Ordered my Dob!

Christmas has come early!

Just ordered my first scope, 10" GSO Dob from Telescope-services, with 20mm and 9mm plossls, 32mm 2" wide angle, 2x barlow and a moon filter.
Will start its journey on Monday.

Should keep me happy for a while, while I live on a diet of cold baked beans and water.

Have been reading up about turning it in to a alt-az push to, looks a fairly cheap and useful mod.

Congratulations HeebyJeeby!!

Just got my first scope last week and the Weather has been terrible. They say that it is a statistical fact that the weather turns crap for 3 weeks after anyone buys a scope. So......eh.......thanks a bunch for reseting the clock back to 3 weeks wait for good weather for me.

Nice one!

It all turned up this morning, I am now the proud owner of a 10" Dob!!

Got it all built reasonably easily, impressive looking telescope. And it is so simple at the same time.

Collimation looks ok, made a collimating cap. Tried doing a quick star test tonight but I think the atmosphere is way too turbulent to make any sense of the test. Either that, or the optics are way out.

Had a quick gawk at the Pelaides, Mars, Albireo, the double double in Lyra (think I resolved it at 140x, but not convinced. Bad seeing?), the double cluster. Very impressed overall, and I think it is a pretty poor night for observing. I understand the attraction of 2" widefield eyepieces now.

Azimuth movement is way too free, have to stiffen it up somehow (felt pads?)

Are there any good tests for a scope like this, to see if the optics are up to scratch? Besides a star test? Or should I just wait for better seeing conditions in the next few days.

I'm off outside again now.

Best of luck with the new dob!
Dobs are the best!!
You'll have fun with it for many years to come.