Hi,
My astronomy/equipment experiences to date - I'm now a less than new - newbie
1. Purchase of BT-252 - 10" Newtonian with Dob Mount - can't fault - I've been to a few sessions now, and it stacks up well against the opposition, and as far as visually goes, performs even better for DSO's - planetary, well, thats a whole different kettle of fish.
2. Eye Pieces - the Andrews/Bintel EP's - they do ok, but there are better, especially one 11mm Televue I saw Saturn through - ouch!
But I feel that trying to keep a Dob lined up with 11mm or less, and still go WOW! on a planetary item is WOW! ****** hard! I was especially dissapointed with the 15mm or less Andrews EP's ( they go with the scope when I sell )
3. Setup - saw one guy spend an hour just getting his scope going - hardly productive when most people hit the road around 12 to 1 am, and in summer, the sun dosn't set ( in Sydney ) till around 8 or 9
The Dob - wins handsdown.
4. Standard BT-252 Finder - for Newbies they really need to fit this with the correctional - put another 100 on the scope - just getting used to it is a nightmare ( and I'm still not used to it ).
5. Bought me a red spot finder - THE BEST DAMN THING I HAVE BOUGHT for the scope, wow, starhopping became less of a burden. The naked eye, the finder, which of those suckers is which ? You know what I mean.
6. Starhopping - living in a highly polluted area, I wanted something that would give me even a "small" chance of seeing, and I simply couldn't afford the time to go searching - so got myself an Argo Navis. So far, so so, but early days. Some definite alignment problems, but the guys from Argo seem genuine. ( that will come into my next quarterly report, along with my 25" truss mounted Dob, that fits into a standard 3 man tent bag, and can be assembled in 10 mins flat without any collimation needed - oh, which brings me to
7. Collimation - I still havn't got this baby down pat - it's ****** hard. Laser collimation, no sweat, twirl this knob, twitch that, red dot here, another there, but then stick in the cheshire, no way man! - until I can see Rob and Co from WSAAAS at the next chance I get to go to the mountains, it will have to do. It sounds easy, but when you know exactly what your doing, it is. ( Rob - if your reading - I want this as a topic at a monthly meeting, including mirror removal, cleaning, etc )
8. Value - It isn't cheap, thats for sure.
9. Enjoyment - ranks up there with a sphinter factor of 8/10 - when someone says - "Whats That?" - and you can just look up, and say "That's Sirius, oh, and that ones Procyon, and thats Rigel, and that Redish/Yellow one is Bet, and that one over there, is Saturn, etc", and it just becomes 2+2=4, then yeah, lifes good.
10. Best Experience
The first time I saw Saturn, and Tuc 47
End of Report
Clear Skies
Lance ( Doc )
