Well the couds cleared for a couple of hours tonight and at last I was able to put the G11 together and plonk the GSO 10" RC onto it. This is the first time I had used either the mount or the scope. Previously I used an EQ6.
I did not image tonight. That would have been too much what with trying to learn the mount and the scope.
Firstly, the G11 had no problem with the 10" and the ED80 and threw them around with what appeared to me to be ease. I weighed the 10" on the bathroom scales and it came in around 16 kilos. I was a little surprised as it didn't seem that heavy to pick up.
I was worried that balancing the scopes would be a problem, but is was not, although 2 x 21lb weights were needed. That's around 20 kilos!!
Using the hand controller on the G11 was a real learning curve. It is absolutely nothing like the EQ6. I am not sure whether it was better or worse, just different. It did take a while to work out how to find the different menus but after I had sorted that it wasn't too bad.
I connected a Garvin GPS unit and the mount downloaded all the information required and away I went.
Three star alignment was not too bad from a standing start. Sirius, Canopus and Rigel.
The manual says that you have to use three stars all on the one side of the meridian. This was OK as these bright stars are all easy early in the evening.
I have to say here that the manual is very good although a little bit too much information at times if that is possible.
Problem came later in the night as they moved past the meridian and I wanted to realign. Sorry, that star is not availalbe.
The real problem that I had is that I you have to do a polar alignment before you do the star alignment. I did not do this and was therefore having star alignment problems. The clouds were rolling in and I was getting impatient. Need to remember to do the polar alignment next time.
This of course meant I was not finding targets as easily as I would have liked. Not far off but a little.
All in all the G11 looks to be the goods. Still a long way to go to learn all of the little idiosyncrocies of the mount but pleased with the first go.
Now the GSO 10" RC.
This scope looks great. It has no manual supplied. I did not find this a problem.
It comes with 2 extension tubes for the focuser and you definitely need the longer one to find focus. I could not find focus at all with out it. I thought that this was very odd to produce a scope that the focuser could not be used at all without an extension. Having said that the extension was very solid.
I could not find focus at all with a diagonal. Not with any of the extensions or without.
My first view of Sirius nearly blew my socks off. I thought I may have to collimate the secondary mirror but defocusing did not appear to show any displacement in the mirror. I was more than suprised and also very happy after all the talk about collimation that I had read.
Next a quick look at M42 as you would expect. There was an enormous amount of detail in the nebula and I know this is not supposed to be a visual scope but I was more than happy with what was in the eye piece.
I would say that it appeared to me to be sharper than my 10" dob. I suppose, I really expected it to be. The dob's mirror is fairly dusty but that is another story.
The full moon is on its way and the clouds roll in and the show is over. Would have liked to get to other objects but am very glad that after 2 weeks I could actually put it all together and start my steep learning curve.
I am very happy and next comes the imaging. Hopefully next weekend.
Geez, 16Kgs is a lot heavier than I thought they'd be. This 10" GSO dob I have here is 20Kgs with losmandy plate, rings, finder and ML focuser. Looks like you'll need a G11 at least to throw it around. Hope it clears up for you by next week-end Frank.
Nice post Frank, you will learn to love the G11 as it's a great mount. It has it's eccentricities but that is mainly in the handset. As you said it's all in the manual which will save you time and again.
Allan
As mentioned, once you get used to the G-11/Gemini, you will love it.
I don't bother with doing any aligning up first. I do my drift align first. Then, counterweight down, turn the Gemini off and on, and then start the alignment procedure.
May I ask what power are you supplying to the G-11? I had constant RA stalls on mine when it ran 12 volts straight from a deep cycle car battery which is why I went back (then...) to the standard Digital Drive electronics and steppers rather than Gemini and servos. Not everyone finds the same problem, and it is mostly sorted with power supplied up around 14-16vDC. Anyways - you're running a heavy-ish apparatus, so i thought I'd ask.
Thanks everyone for the kind words and encouragement.
Marc, If I am allowed out I will be there as I was hoping to ask some questions about the G11 and the best way for guiding.
Chris,
I used mains power cause I am at home with a Powertech 1.5 Amp Regulated DC converter from Jaycar. The manual says to use 3 Amp but I haven't had any problems.
Well Frank...that's excellent, what a nice looking outfit . As Humi says once you get used to the mount it is sure to be a fine sytem to use. How did the focuser/extension tube feel as far as solidity goes?Where did you get the gear from? How much the scope?
The focuser felt OK and could be locked in place and felt quite secure when locked. I put the 5D Mark II on the focuser to get a feel for it and it didn't seem to be a problem with the weight at all. Locking the focuser into position with the camera I felt no slop. Although I still may get a Moonlight or Feathertouch but I will have a better idea when I get a chance to image.
The extensions are solid metal and no problem at all.
The mount came from Bintel and the guys there were fantastic in running me through the setup. I still don't understand the limit setting yet but I had no problems with the limits last night. A bit confused about limits actually.
I purchased the OTA from Andrews and once again the service was excellent.
The prices are on their websites.
My next issue is a specialised CCD camera but looking at the market at the moment I think there will be movement in the price of these in the next couple of months and also there are a few new imagers coming on the market. Probably a KAF8300 based camera may suit this scope but am happy for advice on this as I have no experience of CCD cameras at all. Maybe one of the 2mp cameras would work well. Definitely will be mono.
I will stick with the 350modded and the 5D for the present.
Frank, sounds like you are onto a good thing. I knew there would be no problem with the scope.
CCD, don't go for the KAF8300. Your sampling will be way too over sampled. My suggestion and this is what I am looking at long term is the 6303E in the STX. Much more expensive but sampling will be better. I am currently around 0.68 and want something around 0.83. My seeing can peak at 0.70 or better but the well depth of the larger pixels will mean tighter stars and a larger field of view from the size of the sensor.
Just out of curiosity what are the weight limit for the G11 compared to the EQ6 pro? Surely the EQ6 can handle the GSO10RC maybe not as well as the G11.
Frank: Nice setup Cant wait to see your images in the near future.
As trevor has pointed out, the G11 has a carrying capacity of 60lbs which works out at 27.21 kilos.
From my internet research, the EQ6 has a carrying capacity of 40lbs which works out at 18.14 kilos.
As I said, when I weighed the 10"RC on my bathroom scales they came in at nearly 16 kilos which doesn't leave much room on the EQ6. The OTA sure doesn't feel like 16 kilos to me though.
Frank
Last edited by telecasterguru; 01-02-2010 at 03:39 PM.