The slightly overweight baby has arrived. 12" GSO Dob arrived this afternoon. After a few hours at work being very impatient to get home, I arrived home to unpack and start assembly.
Attached photos show the box, how it was packed, the OTA and final assembly.
One point with these scopes, not for complete newbies. The instructions bear only a passing resemblence to the supplied scope. The azimuth bearing is competely different to the pictures in the instructions and the altitude bearings now have the undjustable tension which is again very different to the instructions. Luckily I had seen a couple of these scope assembled so I had a fair idea how it was supposed to look, but if I was a complete novice, I would probably still be trying to figure it out!
Anyhoo, once it was put together it did the worlds roughest collimation
grabbed it a went outside. This is one heavy beast! definitely need to buy a trolley to assist with moving the OTA.
Contrary to all tradition and expectations, the night was clear, so I have so far knocked off Omega Cent, Eta Car, Jewell Box, M4, M7, M6, M17 and M16. Did get a bit of cloud drift by for 40 mins or so, so that will have to do as far as the New Scope Curse goes. Still need to get the collimation just right, get some dew protection and a few other things but overall very happy.