I posted this also on the Discovery forum, but thought I'd put it here also. .......
The big gun arrived today. The Discovery 10 inch F5.6 dob, and man, it's like HUGE! Way bigger than I thought! I could put a bowling ball in it and some gun powder and have quite the cannon!
It came in 3 boxes, a big one for the OTA, a big flat one for the base, and a square one for the primary. UPS did it's usual number on the OTA's box, looked like Rocky warmed up on it before a boxing match, but it was packed good and was in perfect shape, whew! The other boxes and their contents were in perfect shape.
I pulled the OTA out first, man I still can't beleive how big and long it is! Then I unpacked the base and it assembled easily in about 15 minutes. Then I opened the primary's box up, it was packed SUPER good, and it was clean and perfect sitting in it's heavy duty cell. The rest of the scope was together and sitting there looking like some kind of artillery in about 20 more minutes.
I had my wife twist the collimation "wing nuts" while I looked down the tube and got shot in the eye with the laser a few times, I'm starting to be able to see good again LOL.
One nice surprise, they improved the base and made some changes, the scope now has a 2 inch focuser!! It was only supposed to have a 1.25 so that was cool. The focuser has a touch of slop, but feels smooth. I can deal with that.
The azmuth motion is a bit stiff as I guess most new dobs are, so I will probably mess with the milk carton fix since it's so cloudy out, might as well do something haha.
The real report on the optics and performance will have to wait until THE CLOUDS GO AWAY!!! It's totally gray and raining out! It was nice and sunny all day until I got home and started opening the boxes, gee what a surprise!
Here are some pics, later I will post an optical review etc. Take care all and hope someone has clear skies out there!
Ron
PS Last night about 11:45 there were a few semi-clear patches in the clouds, gave it a go but the sky was too hazy and the areas where stars did show were too small to even make out the constallations, rats. Didn't find any real objects, but did get to scan a touch of the area around the Milky Way.
The big gun arrived today. The Discovery 10 inch F5.6 dob, and man, it's like HUGE! Way bigger than I thought! I could put a bowling ball in it and some gun powder and have quite the cannon!
It came in 3 boxes, a big one for the OTA, a big flat one for the base, and a square one for the primary. UPS did it's usual number on the OTA's box, looked like Rocky warmed up on it before a boxing match, but it was packed good and was in perfect shape, whew! The other boxes and their contents were in perfect shape.
I pulled the OTA out first, man I still can't beleive how big and long it is! Then I unpacked the base and it assembled easily in about 15 minutes. Then I opened the primary's box up, it was packed SUPER good, and it was clean and perfect sitting in it's heavy duty cell. The rest of the scope was together and sitting there looking like some kind of artillery in about 20 more minutes.
I had my wife twist the collimation "wing nuts" while I looked down the tube and got shot in the eye with the laser a few times, I'm starting to be able to see good again LOL.
One nice surprise, they improved the base and made some changes, the scope now has a 2 inch focuser!! It was only supposed to have a 1.25 so that was cool. The focuser has a touch of slop, but feels smooth. I can deal with that.
The azmuth motion is a bit stiff as I guess most new dobs are, so I will probably mess with the milk carton fix since it's so cloudy out, might as well do something haha.
The real report on the optics and performance will have to wait until THE CLOUDS GO AWAY!!! It's totally gray and raining out! It was nice and sunny all day until I got home and started opening the boxes, gee what a surprise!
Here are some pics, later I will post an optical review etc. Take care all and hope someone has clear skies out there!
Ron
PS Last night about 11:45 there were a few semi-clear patches in the clouds, gave it a go but the sky was too hazy and the areas where stars did show were too small to even make out the constallations, rats. Didn't find any real objects, but did get to scan a touch of the area around the Milky Way.
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