Posts Made By: Ron Sowers

OK, not trying to hog the message board ;-) but after all the planetary, resolution etc talk. If I were to get another scope, these look like the best options. It seems people get the best all around veiws, AND managibility with an 8 inch dob. Which of these would be recommended?http://hardinoptical.com/dsh8.html $299.00 (wow! how are the optics???)

http://www.discovery-telescopes.com/large8f7DHQ.html $449.00

http://www.telescope.com/shopping/product/detailmain.jsp?itemID=366&itemType=PRODUCT&iMainCat=4&iSubCat=8&iProductID=366
$449.00

Any ppl who own any of these have any "reviews"?

Thanks, and I'll quit bugging everyone after this haha

Ron S

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.

Does anyone know of a website where you can see and print or download star charts? We have a Starry Night program and it's really been working horribly lately. I'd just like to be able to print off the constallations and the M objects in them,

Thanks!
Ron

Well, the skies were mostly clear last night, finally!!! I got to test out the new scope!(Discovery 10 inch F5.6 dob) First I must say WOW, there now I can give some details. :-)



First light was on Jupiter, the sky cleared in the west first during twilight, the sky was still medium blue but I could just see that little bright dot in the west. The scope was cool as I noticed that the sky looked like it might break up a bit so I put her down in the yard and grabbed the laser. It was only a bit off collimation, I only had to barely turn the top adj. screw and it was right on. These collimation wing nuts are awesome! No screwdriver needed and they twist really easy and smooth. Once that was done I aimed at the object that was to be first light. :-) Started at 57X and man, I could see two bands and the 4 moons were BRIGHT! 10 inches is quite a difference! When I was playing with the scope in the house, I had noticed the focuser felt kind of dry and I wondered about it, but now that I've used it, it works really well. Smooth and easy, little tweaks do not make the scope shake. I like it! ok now I pop in the 10mm for 144X... whoa 2 major bands, and a thin one above (below? it's a newt haha) and shading on the top and bottom. I also noticed with this scope things "snap" into focus, that's a good sign. Then I brought it up to 207X and Jupiter was the best I ever seen it, and it was LOW in the sky! I can't wait for it to be at zenith on a clear crisp night! By now it's really getting low and it's not dark yet so back into the house I go. .... Later last night about 11:00, most of the sky is clear!!! Cool! Bring the scope out into the middle of the back yard and start hunting. Me and my wife taking turns looking for goodies. Next object was M51, we could actually see both components and a fuzz around the brighter one, cool! Then M81 & M82, those are much brighter in this aperture! Next the Ring, man, it is BRIGHT and defined now! Awesome! Then M80, I can see stars in this now!
Then M13, wow, omg, aperture REALLY makes a difference on Globs, at 144X it pretty much filled the eyepeice, so many star resolved and I don't even have to avert to see them now, so COOL! We looked at that back and forth for quite a bit, then the last object (work night, must get to bed) M27 the good old Dumbell and as with eveything we saw, it was much better and brighter and had more details, really cool! Can't wait to get it to a dark site and go for some deep and dim stuff. :-)

The only mod. I'm going to do is the milk carton deal, it is a bit stiff in azmuth so at high powers there is some backlash, but otherwise it is smooth. :-)

Am I happy with this new scope purchase? Oh yeah!
Take care and clear skies everyone!
Ron

Hey everyone, I thought I'd post a pic I made, this is a comparison of 3 objects and how they look to ME in my backyard, with my eyes. The scopes were a 90mm ETX, a 6 inch F5 newt and a 10 inch F5.6 dob. The reason I thought I'd post this, is when I first got into astronomy, I wondered "how" much difference aperture makes, and I wished for something like this so I could at least get a rough idea. Hopefully this will help someone get an idea of how things look in different size scopes.
Remember, this is how things looked to ME in MY sky conditions, (ie light pollution level, transparencey etc.) and with my eyes, but at least should be close to reality.

Let me know what you think!
Take care and clear skies!
Ron

Hey Folks,

As some of you know, recently I purchased a Discovery 10 inch F5.6 dob, our "biggest" scope before this is a 6 inch.
Last night we had clear and steady skies and I finally got to test drive the 10 inch on the moon. The moon always looks good in scopes, and I have seen lot's of detail in our other scopes, but I have never had moon observations cause my jaw to drop. I could not believe how awesome it looks in this scope!

I was dying to try looking at something like this as I finally was able to do a decent star test on the scope last weekend and the optics seem to be very well corrected. What ever small differences there are between the inside and outside of focus images, would require VERY steady seeing to detect it.

But back to the moon last night, I started at 56x, took a peek, fried my retina and decided I better use a moon filter at this low power, the moon looked great. I could tell there was tiny detail just waiting for me to up the power to see. So I moved straight up to 258X, and WOW oh man, it was incredible! The tiny craterlets were uncountable! Rills, incredible detail in the crater walls, etc. I have heard people say "It felt like I was hovering above the surface" but I have never felt like that myself until now. It honestly felt like I was hang-gliding 5 miles above, (well jet pack maybe, hang gliding can be tough without an atmosphere)! Then I decided to really test things, I put the barlow in and doubled the power, 516X, and the image was still crisp! Craters would fill the FOV, I could see some detail in the smaller craterlets, it was literally breathtaking!

I think I might actually "get into" lunar observing now, I'm super pumped to get a good look at Mars too!

Take care and clear skies!
Ron

Does anyone know of a website that would show with pics what face of Mars is showing at that moment?

Thanks!
Ron

I don't have any of the equipment you listed but I must comment on the clouds thing! I hear ya! I also noticed that the time period between ordering and recieving new equipment also produces perfect skies! Of course that only lasts till the ups man arrives! Hope you get some good skies! Ron

Hey those are cool!! Good job!

One idea for ya, a false star can sometimes help, if you can find one of those shiny deals on top a phone pole, or put a shiny ball bearing 5O yards away you can check it in the day time also. I don't know if this will help in your situation, I did this to check my newt and it worked great, if you can have only grass etc in between you and the false star all the better. Then you will only be looking through 15O feet of air instead of thousands of feet, and the air is more stable in the morning. Just a thought! Ron