Selling my 12in Dob!!

I have had enough with Irish weather...Whats the point, I am selling my Orion Intelliscope 12in Dob:(
















Kidding!!

But I am going to sell it but for different reasons.

When deciding to purchase my current 12in Solid tube Dob, I weighed up many things. I wanted the biggest I could afford and store and transport. This would have been a 16in Chinese Truss/Strut, above which you are into Premium scope maker territory and an exponential increase in price.

The one thing that put me off a 16in Truss were newbie worries about collimation. I had read these things need to be collimated every session. The thoughts of that put the hibbie Jeebies up me!

Well or course I soon learned how to collimate with my 12in, I bought a premium focuser and Glatter Laser that enabled me to achieve perfect repeatable collimation in about 90 seconds evey night.

So in other words, a truss would no longer hold any collimation fears for me. Still wasn't going to trade up to a 16in though. Sure I have a great 12in and don't really 'need' a 16in.

Well, now I do!!

First off, I knew I could fit the Solid Tube 12incher and its base in my Small low sloping roof coupe. What I never thought off though was the other things that are handy to bring on an observing session, Things like an observing chair for your weary ass, an Eyepiece case, A table for the Eyepiece case etc etc. Now I have purchased and fabricated foldup collapsible items and I can just about fit everything in my car but it is dangerously overloaded with reduced visability. Fits no problem without visability issues in my brothers A3 hatchback but I can't always borrow that.

So fiting the solid tube in the my car has become a big problem.

The final nail in the 12in Solid tube coffin was the fact that we are moving house. My observing location will be on the roof. Imagine trying to carry that 12in water heater down 2 flights of stairs out to the car, when I go Dark Sky or Outreach observing.

I need a truss/Strut....

....and sure while I'm at it I might as well upgrade to a 16incher!! :woohoo:

Now Orions Teaser ad campaign for its new line of Intelliscope Dobs is reaching its conclusion this week. Most likely it will be intelliscope versions of their sister companies Skywatchers line of Collapsible Strut Dobs. The thing is that Orion have not done a 16in Dob in 20 years, they never brought out a 16in in competition with the Meade LightBridges, and there is no 16in version in the Skywatcher lineup, so it doesn't look like there will be a 16in in Orions new lineup either.

...But I love the intelliscope system!! Especially in this country where more often than not we have partially clear skies rather than fully clear, if indeed its not clouded out altogether, well the intelliscope comes into its own. I can be on an object and observing before another cloud passes over my object whereas with star hopping, one might have just finally found an object just when another cloud obscures the view. I find the Intelliscope invaluable.

So I have been looking at 16in Dobs. I have settled on the new Astrotech/GSO 16in Strut dob available from Teleskop-Service for just sky of €2000. Like all Chinese Dobs, there will be a few things to mod, to make it perfect, ie. New secondary knobs, Primary springs, side anti flexure braces etc The second most important mod for me to do will be replace the hex screws that hold the base together with knobbed bolts that screw into captive screw in sockets, so that I can quickly and tool-lessly dismantle the large base to carry down the stairs and to fit in the car.

But The most important mod I have planned is fitting DSC's to it. "Hey", you might ask yourself, Orion does not sell a separate intelliscope kit for dobs and an aftermarket, Sky Commander or Argo Navis will add another 600-800 euro to the cost!! and Orions intelliscope is arguably more user friendly than either. ie Rather than scrolling through huge DSO lists with a scroll wheel of arrow buttons on the other two, with Orions number padded handset, one can just press say. the NGC Button and then 6.9.3.3.

Well after some research and correspondence with Intelliscope experts, it turns out that Orion do actually sell a full intelliscope kit....except it is for their Skyview Pro GEM mounts. But it can easily be adapted for use with Dobs. I have already downloaded the schematics of the encoders and of the innovative bearing/brake system of the GSO 16in Dob and with a little modding to the casings of the encoders and with some re-arrangement of some of the wires in the RJ11 connector of the Intelliscope handset, one can adapt the system to use the RA and DEC encoders on whichever DOb axis one needs and orientated in whichever way one needs for the application.

Heres the Deal Maker.....

The full GEM Intelliscope kit is only $80 on the Orion Website atm!!

Eat that 600-800 euro Sky Commander/Argo Navi !!

TS have the kit too but its still €300 with them, so I have contacted a good American friend to order it for me in the US and ship it over to me in Ireland. Its a small package and below the customs threshold (or the guy will declare it that way ), so I am looking at a cost of only €56 + Shipping

Happy Days!!

So who wants to make me an offer on an Orion 12in Intelliscope Dob, with Raci, Telrad, Flocked OTA, Bobs knobs secondary screws, Astrozap Lightshield, Baffled vibration isolated fan, Ebonystar Teflon azimuth mod, Custom made collapsible hand trolley for moving scope and custom made Eyepiece table that fits onto hand trolley!! The mirror also seems to be a good one. Only my self and resident expert Philip Larder could see the E star in the Trapezium at a session this year if that gives any indication M13 on a night of good seeing this year was resolved to the core with every star a tiny, tiny pinprick of light like diamond dust.

