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Thread: Your own telescope.

  1. #26
    Member Ivan Maly's Avatar
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    Great thread.

    Here is my largest-aperture (my 12" LX200GPS is bigger in size and weight) and probably most used telescope. A talented local ATMer (who, I believe, does not desire fame) made this 16" out of his Meade Lightbridge to transport in a car that is even smaller than mine. He later moved up in aperture and passed it down to me for an agreeable sum. The upper cage is traditional, the mirror box and the rocker box are extremely low-profile but by no means lightweight. The 8 trusses are 1.25" Moonlite. Everything else is original Meade. The f/4.5 optics are fine (sub-arcsec when the conditions allow).

    The motions are predictable, no balancing is ever needed, and it withstands fairly stiff winds. I can remain perched on my adjustable chair with one foot on the ground even when observing near zenith, and there is no appreciable dead zone around zenith. On the flip side I should mention that when set up on a level surface I cannot go lower than M83 at culmination (15 degrees?), and the motions are not what Dob aficionados call "buttery smooth".

    It may have been to our remote dark site 50 times already in my hands alone and I had to replace more than one Moonlite truss block, but the main structure seems to be doing fine even though it may live in the trunk for months on end. The picture was made by the original owner. I don't do deep sky from home and hardly ever see the scope assembled in daylight.

    3_small.jpg
    Last edited by Ivan Maly; January 2nd, 2013 at 09:23 PM.
    Ivan
    20" Sky-Watcher
    deepskyblog.net

  2. #27
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    That is one extremely good-looking dob!


    Clear skies!
    Thomas, Denmark

  3. #28
    Member Atlas's Avatar
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    Very nice to see all these scopes. Here is mine: 25" f 4 home built Dobsonian with Argo Navis and ServoCAT, in the process of being assembled.

    _MG_5645klein.jpg


    Johannes
    25" f4 home built Dobsonian, Argo Navis, ServoCAT
    My astronomy website: Blick ins All

  4. #29
    Member omahaastro's Avatar
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    Nice hand/foot coordination.
    18" f/4.5 Obsession (#264)
    30" f/5 Obsession (#102) 'Anzio Annie'
    9.25" f/10 Celestron
    8" f/6 Cave
    80mm and 120mm f/5 achro
    Losmandy GM8

  5. #30
    Member Atlas's Avatar
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    I took the idea from the book by Kriege and Berry, pp. 299-301. They recommend it for scopes 36" and upwards, but it is also very practical for 25".

    Johannes
    25" f4 home built Dobsonian, Argo Navis, ServoCAT
    My astronomy website: Blick ins All

  6. #31
    Member omahaastro's Avatar
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    Yes, I immediately saw that, a great looking scope. I'm compelled to use a 30lb battery to anchor mine.

    Quote Originally Posted by Atlas View Post
    I took the idea from the book by Kriege and Berry, pp. 299-301. They recommend it for scopes 36" and upwards, but it is also very practical for 25".

    Johannes
    18" f/4.5 Obsession (#264)
    30" f/5 Obsession (#102) 'Anzio Annie'
    9.25" f/10 Celestron
    8" f/6 Cave
    80mm and 120mm f/5 achro
    Losmandy GM8

  7. #32
    Member Ivan Maly's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Astrojensen View Post
    That is one extremely good-looking dob!


    Clear skies!
    Thomas, Denmark
    Thank you, Thomas. Believe it or not, it has now been stolen. With the car where it was in the trunk. I had the telescope added to the police report - it was a substantial chunk of the presumed value of the car! I'm stunned; what kind of crazies live around us.
    Ivan
    20" Sky-Watcher
    deepskyblog.net

  8. #33
    Member RolandosCY's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ivan Maly View Post
    Thank you, Thomas. Believe it or not, it has now been stolen. With the car where it was in the trunk. I had the telescope added to the police report - it was a substantial chunk of the presumed value of the car! I'm stunned; what kind of crazies live around us.
    Scary! One reason I never leave my 18" or any other scope in the car even at the "presumed safety" of home... Hope you get lucky again Ivan.
    The Darker the Better!
    -------------------------
    18" f4.5 Obsession Classic #1934
    10" f5 Skyatcher Dob
    152mm f5.9 Teleskop Service
    Takahashi FS128
    SkyWatcher 120 f5
    Takahashi FS102
    Takahashi FSQ106N
    SkyWatcher ED80 Pro
    SkyWatcher ED72 Evostar
    Televue Naglers and Ethos

  9. #34
    Administrator/Co-Founder Dragan's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ivan Maly View Post
    Thank you, Thomas. Believe it or not, it has now been stolen. With the car where it was in the trunk. I had the telescope added to the police report - it was a substantial chunk of the presumed value of the car! I'm stunned; what kind of crazies live around us.
    Wow Ivan! So sorry to hear this!

