Has anyone used a Skywatcher Synscan 12 GOTO Dobsonian?

[ozskywatcher]

Hi all,

I have a friend who is thinking of buying the above telescope.

Just wondering if anyone on IceinSpace has one, and if they are any good? By any good, I am wondering if the optics stay collimated. My friend has no experience in collimating telescopes. The other thing is of course if the tracking works as advertised.

Regards,

Paul Floyd.

[Visionoz]

Check out here : http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=72836&highlight=GOTO

HTH
Cheers
Bill

[DJ N]

Hi Paul,

I picked mine up a few weeks ago. Believe it or not, I have only had a couple of opportunities to trial it due to the weather we have been experiencing in Adelaide. But so far, I am quite impressed.

I have purchased a stacker trolley to assist in moving the scope around, but the scope is movable without it. So, for first light, I carried the base out followed by the OTA. I must admit, it is a bit awkward trying to align the tube into the guide on the base. Once I have some time, I will modify the trolley such that I can wheel the whole unit out in one piece. For second light, I transported the complete unit in one go....... talk about 12 inches of grab and go!!

One thing I have noted is that contrary to what I have read, the scope is not that difficult to move around the sky without power. Of course not as smooth as an unpowered dob, but much easier than I expected, but I digress.

On setup, I did not bother checking how level the base was, just pushed the scope to Alpha Centauri and powered up the baby. Went through the normal Synscan routine, and proceeded to a two star alignment. I got the "ailgnment successful" display, so proceeded to choose Omega Centauri as the first go to object. Given my lacksadaisical approach to levelling and setting the time, I was very pleasantly surprised that Omega Centauri was within field of view of the 24mm Panoptic. The goto is very loud, especially in altitude, but once it is tracking, you cannot hear it. I centred the object and left it for about 10 minutes, and when I came back, it was still fairly central. I did a couple of other gotos, and the objects (M104, Antares, M4 and Centaurus A) were all in the field of view.

Second light I did take a bit more care to ensure the base was level. Once again I did the two star alignment, this time using my 12mm illuminated reticule for better centering accuracy ;). Over the course of the evening, I found that all objects were within the field of view of my 13mm Nagler. I left the scope on Tarantula with the 13mm for about 15 minutes and when I came back, it was still close to centre in the eyepiece. So I am extremely pleased with the tracking.

In terms of holding collimation, I would say that it is pretty stable considering the extension/retraction process. Just a minor tweak required.

All in all, very pleased with the unit so far........ a very nice addition to my EQ6 Pro.

Hope this helps,

Daniel

[Archy]

I'm getting a 16" on Saturday and I'll let you know what my impressions are, provided the weather cooperates

[ozskywatcher]

Daniel,

Thanks for responding.

I will pass on the information to my friend.

Regards,

Paul Floyd.

[ozskywatcher]

I didn't realise the 16inch model was in Australia already.

I will be interested in how you find the alignment holds. I would assume that the extra weight of the larger secondary will make that tricky.

Regards,

Paul Floyd.

[Stu Ward]

I have the 12 Goto and I think she's great. Perfect balance between maximum aperture and portability for me.
Goto function works perfectly and tracking is superb. Search for my posts and you can see some of the DSO objects I have imaged too.
I would highly recommend it to anyone that is a visual observer that also has an interest in AP.
It's not a starter scope due to a reasonable cash investment and it's size, but as a progression from a starter scope in my opinion it's perfect.


Stu

[ozskywatcher]

Stu,

Thanks for that information. I will pass it onto my friend.

I have a question that I would like to ask. Have you tried planetary imaging with a webcam using your 12inch? I am assuming it should work well. Registax should be able to cope with rotating the images slightly.

Regards,

Paul Floyd.

[Stu Ward]

Yes I have, here is my Saturn and I am far from an expert on planetary imaging btw, so i'm sure you could do a whole lot better

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=76232


Stu

[Archy]

Re 16" skywatcher with goto:
Alignment holds well.
Goto accurate to 30 seconds on 2 star align.
Scope large and heavy.
No astigmatism in mine.

[DJ N]

Thought this might be an appropriate update with my 12 Inch Goto.

Up until now, I had not had the opportunity to view the moon with the 12 inch dob. Last night, there seemed to be a break in the clouds, and the seeing did not look too bad so decided to quickly get the scope out, let it cool down a bit and see what it could do. I gave it a good collimation then did a quick star check and everything seemed spot on.

Initially with the 24mm Panoptic, absolutely crystal clear. Progressively went through a couple of more eyepieces and then thought what the heck.... took out the 4mm Burgess Optical/TMB Planetary. I though this would be pushing things. At 375x, the view was absolutely mesmerising. I then decided 'no guts no glory' and got out the 2.5x Powermate. At a staggering 937.5x I was viewing individual craters. I then set that rate mode to #2 and basically panned across the surface of the moon. I was absolutely gobsmacked at what the scope was bringing up. I have never really studied the moon with such a large aperture, but WOW! With the tracking set to lunar mode, it tracked wonderfully.

I then decided to get the DMK out. Part of my reason for purchasing this dob was to see whether it would be a possible candidate for some high res lunar imaging. As the cloud cover was increasing, I did manage to capture a couple of avi's with the DMK21 and a 5x Powermate. I will have a go at processing tonight, but I think I need more practice in IC Capture and playing around with the Gain and Gamma settings. But, the tracking seemed to keep the image very smooth. Damn clouds:mad2:!!

All in all, because of these preliminary results, this scope is a definite keeper!! I know I had this one advertised to try and go to either the 14 or 16, but I think this one is too good to move on.

Cheers,

Daniel

[mswhin63]

Hi Daniel, You can't go too wrong with the DOB and one that tracks. Mine on its own does not track or goto but with assistance similar to yours can work well.

