Hi,
I bought a DSO 8" from Antler Optics last week and have some questions. Before the questions, the scope is very nice and I can't believe what a value these Chinese/Taiwan dobs are. The Antler version has a 2 speed focuser, rollar bearings, upgraded finder and a fan. I had the scope out last night and I thought it did well considering the poor seeing here. I was able to make out the 5th star and had hints of the 6th star of the trapezium. I looked at Saturn but it was low before I had to bring the scope in although it looked sharp for very brief moments. The contrast on the Orion Nebualue seemed very good though I had no other scope out for comparison.
Now the questions- I was using a 22mm Nagler and a 6.7 UWA and I had to slide them out of the focuser with the focuser at max out travel to get them to come to focus. Is this a common issue? Should I live with it or try to get a shorter focal length mirror? Could this possibly cause the light cone to be cut off as the light enters the bottom of the focuser?
What are others using for counterweights? I have heard that magnets and ankle weights are good? Does anyone know a good source of heavy magnets? I would like to be able to use my Denk binoviewer with this scope.
I noticed one clip which extends over the face of the secondary. Is this typical of these scopes and does it interfere with performace?
The scope seems fairly easy to pick up and carry out in one piece but wondering if anyone has added extra handles?
Has anyone tried replacing the secondary collimation screws with thumb screws and if so where did you get them?
Finally, this scope seems so very user friendly in setup and use. I really like being able to carry it out in one piece and more than that have very much enjoyed sitting down and the comfortable eye position. I have been fickle in buying equipment in the past and have a lot of scopes but have the feeling of selling most of my other scopes and focusing
on observing with this scope. I feel like I am going full circle since my first scope was a 6" f/8 dob
25 years ago. If I had bought this scope early on, I could have saved some money but I probably wouldn't have been happy without trying refractors/scts/etc. Has anyone else tried a bunch of different scopes and kept an 8" f/6 dob (or similar) as there main/only scope? Thanks!
Dave Adams