12" Lightbridge

[cjpops (Craig)]

I just got my 12" LightBridge and man it's huge.. i'm so nervous with it.

It's too cloudy tonight so hopefully tommorow night i can get started with it.

Expect a lot of questions from me in the next few weeks - I might attend a Melbourne Astro Club to get the 'hang' of things.

[Alchemy (Clive)]

Originally Posted by cjpops

I just got my 12" LightBridge and man it's huge.. i'm so nervous with it.

It's too cloudy tonight so hopefully tommorow night i can get started with it.

Expect a lot of questions from me in the next few weeks - I might attend a Melbourne Astro Club to get the 'hang' of things.

Wondered why it rained today..... Now I know.

Forecast ...... Cloudy.

[sasup (Stacey)]

Originally Posted by alchemy

wondered why it rained today..... Now i know.

Forecast ...... Cloudy.

xxxxx222222222

[astronut (John)]

Originally Posted by Satchmo

I don't understand why you owners gloss over the azmuth motion problem . Out of the box , it moves nothing like a proper Dobsonian , and seems next to useless as is ( at least from what I saw of Sasup's scope at IISAC ) . You would need to jack the rocker box up on teflon pads and get rid of those roller bearings. Then it might work as a Dobsonian should

Sorry Mark,
Can't agree with you here.
I've had mine for 4 years and the roller bearings have and still do work very smoothly.
My 2 cents.

[Jeff]

Hi Craig (and others),

Glad to hear you got the 12" LB.

I originally owned a 10" LB for a couple of years. It was a little easier to carry the OTA, and the OTA fitted nicely across the backseat of my car without disassembly. Eventually I upgraded to a 12" (after a side-by-side comparison with the 10") primarily due to more enjoyable views of planetary nebs and galaxies.

Re. Mark's comment about "the azimuth motion problem", I actually prefer the roller bearings for azimuth motion (effortless to move, yet stable at the eyepiece). I use my LB on a nice flat concrete surface, however the roller bearings can be annoying if the base is sitting on an incline (need to align the base with the incline).

Glad to hear you're still enjoying the skies. More than happy to spend an evening at the eyepiece if you're still getting the hang of things and keen to drop around. Just drop me a PM sometime.

Jeff

[cjpops (Craig)]

Thanks for your kind words Jeff might join you on your next group stargazing.. Im reading up melbourne astronomy club also, very interested joining.

Ive already hit a wall with my setup

I was attempting to adjust the scope and dot finder to a distance pole and found it difficult (first time) for whatever reason the adjuster 'doesn't' move up or down when im turning the hex screw. Not sure if its me or the red dot's faulty? Or it moves extremely slow etc... Im sure im doing something wrong, ill try again later on..

[JethroB76 (Jeff)]

I found my LB red dot finder to be all but unusable. Unable to adjust alignment and multiple blurry reticle images. Its quite possible that it could be faulty - get it checked out when you go to a club meet, or if your vendor is local

[cjpops (Craig)]

After having a look at the viewfinder itself, i tightened up the both up/right screws and then tried again.. The dot is now moving.

It seems it adjuster screws was very loose in the first place. Thanks everyone.

[Kevnool (Kev)]

Originally Posted by Radiation

The only problem I've had with the scope so far is that the white "locking" knobs for collimation affect the collimation when you lock it. I'm not sure what the solution to this is, but I know of one person that drilled new holes and moved the locking knobs closer to the adjustment knobs - that worked really well if you're willing to drill holes.
.

The Solution is to throw them over your shoulder.
They dont do anything but give you heartache.
Why would you want to collimate you scope then put it straight out when you tighten them up.
Your solution really is to upgrade those 3 cheap springs that came with the scope and replace them with good quality compression springs.
Then you will have no movement at all.

Cheers Kev.

[cjpops (Craig)]

Looked at Eagle Nebula, Jupiter and Venus before it went down.
Absolutely stunning!

I've already got a 15mm eyepiece and was wondering if i bought a 2mm Barlow adapter would it be worthwhile? Wasnt sure if the view would be blurry/useless