Moon crater 3 x Barlow - http://www.waelect.com.au/mswhin63/Moon%20-%20Close-up/index.html#moon 16_10_2010 10_48_25 PM_Framed.png

Jupiter with DSLR - http://www.waelect.com.au/mswhin63/Jupiter/index.html#2010_10_03_DSLR.png

and more. great scope, bit heavy but great

[DJ N]

Very nice pictures!!

The scope is heavy, but I transport it as a complete unit utilising a sack trolley. To make this even easier, (yes honey, in case you are watching, after I finish painting the house ;) ) I want to build a small 1m by 1m insulated "storage shed" alongside the observatory and have the dob on a trolley structure so that I can wheel it out on to the lawn. Might even make it tall so that I do not even have to collapse it - however not sure how stable this will be for pulling it around?

Cheers,

Daniel

[DJ N]

I have tried a quick process on one of the avi's. This was with the DMK21 and a 2.5x Powermate, giving approximately 3750mm focal length (f12.5), stacked in Registax and touched up in PS. A bit of a breezy night, and alot of learnings yet to happen with focus, gain and gamma settings, but the potential seems there.

[DJ N]

And just for the sake of the excercise, here is one with the DMK21 and a 5x powermate (f25 or around 7500mm focal length). The focus was a bit soft and the seeing was starting to jump around after some clouds had passed through, but quite pleased with the tracking.

Just need some clear skies and some nice seeing and a bit longer avi's.

Cheers,

Daniel

[Stu Ward]

I love that, the shadows cast from the edges of the crater !!
Great Stuff


Stu

[netwolf]

Dobs have come such a long way. I can still recall reading Mike's first article on imaging with a dob. Now the have goto they would be the simplest platform for Planetary imaging. But hats of to Mike and the others who were far more paitent then i back then.

Daniel those are some great images you have of the Moon. I would really like to see what a Qhy5 could do on the moon through these dobs. While the CMOS chip is not great for Planetary, for the Moon it has turned out some amazing shots.

So many temptations now. All i need is to win the lotto.


Regards
Fahim

[von Tom]

Here is a collection of images taken with the 12" Goto and a DSLR: http://www.flickr.com/photos/vontom/sets/72157625885306790/with/6034104639/

My experience of the Dob agrees with Daniel's, and I don't think I would have as much involvement in astronomy now as I do now without the combination of Goto, the Dob design, and the 12" :)

Tom

[Jen]

:eyepop: Tom those pics are awsome i would be so so so proud if i could get shots like that i have the same camera and scope as you so this can be possible for me to do one day woohoooo

do you have to adjust the tube to get focus :question:

[Jen]

Daniel im glad you decided to keep your scope it is a beautiful scope I LOVE MY JOHNNY :D im just getting ready to try and take some pics with mine too (as soon as the weather gets better):rolleyes:
The only problem i do have with the scope is that it is a bit too heavy for me to get outside by myself so looking at your trolley looks just like what i need :D what did you make your dew shield out of :question: and where did you get that cover from i need one of those too :D

[DJ N]

Hi Jen,

The dew shield material is some foil backed foam insulation I purchased from Clark rubber. As for the shroud, I purchased it from Astrozap in the US. It is the specific model for the Skywatcher 12......

http://astrozap.com/scripts/prodList.asp?idCategory=35

As for the weight of the scope.......it is a bit heavy. The stacker trolley method seems to work quite well, but my next step is to possibly build a little insulated shed (1m x 1m) and have the scope on a wheeled base such that it is even quicker to setup:question:.

Cheers,

Daniel

[asimov]

Perhaps my 14" SW has issues, because I simply can't get her to track nicely. The more FL/FR the worse it is of course. At F22.5 (5X barlow) I had to manually correct like the devil to keep Saturn on the chip.

It's fine for low mag. DSO viewing in the tracking department naturally.

[DJ N]

When I have the 5x powermate in, I find there is a tiny bit of what seems like backlash on the 12 incher when you are using the arrows to centre the object. However, once I have centred the particular object, it seems to track quite nicely. Now that is on the moon, with lunar rate, I have not actually tried it on a planet. Might need to give that a trial next time.

[Jen]

:thumbsup: cool thanks Daniel :D

[von Tom]

Hi Jen, there's no need to adjust the tube for prime focus with a DLSR. There's about 5mm still to spare for inwards focus. When I put the 5x Powermate there is even more room to spare. No problems whatsoever with Prime focuse DLSR photography, which was my first concern when looking at the Sky-Watcher.

Using the 5x Powermate with DSLR for planets (which needs good seeing), Jupiter almost fills up the 640x480 frame in video crop mode (see attached single frame, stacked frames, and processed frames)). I find I need to adjust manually for drift, and there is some backlash when the motors are tracking. However there is no backlash when manually tracking alone, which I have gotten more used to doing and I have found that more reliable to keep such a large object in the frame.

For collimation I got some of Bob's Knobs for the secondary. I can collimate quite quickly with these which provides even more flexibility with using the scope.

Cheers,
Tom

[Jen]

:eyepop: cool Tom so you took those pics with the Canon 550D :question:
How do you do that :question:

[von Tom]

Those were done with the 550D, 5x Powermate, at 640x480 video crop mode 60fps. I think the settings were ISO400 at 1/60th sec. Best 1000 frames out of 8000 or so. I use Landscape Picture Style with increased saturation and contrast (which also brings out alot of noise).

I use Avidemux to convert the MOV file to bmp frames, then Registax to stack them.

Tom

[Jen]

:screwy: doh u lost me when you got to 5 x powermate :lol::lol: i need to do some more homework me thinks :rolleyes: lol

[Chillie]

Or another Snake Valley astro camp.;)