    I had a friend lose his homebuilt 16" to theft. Thieves stole it right out of his minivan parked in front of his front door. What made it worse was that the thieves had no clue what they really had since they left behind the truss poles and wheelbarrow handles. They only took the upper cage and mirror box and thats probably since they were the only two parts painted alike.

    So sad really. Hopefully you're scope will be found intact.

    Keep us posted.
    Clear Dark Skies,
    Dragan Nikin
    25" f/5 Obsession #610 "Toto"
    30" f/4.5 OMI EVO #1 "Tycho"
    www.darkskiesapparel.com

  10. #35
    Member Ivan Maly's Avatar
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    Thank you for your moral support, gentlemen. The car has been found with insignificant damage. The scope was untouched. I may even get to go to the dark site tomorrow.
    Ivan
    20" Sky-Watcher
    deepskyblog.net

  11. #36
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    Whew! Good to hear. Glad everything went okay.


    Clear skies!
    Thomas, Denmark

  12. #37
    Member RolandosCY's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ivan Maly View Post
    Thank you for your moral support, gentlemen. The car has been found with insignificant damage. The scope was untouched. I may even get to go to the dark site tomorrow.
    Wow! Good to hear that you've got back with little damage. It would be very very unfair for you to lose them. I once left the bottom part (mirror box) of my 18" outside to cool off and I was worried, then I thought "who would care to steal a heavy piece of wood with a mirror in it", and relaxed. Well, over the last few days with the skyrocketing petrol prices, I have heard several stories of wooden structures stolen to be used in stoves and fireplaces! So noway to leave the scope outside alone anymore! Or even locked in the car, at least when I am at home...
    The Darker the Better!
    -------------------------
    18" f4.5 Obsession Classic #1934
    10" f5 Skyatcher Dob
    152mm f5.9 Teleskop Service
    Takahashi FS128
    SkyWatcher 120 f5
    Takahashi FS102
    Takahashi FSQ106N
    SkyWatcher ED80 Pro
    SkyWatcher ED72 Evostar
    Televue Naglers and Ethos

  13. #38
    Member davidem27's Avatar
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    These are my scopes:

    Reflector
    and Refractor





















    Okay, it's a stupid joke!
    They are a piece of one of the original William Herschel's telescope and the 28" refractor of the Royal Observatory at Greenwich

    Here it is my real one
    Davide Pistritto
    Dobson 24" f/4 - TeleVue Ethos with Paracorr 1 - Thousand Oaks filters on filterslide
    Uranometria 2000.0, Triatlas, MegaStar 5


    Beware for your CDDs! eheh...

  14. #39
    Member Ivan Maly's Avatar
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    All three look good, Davide.
    Ivan
    20" Sky-Watcher
    deepskyblog.net

  15. #40
    Member Bill Weir's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ivan Maly View Post
    Thank you for your moral support, gentlemen. The car has been found with insignificant damage. The scope was untouched. I may even get to go to the dark site tomorrow.
    That's fabulous. Losing a scope under those circumstances would have been tough as insurance might have been hard to claim on it.

    Right now I'm driving around with my 20" in the back of my truck. I don't like to but I'm in the market for a new vehicle and I want to be sure to scope will go in and out of it easily. I'm not worried about it when parked at home because I live well off the road in a forest and you can't even see the house from that road. Out in public I'm not overly worried either because you can't really see into the back of the truck through the canopy window and really who would want to steal a pretty worn out 1998 Sonoma Pickup with way too many km on it.

