Thanks, Allan. Yes, it's a work of art all right. As good to look at as to look through. I will look at some deep sky objects and planets -- and show them to the public -- but mainly variables. It's performing way beyond my expectations. I saw mag 17.3 in the field of RU HOR and the seeing hasn't been great so who knows how deep it will allow me to see.
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Originally Posted by Allan
Beautiful dob Stephen, you must be very happy. I saw it near completion in Pete's workshop, and you have to love the quality and attention to detail Peter puts into the dobs he's building these days. Certainly in my travels around the world observing with friends and at star parties, I haven't seen another dob that rivals what Pete builds.
So it's your variable star scope. Do you plan to turn it onto some other deep sky objects?
Peter is a terrific guy all right, Kunama. His telescopes are delights to look at and delights to look through. Mine is exceptional.
Land of the Long White Cloud? We have not had a decent night so far -- partially clear skies but lots and lots of fog! Now we have a week of rain forecast -- remnants of the storm that hit northern Queensland :-(
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Originally Posted by Kunama
Love the scope Stephen, looks beautiful.
Peter was a great help to me when I built my scope, offering lots of free advice and supplying some custom parts. He sure does fine work!
Hope the Long White Cloud gives you some sky time!
Here's my big beast. It's way bigger than I thought it would be. I call it 'Kororia'. The name is Maori for 'glory' and it comes from Psalm 19:1 "The heavens declare the glory of God." It's a fully laden 28" f/3.3. It was made by Peter Read, SDM Telescopes, in Bunbartha, VIC, Australia. It's a real work on art - aesthetically pleasing to the eye and tests revealed excellent performance.
The mirror is by Mike Lockwood of LCO in USA.
It has ArgoNavis and Servocat (with two handboxes - one on the stalk and one at the eyepiece.
Kororia has an 80mm f/6 Explore Scientific Triplet APO Finder with a 20mm Nagler. That has a 3.4° FOV at 24x magnification. A Telrad is fitted. There is also an 11x60 RA Finder to help balance the scope (which is as near to perfect as you can get).
I use Nagler eyepieces and have ordered a Stellarview 20mm 100° eyepiece as well.
It has fans fitted to cool the mirror and heater straps around the smaller instruments and eyepieces.
The rocker box is larger than usual as Peter wanted to raise the height to see closer to the horizon over my 1.200m fold down walls on the observatory.
It's permanently set up in Pukemaru Observatory, on my property near Kaitaia and about 100m up f the house.
I will be using it for visual variable star observing (CVs, RCBs, NLs, and a few Mira/LPVs). Plus of course, public viewing.
I have asked people not to ring me if it's a fine night between Last and First Quarter. I will be busy (unless it's raining).
Oh and by the way, it's been stormy for the past 2 days so no viewing and rain/storms/thunder predicted for the rest of the week so I haven't had a chance to observe yet. That is so often the case with a new telescope.
WOW! Public viewing... nice. Next time in NZ, I would love to come check it out. My FIL is in Warkworth, you're really only a hop and skip away. Lovely bit of kit.
Weather was good last night. Riccardi reducer highlighted a tilt somewhere in the optical train, so will need to investigate that. Stars with the flattener are pretty good, but could improve also. Will try to sort this out in the following weeks.
Thought I'd finally post some pics. of my 10" f6 rebuild that I completed late last year.
Formerly a homemade cardboard tubed Dob. with a great mirror re-figured for me by Mark Suchting in 2000, I've now rebuilt it in an aluminium tube with a Moonlite focusser & EQ mounted using Parallax's rotating rings. There's some photos during construction, as well as showing the Novak 9 point primary cell that I'm lucky enough to have. Thanks to Mark's work, it produces great planetary/lunar views when cooled properly, about as sharp as my TSA-120.
I still use the old Dob. rocker box as a cradle to store it on...Waste not, want not!
Only problem is it's turned out to be built like a tank at 22-23kg & my G-11 struggles, even though I'm visual only. I just need an observatory & a bigger mount for it now!
What a cute little mount the Sky Patrol III by Takahashi is.....
Should be a fine companion for the FOA-60 refractor that is going to be my lightweight grab&go setup.
Sitting atop my Manfrotto MT055CXPro3 Carbon tripod is the Skywatcher Star Adventurer Wedge which is grasping my little DIY Dovetail plate bolted to the Sky Patrol III....
I thought my Feather Touch focusers were good until I bought my first Moonlite focuser for my Tak Mewlon 180C recently, beautifully made and silky smooth.
