I recieved my GSO 12 inch from Andrews Communications on thursday at work. Excellent service from Lee Andrews, the scope arrived as he said it would. All was in order on opening the two boxes!
With all the reading I have done on this forum, I had pre ordered the Bobs knobs upgrade and a barrow to move the telescope.
I now know what you guys mean when you say the 12 inch is big! and the barrow is a definate requirement to make moving the beast easy.
I also had a stellavue bv3 package with their oca and 23mm fmc eyepieces that I have been using on my 4.5 f/8 newtonian for the last few weeks.
No first light curse for me but the moon was pretty much washing out the heavens. I was a little impatient and went straight to view saturn. Doh I had not aligned the finderscope so that was a bit of an excercise to find the planet but eventually I did and aligned the finderscope.
Ah the view was not flash, pretty poor but the scope hadnt cooled down and collimation was a little off.
Time to put my son to bed..... 40 mins later back outside, stuck the cheshire in the scope and aligned as best as I could. Ah saturn with the binoviewers was awsome. Cassini division was seen as the magnification was probably 4x the intended with oca in place but what a view! Tried some of the cheap plossls that came with the scope but not a patch on the binoviewer.
M42 was next.......... Pretty spectacular and I imagine a lot more detail of the nebula will be seen without the moon. Definate green tinge to the gas cloud
Moon was now up above the trees. Stuck the scope on the moon. Oh my doG!!! With the binoviewers I was gobsmacked, the defination and detail was phenomanol, I mean I had seen the moon with what I thought was good detail on my 4.5 inch but this took my breath away. I now have an idea how those astronauts felt viewing the moon out of apollo landing craft!
Anyway a big thank-you to all those who contribute to this site. The information I have found/been given has been extremely helpful!!
ps weather has turned to custard after first light (thursday) but the scope is under the verandah at the moment in case there is a break in the clouds!!
Congratulations on the new scope,
Ahhh!!! There's nothing quite like the view a 12" scope gives you. Just wait till the moon has gone, are you in for a treat!!
I won't say anymore, just wait............................... ....
The colimination, I do find tough. I understand it for sure but I am using a orion cheshire and sight tube but find it difficult to tell if the ring binder on the primary is actually in the centre of the crosshair on the cheshire. If you move your eye a little then the crosshair of the cheshire moves or the ring binder moves. So how do you know if your eye is centered in the sight hole? I know its small hole but there is definate room for error.
I nail the sucker in the end but it is a dark art!
Good first light. I've had a 12" dob for a couple of months and have been tricking it out. Flocked it a couple of weeks ago (that was fun, rolling around inside a 12" OTA!) and I think it's helped. Had great views of Jupiter (tons of detail in the cloud bands) and the Moon (four craterlets in Plato - at last!).
I still have to solve the sticky azimuth problem, and the optics may be slightly pinched - not sure, but the rest of the scope is great.
First Light GSO 12"
