วีดีโอ

There was a class action suit filed against them for price gouging and teaming up with another company to keep prices high. I believe that was the nail in the coffin. Sad.

Seriously there must be a way to hold the mirror tight without making it pinch... leaving a mirror not tight will just complicate colimation... In my case, my scope has the back of the mirror pushed against some kind of foam... so even if we tight the screws, the foam will just squeeze a little to counter the screws.

LOL, I just bought an 8” DOB, now I’m looking at ways to make it better, the crazy things we do for the little extra bit of performance, I’ll have to add this to the list. I thought I was doing good by putting the after market lenses Televue lenses in foam shadowboxed systainer. Might look into Green Stuff World Maxx Darth paint and spraying it.

This was quite useful, thanks! Based on the coarse granularity of the latitude gauge and how the arrow is so far from the numbers (at 11:45) it seems like "close enough" really is close enough. Is that still true if you've got a motor and you're doing long exposure photography?

You're doing it wrong bud. If you want to collimate your collimating laser you must first collimate 2" to 1.25" adapter to the wood and collimate the adapter do the laser. Then you have to collimate your eyes, your garage, the optometrist's glasses and your mother in law's windows.

The hobby is dying, although nobody seems to want to admit it. Young and middle-aged people these days don't really have "hobbies" as such. The younger they are, the less they care about physical or mechanical things - telescopes, microscopes, classic cars, Lionel trains, aquariums, woodworking, whatever. There are some who have an interest in electronics beyond simple game-playing, but even that's not a huge community. I used to be able to buy telescopes at our local camera stores. Today there aren't even any of those left. Companies that cater to hobbyists are going to continue to see their sales shrink as old-timers who DO have hobbies in the classic sense disappear from the scene, as we all inevitably must. Sad but true.

Customers can now join a class action lawsuit. the companies/owners were guilty of price fixing

Contact Steve Lehto Civil Rights Lawyer as this violates due process, 4th Amendment, and others by ripple through.

you can also use voice setting. the shutter activates by saying several recognised words. one word is cheese. say it close to the phone.

If you get bored, that mirror cell still could use some help. Having the collimation bolts move the mirror independent of the mirror hold downs is a sure recipe for a pinched mirror. Also, I would not expect the cell to hold collimation over the length of even a short car ride, because there is no restraint to keep the collimation bolts from unscrewing under vibration. To avoid rebuilding it all from scratch, I would suggest screwing the support triangles and the mirror restraint towers to a single plywood board, thus solving the problem of having the collimation bolds driving the mirror into the supports. The collimation screws would then work on the plywood board to change mirror tilt. The addidtion of another screw next to each collimation bolt to push against the plywood board would lock the collimation, having the lock screw in compression, and the collimation bolt in tension. That puts enough force on the threads to keep them from moving under vibration. You should put a small metal wear plate where the lock screw bears against the plywood board to keep it from digging into the wood.

Wasonville is also dear to my heart. Have been there many times. Lived south of there i Mariana Ca./ Camped up above there in Mt . Madonna County Park.

Tenho medo da parte de baixo dele cair o celular no chão, é seguro?

Man, what a fantastic video. Covered literally every single question I could have. Clear skies friend.

That's where the Apollo gold is buried😊😅😂.

Brilliant. Worthy of a film award.

I've focused on the videos relating to Orion Newtonians on Dob bases. I have an Orion 12XXI. One of the cords came from the factory with the plastic tab on the connector missing. I replaced the connector, but I may have not put the correct wire colors in the connector.Can you help me with the color sequence in the RJ11 connector at each end I replaced the battery in the guide handbox several times.

nice video... Until the end only because I strongly disagree with that last comment that this telescope is great for kids... Because, If the child has a difficult time finding and maintaining focus on the moon or some object..along with not being able to get good resolution /detail on the moon...they are sure to lose interest very very quickly and most likely not look back moving on to video games or something else

Spackle that crack !

Can also use the Samsung pen or you can use the voice activated photography mode

Too bad you didn't regrease it as well. My wife and I recently got a used 200mm Newton with this Mount and we are sure it could run a lot smoother. At least we have a name for it now (no brand name on ours) maybe we'll be able to find some additional resources that way. None the less enjoyed watching the video!