The scope cost 1300 euros last December. It is still that price on Teleskop service even with the launch of Orions new line imminent in the states(Could be months till it gets over to Europe)

However, I can't in good concience neglect to tell prospective buyers that the place where I originally bought the scope 'Optiek Van Grootven' are now selling this DOB for €750. Obviously I can't in good concience ask for more than that even though I am taking a big financial hit on this scope in only 9 months, "Dems, the breaks" I guess.

I would like to get close to that though, as the scope includes many extras and the required mods have already been done to this scope.

Any Takers??

Best of luck with the new purchase. I would be tempted to buy your scope but I am moving in a few months.
You do realise that with the purchase of the 16" scope that we will now have an extra 16^2 days of cloudy and rain:unsure: Not that that makes any difference this Summer. (Did I say Summer?)

Well. wowww :X I just googled an image of that 16".... A beast of a yoke to be sure. My only reservation would be the weight, 60lbs for the primary cell?. I'm getting too old and unfit to carry such a load to the car.

I would love to buy your 12" but my wife would kill me. It took all my powers of persuasion to be able to upgrade from the 5.1" reflector to the 10" dob this year. Anyway best of luck with the scope and may the cloud gods smile down on you....from far away of course:)

Declan

Hi Keith,
well done on making a great choice of scope, it's a biggie but the aperture is worth every kilogram.
You just cant beat aperture, those DSOs under a dark sky will pop out and ruin your dark adaption.
Just remember to have a look also at the brightest stars like Vega and Arcturus with it, their sheer brightness and colour will surprise you.

Arrgghh!!

Someone put their foot down!!

No way, no how I was told.

Pack less on Dark Sky Trips I was told.

Try and carry the OTA up and down the stairs I was told.....

Have to admit...It was easier than I thought. Those Scope tote non slip handle/straps I got ages ago came in quite handy. Focuser end resting on my shoulder with my arm around it and my other hand holding the scope tote handle further down the OTA, and its not like I will be doing it that often. This ain't Arizona with weekly dark sky trips organised.

Damn!!

Orion XT12i back off the market!!

Orion XT12i back off the market!!

Or maybe not! :woohoo:

Nothings going to happen for a month or two at any rate. Finger crossed minds aren't changed again.

Coincidentally, I just saw a post on Iceinspace forums by Wildcard Innovations, makers of the argo navis, that they have designed an encoder kit for their argo Navis to fit this dob. Pretty chuffed that their altitude mounting scheme is pretty much the same as what I had planned myself. Bit confused about their AZ mounting scheme though. Its an encoder mounted off to the side of the base of the rocker box connected to the AZ bolt with a sprocket and pulley. Wonder is there a good reason for this or is it just that they have adapted a pre-existing az encoder kit to work with this scope. At any rate it seems to intefere with the AZ tension/brake system of this scope. ie. One can't adjust tension on the fly as it were, one needs to lift the OTA off, turn over the base and loosen or tighten a nut.

Anyway €800 approx for the Argo Navis. No thanks, I'll stick to an $80/€50 GEM Orion INtelliscope kit that I will mod. This argo kit however gives me great hope for Alt at least. Need to get the kit and scope in my hand to evaluate AZ, but I think I'll actually be able to go one better than Wildcard and be able to still use the AZ tension knob even with my AZ encoder in place. One of the Orion GEM encoders has a 1.5in diam hole through the centre where a counterweight bar on a GEM would run through. So can a Tension Knob!

Gonna get an American buddy on CN forums to order one for me from Orions US site and post it over to me. Will cost about $80/€50 +P&P whereas Patrick at Teleskop Service could only drop their price from 300 to 200 euros for this kit. I'll be ordering it now even though I am not 100% sure I can proceed with this scope upgrade because I think that $80 price as a stock Clearance price. Sure its only €50 even if I never get to use the kit.

Also have another mod planned for this scope...(that I don't even know if I am definately getting :blush: )Talk of some flexure in the 3 struts so I am going to replace the 3 Struts with a Lightbridge style 6 pole truss. Should be pretty easy to do. Rotate the UTA lower tube rig around 1/6th of a turn to get the strut/truss brackets offset from the lower brackets to enable the triangular truss configuration (while maintaining focuser orientation). Make my own truss poles and connect to the existing strut brackets.

Why don't I just get a 16in Lightbridge if I want a lightbridge style truss?? Too much to do to that. By all accounts ALT and AZ motions need modding. Poles and tube rings need painting, base has more flexure, harder to implement DSC encoders etc. From what I hear about the astrotech, the AZ and Alt motions are nigh on perfect, this coming from atm reviewers familiar with Premium scopes.

Interesting times ahead!