Hi From Canada!

[bordagea (Adrien Bordage)]

Hi;

I am a new member to your wonderful astronomy community.
I joined about a week ago. I was surprised to see a "Happy Birthday" e-mail message from your support team in my e-mail message box. OOPS! I let the cat out of the bag! Oh well....
Anyway, it was a nice thought!

I am purchasing one of the Round Table Platforms (http://www.roundtableplatforms.com/ for a Skywatcher 12 inch F/5 collapsible dobsonian telescope(http://www.skywatchertelescope.net/swtinc/index2.php

Hope those links work. If not, let me know.
I am very happy with the Skywatcher dob. I have only had it for about a month now, but I did manage to observe with it a few times so far, and I am happy to report that the optics give good images (a star test reveals a fair smoothly figured mirror with no visible errors under most viewing conditions). I already owned a binoviewer that I purchased for my Celestron 8 inch SCT (early 90's version), and I am anxious to try it with my 12 inch dob (the collapsible tube design will allow this). A bonus!

Unfortunately the weather has not cooperated for the past few weeks or so (lots of rain and fog), but hopefully it will get better soon.

Take care everyone.

HEADS UP!
Adrien Bordage
Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada

[Dennis]

Hello, Adrien

Welcome to Ice In Space! Nice to hear from you and I hope the local weather improves for you.

Cheers

Dennis

[sheeny (Al)]

aboard Adrien!

It can't rain forever... it hasn't here anyway!

Al.

[PCH (Paul)]

Hi Adrien,

welcome to IIS

I have a (Stellarvue) binoviewer which i use with a Meade 12"" LB dob, and they work a treat. But the basic binoviewer wouldn't come to focus and I had to use the supplied extension tube. So just be aware that this may happen with yours also. But my god, the views are spectacular

Oh, and a happy birthday btw

Cheers,

[Dog Star (Phil)]

G'day Adrian and welcome to IIS.
Pardon my antipodean ignorance, but I've never heard of St John. Tell us a little about the place.
Oh, and a Happy Birthday from me as well!

[bordagea (Adrien Bordage)]

Hi Phil;

Saint John is the oldest city in Canada. We are situated along the Fundy Coast and the Atlantic Ocean. The following website gives a brief but precise overview about the city of Saint John: http://personal.nbnet.nb.ca/mclays/stjohn.html

Of more importance; How many clear nights on average do we get? Not a great amount unfortunately! If we were to define a "clear night" as being no more than 25% cloud cover in the sky at any time throughout the whole night, I would guess that on average we have only about 50 clear nights in one year (on average).
The winter months (December-March) seems to offer more clear nights, however it can get downright nippy (cold), at times -25 deg. to - 40deg. celsius with the wind chill factor.
Of even more importance, I just checked the forecast and it looks like it will be clear tonight. I can give my 12 inch dob a test run again.

Hopefully the clearing trend will continue for the coming weekend as our annual Dam Star Party (situated in the Mactaquac Provincial Park, not far from the Mactaquac Dam) takes place this weekend. The Mactaquac Park is about a 90 minute drive west of Saint John.

Thanks for the "Happy Birthday".

HEADS UP!
Adrien

[bordagea (Adrien Bordage)]

Paul;

The Skywatcher dob uses three 20 inch sliding truss bars allowing the ota to collapse a toal of about 20 inches. I simply just let it collapse only about 4 inches (the required inward focus travel for the binoviewer to reach focus), then I tighten the three truss bar locking bolts again.
I hope to try it tonight.

Adrien

[bordagea (Adrien Bordage)]

Originally Posted by sheeny

aboard Adrien!

It can't rain forever... it hasn't here anyway!

Al.

That is true. However, often it is clear in the afternoon, then when the temp cools in the evening, the fog rolls in off of the bay.
Arrrgggghhhh! Oh well, I do what I can.

Adrien

[bordagea (Adrien Bordage)]

Originally Posted by Dennis

Hello, Adrien

Welcome to Ice In Space! Nice to hear from you and I hope the local weather improves for you.

Cheers

Dennis

Thanks.
Clear skies to you also. Gotta go! I am off to work.

Adrien