Studies have shown historically that lay-offs and firings should be conducted at the front of the week to allow the employee time to decompress/blow off steam, etc. prior to their unexpected long weekend. This results in their not as likely to do irrational or illegal things for which they may later be sorry for.

I bought a secondhand Meade Starfinder dob about 3 years ago. The previous owner had made a straight through finder from binocular parts, a bit like Red’s Double Plossl. I got into eyepiece making courtesy of this channnel and Red’s, bought too many old binocs from eBay. Modified the straight through to a RACI with one of the numerous prisms I now have and a hot glue gun. Works well.

A nice little video for the newbie and rank amateur. Not bad at all. What happened to that mount before you got it was criminal! If anyone were to smoke anywhere near my 30 plus telescopes they and the cigs would be quickly dealt with in a very unpleasant manner. In addition, ANY dog that even thought about trying to pee on my equipment would be on my dinner plate the following night, or sooner! With Orion and Meade going belly up I guess all that is left for cheap toys is Explore Scientific and Celestron. LOL I got the very strong impression that you were trying to suggest that people should buy your book and follow the adventures of Alan Alston. You sneaky fellow! LOL By the way, Evapo-Rust works better than CRL and an ultra-sonic cleaner is not needed. Paint is good for fast jobs and stuff that isn't worth much. I'm moving on to powder coating for my equipment. It is far stronger than paint and no more difficult to apply. Plus, I can get almost as many color schemes in powder as I can in paint.

Punt!

Are these some projects you might do? I made a stand alone RFT for sweeping dark skies by mounting a 1.25" focuser to a damaged 50mm straight finder. I can get a 2.5°-6° field @ 20x-8x. Any alt-az or photo tripod carries it. 60×350mm and 70×300mm-400mm refractors make great combo lighter-weight finders + RFTs. I took a 60×350mm scope to the last RTMC it is amazing how well scopes perform in black skies @ 7000'. Your 80mm Firstscope with a 2" focuser would make a great superfinder/RFT/G&G. Thx L

My telescope's finder scope is a straight view

Did you look under the sofa?

When I first saw the thumbnail I thought you would be converting a straight-through finder into a RACI finder. But this was very helpfull since one of my finders also has a cracked o-ring!

@Astronomy Garage with Refractor. Great Instructions and tips. John I once used a 12 inch vynil record to use on my Dob base it was 2001 a space oddessy!

Hi, What is the largest of your scopes have been out to dark skies with? The 14" Orion? What % of your observations are at dark sites? Have you optimized any scopes for urban use? L

Attending star parties? Lucky you.

Hi John, Since you have more than one scope can you do a newt and observing spot optimized for urban use? Thanks for the vids. L

Another awesome job with a short and to the point repair video!

I literally just had to do this same repair on an Orion RACI connected to a used XT8 Intelliscope that a friend gave me last week upon quitting the hobby. Alongside a whole set of 2" eyepieces. Optically it's almost as good as my Terry Ostahowski-figured 6" f/8 bought in 1998, which is high praise. For a while I had an old XT8 classic that I had purchased used for cheap, but unfortunately the mirror had a badly turned-down edge. It needed an aperture mask down to 6" to get acceptable images so it was redundant to me and I gave it to someone struggling with a department store scope. It's nice to get an ACTUAL bump in aperture for the first time in 26 years! I tested out the Intelliscope controller and it works fine, but I don't think I'll use it. I even unplugged the cables from the encoders on the base so they won't get in the way. I use a Starsense Explorer dock on a 3D printed finder-shoe adapter. Using the SSE functionality in SkySafari 7+ on my phone. It has better pointing accuracy with less rigamarole. Also I'm able to use an old iPhone without a sim card as a dedicated Starsense Explorer device. I run it and the 5v cooling fan on the cell off a single USB power bank.

Thanks for the video, very informative as usual. My 6 inch Dobsonian came with a straight viewfinder, and I also did find it to be a bit painful to use; so I bought a RACI finder. There is an issue, though. With a straight viewfinder I am forced to look towards the sky, and can easily switch from the finder to my eyes to point the telescope more quickly. With the RACI finder, I am looking towards the ground; to point the telescope, I twist my neck to see where the telescope is pointed at, then "untwist" to look through the finder, rinse and repeat until I narrow down the approximate location where the target is. Hopefully I just need to get used to the RACI finder 🤷