Hi guys,
after posting many questions
, looking through countless reviews, deciding on the various pros and cons of different types of scopes, I've finally upgraded from my stepson's Tasco 60mm x 700mm refractor.
We were heading from Bathurst NSW after the big car race to the Gold Coast for more car racing, when we diverted slightly to go past Andrews Comms in Greystanes. I was considering the 200 x 1200 GSO dob, and the super deluxe (sd) model sounded good. With the 2" crayford with 1:10 drive, various eyepieces, fan and finderscope, I thought this would be a good step forward without going overboard on price. Unfortunately the new shipment of this model had not arrived yet, so I decided to get the deluxe model as these were in stock. Only differences from the other model was: no 1:10 drive on the focusser, no mirror cooling fan, no 6mm and 15mm 1.25" ep, and no SP32mm 2" ep. It came with a 9 and 25mm plossl, and I got a 2x long barlow, and moon filter. I would have liked the sd model, but if I didn't leave the store with a scope, my wife would have killed me before we got back to the car
.
I assembled the scope while we were away, but the lights of the caravan park did not allow for any decent sort of viewing
. When we got back to Melbourne last week, of course it was cloudy, but in a couple of nights of broken cloud we gave the scope a bit of a test drive.
We started with Jupiter as it was clearly visible with the naked eye, and we knew where it was which helped. The 8x50 right angle correct image finderscope worked well, and was very easy to align with the scope. I started with the 25mm plossl on jupiter, it was starting to get lower in the sky, and maybe seeing wasn't the best. I noticed a bit of shimmering around the edges, which may have been atmospheric. The four moons were clearly visible, and I could just make out some of the cloud bands.
Moving the scope around to some clusters, all the stars appeared sharp from the centre to the edge of view. Checking collimation seemed good, with nice concentric circles when I defocussed a bright star in the centre of the field of view. We will give it a better test run shortly, and I'll let you know how we go. One thing I found which you should check if you get a GSO dob, is to check the teflon pad staples are pushed in below the top of the pad. One pad on the top of the mount had the staple just up slightly, enough to make a small groove in one altitude bearing. Not happy
. Just tap any in with a small nail punch. Check both sides, and also check the pads on the bottom az swivel.
The focusser is nice and smooth, although a bit coarse for my liking. I've contacted Lee to see what he can do in swapping to the one with the 1:10 drive. So far we are impressed with the clarity of the optics of the scope. Hopefully we'll get to a nice dark site shortly and put it through its paces.
Cheers
