Well the telescope is here, and the sky is sunny...that’s because the mount isn’t.
The guy from Toll rung me this morning and dropped it off a few minutes later. The box looked sound which is a good sign. He and I got it off the truck and eased it down onto the front step. He asked me what was in such a large box but not very heavy box. I said a telescope, he said a big box for a telescope. Yes it is a big box more on that later.
First problem where is it going to go, strangely I hadn’t thought about it too hard. My shed is full of junk at the moment so it had to be my man cave in the house.
Second problem ... its huge we live in a small 1970’s three bedroom cottage, we had to take the door off to get it into the hall way. So 20 minutes taking our sliding door off it rails and moving the box past it then putting the door back on.
After a bit of thought and planning and careful lifting we eventually got it on to the work bench in my man cave. You can’t swing a cat in my room at the best of times but I couldn’t have it in the lounge as I burnt the bridge last telescope purchase. As I’m wiggling it in I’m thinking I got to get this back out at some stage.
First impressions are.... it’s huge even for a 16 inch, have I said that already? It was well packed in a double box and lots of foam, with an additional layer of cardboard on the bottom.
The scope it’s self had a two piece plastic bag for protection. I removed it and had a look around.
A quick look at both mirror confirmed that there was more breaks and all looked solid.
The secondary is supported by two rings which is different to the smaller models. There is baffling in the secondary shroud and a centre mark on the mirror.
The main mirror shroud has no baffling but I didn’t expect there to be. I was surprised to see there was none in the focus tube. However there was one in the focus tube extension that you get with the scope. There are three of these in the box one fitted to the scope with the focuser and two in the foam. There is also a power pack for the fans, this takes eight AA’s. A quick test confirmed they work.
The carbon fibre looks a treat with even Karen impressed by the look of the thing; I mean it looks like a serious telescope.
I was surprised that there is no paper work with the scope... not even a thank you for purchasing the GSO RC16. Is this the same for their other scopes? I got a personal thank you for the last big scope I bought and a instruction manual that included a breakdown and build up work instruction for removing the mirrors. GSO website is pretty basic so I’m guessing it’s not there for downloading, mmm an over sight maybe or part of the cost cutting to build at this price.
I had a play with the focuser and it seems to be okay for visual use. An electric focuser will need to go on, I’ll have a look around but moonlight is making ones for this scope so may not look far.
The DSI RC10 has a moving secondary which works very well so it will be interesting to go back to a “normal” focus arrangement.
It’s clear they have dropped off some things that would be standard on higher priced instruments, and I’m kind of glad about that. It hints at, that they have scrimped where they could and hopefully not where they shouldn’t.. only time will tell on that front. Anyway you can buy or make all of those things. Secondary dew heater, primary heater, mirror caps and light shrouds.
I want to make a flip up cover and automate it...
http://www.rcopticalsystems.com/acce...obo_cover.html
What are other doing with theirs? At the moment I’ve got a couple of shower caps covering the secondary and the focuser tube.
I had a look at the collimation and it was pretty good the main mirror needs a bit of a tweak but I’ll wait until it’s on the mount.
Can’t wait for the mount to turn up and have a play. Looking at the weather forecast it’s due to turn up on Monday.