    Bill
    f/3.3 20" Super FX-Q Starmaster

  16. #41
    Member Daniel_Sp's Avatar
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    Hey guys,
    here's a picture of my new 24"-ATM-Newton, f/4.17. I allready had a quick first light, althought a few details are still under construction.
    DSCN0290.jpg
    It has a self-grind mirror with 1" thickness at its edge.

    best regards
    Daniel
    24"-Dobson, f/4.16

  17. #42
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    Hello everybody! This is my first post to this forum, actually I found this only a week ago. The weather in Finland has been very depressing during the winter so my telescopes have been out of use several months. Fortunately it seems to be better now... but we have only one month time before summer nights.

    My main instrument is a 18" Dobson which I keep on a relatively dark countryside. SQM is usually 21.3 - 21.6 mag/arcsec and limiting magnitude 6.5 - 7.0.



    12" GSO dobson is a secondary instrument. I use this on my backyard and on astronomical meetings, public shows etc. It fits nicely in my car and is easy to transport.



    An old TAL-1, 4.3" newton is nowadays for traveling. I started in deepsky with TAL-1 in 1995 and it works still well. I have built lighter setup for traveling and used it succesfully three times in Canary Island and once in Australia. Hopefully more trips are yet to come.

    Iiro Sairanen, Finland
    --> http://deepsky.arkku.net <--

    N18" F5, N12" F5, N4.3" F7.3

  18. #43
    Member Ivan Maly's Avatar
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    It is an excellent selection of scopes, and you have some dark skies, Iiro. Great website, too. I especially liked the collection of sketches from Australia. You did a good job there!
    It is a great-looking scope, Daniel. Almost funny to see it assembled in that interior.
    Last edited by Ivan Maly; March 27th, 2013 at 12:16 PM.
    Ivan
    20" Sky-Watcher
    deepskyblog.net

  19. #44
    Co-Founder DSF.com Jimi Lowrey's Avatar
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    Daniel what a beautiful looking telescope.


    Iiro welcome to Deep Sky Forum!
    Last edited by Jimi Lowrey; March 27th, 2013 at 09:31 PM.
    Clear Skies,

    Jimi Lowrey
    Fort Davis Texas

    48"F4 OMI/TEC
    28'F4 ATM

  20. #45
    Administrator/Co-Founder Dragan's Avatar
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    Iiro, welcome to DSF.

    I must say, you have quite the collection of sketches!! Unbelievable!!
    Clear Dark Skies,
    Dragan Nikin
    25" f/5 Obsession #610 "Toto"
    30" f/4.5 OMI EVO #1 "Tycho"
    www.darkskiesapparel.com

  21. #46
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    Sorry everybody, I don't own a big DOB and I don't want one. I observe with small telescopes and here is just one of them.WO Megrez 90 APO.jpg
    William Optics Megrez 90 APO.
    Clear Skies,
    Dan Acker
    90 Millimeter Observatory

  22. #47
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    I had a TMB 130 SS that I imaged with and a 12" LX200 GPS for viewing. I was saving for a 20+" sub F4 Teeter or Starmaster when someone stole my funds. Watch out for Roland. He is good at what he does.

    Now this is what I image and do my viewing with now. Guess I will have to start saving again.


    175.jpg

  23. #48
    Member nicoscy's Avatar
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    And here's mine which has seen first light 2 weeks ago...photo 3.jpg
    Takahashi FS-128
    Astro-Physics Stowaway 92 (paid the deposit!)
    Sky-Watcher 72ED
    Borg 55FL

  24. #49
    Member Ivan Maly's Avatar
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    What is the focal ratio, Nicos?
    Ivan
    20" Sky-Watcher
    deepskyblog.net

  25. #50
    Member nicoscy's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ivan Maly View Post
    What is the focal ratio, Nicos?
    Hi Ivan,

    f5.3

    First light was 2 weeks ago and I hadn't dialled the collimation right so only took it to 122x.

    Fixed it (barlowed laser collimation did the trick just fine) but now must wait for the orbiting lightbulb (moon) to disappear so that I can crank it up and see how far down (or up in this case) the rabbit hole goes.

    I am itching to see how it performs on the planets, being f5.3 and all. Then I will put that out of my mind and concentrate on a strict high protein diet of DSO...
    Takahashi FS-128
    Astro-Physics Stowaway 92 (paid the deposit!)
    Sky-Watcher 72ED
    Borg 55FL

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