Orion Dob 12" GOTO

[jet486]

Decided from my retirement bucket list to purchase a Orion GOTO 12" Dob. Now before the wife/kids get their hands on my super what other items or alterations to the dob should I consider? Cheers

[rustigsmed (Russell)]

Hi jet,

got to love a big size dob, i've got a 12" goto skywatcher which is a flex tube.

the first accessory i would buy is 'Bob's knobs' for the secondary mirror. they make it possible to collimate the secondary by hand and without the need for metallic tools which are fiddly and can be dropped onto the primary mirror!

Also you will need some kind of collimating tools to align the mirrors up before use. there are expensive and inexpensive options for this.

other possible items i would consider are a coma corrector, however that is a personal choice i never got one till i started taking photos.

there are many other accessories you can build up (eye pieces, barlow lenses etc) but from my view, the bobs knobs and collimation tools are the top 2 you would need early on.

also keep in mind a 12" dob is quite a BIG and heavy thing to lug around, if you haven't seen on in person it might be worth looking at one first you may decide the 10" is a better option, particularly if it is solid tube.

Cheers,

Rusty

[madwayne (Wayne)]

Having not long bought one of these myself I can highly recommend it. They are quite large and a little difficult to move. I store mine in the garage, position the base at the bottom of our driveway and then carry the scope out separately.

What else to consider? (in no particular order)
A laser collimator or at least a collimation aid of some sort. The laser is easy, if I can do it anyone can. Plenty of tutorials on you tube.
A decent eyepiece or three if you can stretch your dollars. The 28mm 2" widefield that came with mine is ok. My 16mm Nagler basically lives in the eyepiece holder. It is such a beautiful eyepiece, nice views of everything although the planets are a bit small. So I bought a 6mm Delos and a 2x Barlow. Seeing needs to be perfect to use this combination as you are at 500x magnification but the one night I saw Saturn with it WOW!
A star atlas or at least free software like Stellarium will enable you to plan your sessions if you want to know what clusters, globs and galaxies live in which constellation.
An adjustable height observing chair. I'm 6"5" so I can sit on mine at the very top setting with the scope pointed at zenith (directly overhead) but once I get down a bit it is nice to have a comfortable seat so if you are trying to tease out that faint little planetary nebula in a cluster you can wait for that split second seeing improves and bam out it pops.
A trip to Bunnings. Look out for a craft right box for your eyepieces and bits and pieces. They have pick and pluck foam and I have my eyepieces, hand controller, barlow etc all in that.
A decent quality sealed lead acid battery. I use a 40 amp hour for mine, enough power to go three or four or even more nights without a re-charge.

There will be plenty of other things, but definitely a trip in to Glebe to Bintel and they will steer you right - gauranteed. I have no affiliation just an extremely happy customer for a number of years. If you are worried about blowing the budget, take your wife to lunch at the Fish Markets first and soften her up

Wayne

[Allan_L (Allan)]

Great choice - excellent scope.

Russell and Wayne have given you a very good advice on things to add to your shopping list.
(especially agree with height adjustable viewing chair).

Another important item will be your red headlight (or torch if you prefer).
Its good for changing eyepieces in the dark without destroying your night adapted vision. (Headlight has extra feature of leaving both hands free ! )

I presume the Orion comes with a right angled finder scope. So that's good.
But I also think a Red Dot Finder (RDF) is a very cheap but essential addition. (If you don't mind drilling a couple of more holes in your OTA)

[rustigsmed (Russell)]

And another thing if you are planning to run it off mains power you will probably need to buy an AC - DC convertor thingy

[jet486]

As usual great advice. Thanks to everyone