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Old 21-03-2008, 04:59 PM
Solanum
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Solanum is offline
 
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Coromandel Valley
Posts: 359
Actually, the Skywatcher ones aren't the same as the GSO/Bintel ones. They probably are slightly better in terms of the mount mechanics and I think the mirror is pyrex (?). However, I doubt that the quality of the mirror shape is any better and I think they only come with a straight through finder by default.

Being as I bought the 10" deluxe GSO dob from Andrews just over a year ago here are my comments in no particular order:

1) The right-angle finder is good (easier to use than straight through).

2) Get the 10:1 Crayford, it makes accurate focussing much easier.

3) The 6 mm plossl has such a small eye lens and so little eye relief that it is almost useless. The surface of your eye has to be almost touching the lens. Seeing is rarely good enough for 6mm with these scope anyway. 8-9 mm eyepieces will get a lot more use.

4) Check the telescope and accessories carefully, some of the saving with GSO comes from less than perfect quality control (though nothing wrong with the quality of the set-up if you get what I mean). In my case there was glue across the mirror from the centre spot and the coatings on the 15mm plossl was faulty making it unusable.

5) Get a Telrad or similar and use it in conjunction with the finder. It will save you a lot of time when you are trying to find stuff.

6) Get a collimation tool. A combination Cheshire/sight tube will suffice, but make sure the sight tube is of adequate length - the basic Andrews model isn't. Better still a barlowed laser collimator will give you potentially more accurate collimation.

7) The biggest 2" eyepiece you should get is about 32 mm. Larger than that and you'll get vignetting.

8) I'd only bother with a cheap GSO Barlow if you are going to get minimal (hopefully better quality) eyepieces and want to Barlow the smaller one (12-15 mm) for high magnification.

9) If you can save enough money by getting the minimum number of eyepieces to buy a couple of better ones, then do. For longer focal lengths the Televue Plossls are much better than the GSO ones and only $115 from Bintel. At shorter focal lengths the 'ED2' ones are nicer to use, but probably not better quality than the GSO Plossls. Vixen LV's are good and not too expensive ($175).

10) Coloured filters are a waste of time and money. A polarising/variable polarising filter for the moon is a necessity.

11) Use the fan, all the time. Get a decent sized SLA battery and connect that to it so you don't have to waste money on AA batteries.
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