM optics VHT and the NBP filters. i tend to like the VHT filter better as it gives a good balance between bright stars and nebulosity. i find it hard to believe that this is a broadband filter as it behaves more like a narrowband with the views it gives. the NBP again was a little bit on the dark and contrasty side. will have to compare more with the UHC which i believe will give a slightly brighter image.

on to the dob views. m42 was magnificient even without the filters. the outstretched wings and the stupendous trap (all 6 resolved easily even at low powers....who needs averted vision with the extra aperture). nice greens and blues. no pastel colors yet as this will have to wait till i get the dob to a dark sky. m78 was also very pretty and very nicely enhanced by the VHT filter (i am beginning to like this filter very much :) also there are so many extra stars in m46 in canis major. talk about a field full of stars...WOW.

so the verdict...money well spent. i can foresee myself spending some quality time under dark skies probing even deeper than before.....bring forth the abell's and hickson's....

darren

p/s: on the downside, i will have to do something about the sticky azimuth bearings. maybe some milk jug washers of more teflon pieces."

Anyone know where to get virgin teflon :)

Darren

p/s: Piccy's are coming. Wifey took the digital cam with her to work today so no chance to download :) Also we decided not to get the rafractor as it was on a very insubstantial mount and was shakey as hell. In any case i will have my brilliant Orion 80ST.

[ving]

glad you like it darren. well collimated straight from andrews, well there you go :)

get yourself some e-z sliders from bunnings for the az motion and you will be set :)

[atalas]

Congrats on your new scope Darren ! and Its white eh ? I like white tubes . :)

[dhumpie]

Yup its noble white like my car and my Orion 80ST. Now the C6 is the odd one out :)

Darren

p/s: collimation was almost dead on from Andrew's which speak volumes for the mirror mounts. These Taiwanese make good low end scopes :)

[Starkler]

Good one Darren. :)

Do check the diffraction pattern on either side of, and very close to the focus point. If any astigmatism is present it will show up then. If these dont collapse down as nice round circles all the way to focus you might benefit from the instructions in the gso dob howto on this site.

[dhumpie]

I checked the star diffraction patterns last night after I had the dob out for an hour or so and the star patterns looked good (with the 6mm Radian and the 2x Shorty Plus barlow for 200x and 400x respectively). Think I got quite a good mirror. Anyway I have the digital piccy's with me today and will upload later.

Darren