I have bought a GSO 8" RC

[gregbradley]

Originally Posted by Gama

The RCOS or any of the big Pro RC's are built like sherman tanks and weigh about the same.
This is for exactly the reasons you mention its not critical. But they are very critical.
You cant have droop at all, and the major issue with RC's is that as you go out of collimation, the more severe/crappy the image gets. Where other scopes can take some miscollimation, the RC's need near perfect alignment.

Theo

My RCOS 12.5 inch wasn't that heavy. My Tak BRC250 is 2.5 inches less aperture and weighs just as much if not slightly more.

Hey when do we get first light from your CDK20???

C'mon Theo I'm hanging out here man.

Greg.

[marki]

Originally Posted by gregbradley

Hey when do we get first light from your CDK20???

C'mon Theo I'm hanging out here man.

Greg.

Theo posted a pic in this forum under the cdk thread. Have a look .

Mark

[Chippy (Nick)]

Originally Posted by allan gould

Luv these threads

Me too!

[Paul Haese]

Still waiting for the OTA to arrive. Been over a week since it was sent and seems to have got caught in a Australia Post vacuum. I rang Oz Post this afternoon and they say it should be delivered by 5pm this afternoon. Hmm just in time for the easter break, but I don't know which D bar set it will need. Given it is now 211pm I am not holding my breath that it will be delivered on time.

Mark, in terms of collimation though, surely these OTA's are not that hard to collimate. Sure I get the point that they need to be very accurately aligned, but lets face it, if they were super demanding no one would buy them or else you would hear all sorts of stories about collimating them. Greg, did you have trouble collimating your 12.5?

Anyway, this is all moot at this stage as I still don't know that this OTA will have good optics to begin with. Aside from Ronchi Testing, out of focus star images, any suggestions as to what tests I should use? I will give a focused image of say 10 minutes unguided on the EM400, an out of focus star image and if I can I will ronchi test it. Suggestions thank.

[Coen]

Perhaps:
http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbthrea.../o/o/fpart/all
and the links there in might give ideas?

[Gama]

Originally Posted by gregbradley

My RCOS 12.5 inch wasn't that heavy. My Tak BRC250 is 2.5 inches less aperture and weighs just as much if not slightly more.

Hey when do we get first light from your CDK20???

C'mon Theo I'm hanging out here man.

Greg.

I did say "Big Pro RC's" with weight. You have a baby RC, more like a shelf model to admire while reading a book in front of a warm fire .

Seriously though, the info on alignment is out there, just need to read and understand. Actually, RCOS has a collimation procedure, read it and see how you go.

Theo.