This has led to significant diversity in "Dobsonian" design. This article is just in time. Personally I think it’s a bit over kill for a Dobsonian, as finding objects manually by star hopping or other manual methods helps you learn the sky better and can be fun. The thing that restrict me from buying it right now is the size of my car and transportable. His newest book is called the Biological Universe, and features the search for life in the Milky Way and Beyond. Stellafane Mirror Class, and it won Third Place Optical for This scope was built by Jay Drew, STM, following We do quite a few star tours and star parties both for industries/educational institutions and for public school outreach here in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Anyway – I recommend checking out the Lumicon website or cloudynights.com – they’ve got plenty of reviews of specific filters and whatnot. These filters cut emission from sodium, mercury and neon lamps while passing the rest, and work on a wide variety of objects including nebula & galaxies. for small Dobs. But so does simplicity too. You can find cheaper 10″ scopes, but not with the integrated Object Locator. General purpose encoder mounting kit for Dobsonian mountings. Dobsonian telescopes are designed to be simple, easy to use and gather as much light as possible. The 10″ is a real sweet spot – lots of aperture to see tons of detail in objects but still small enough to easily handle and not too expensive. These folks carry a large selection of telescope mirrors and parts, as well as telescope kits and lots of accessories. As with the optical part the mount is just as simple, if not more so! I know that bigger means more incoming light an easier to see not so bright objects. Newtonians under 12-inches at the 2005 Stellafane Convention. Due to the nature of the Alt-Az mount, Dobsonians are not suitable for long exposure astro imaging. These telescope parts are available to assist the Amateur Telescope Maker. The following are the important parts of the telescope with their functions: 1. A lot of people ask me this question and I’ve been unsure of what to tell them, not having a telescope myself (I know, seems odd but living in a small condo in a light-swamped city makes stargazing a tough hobby!) The annotated photo below will serve as an illustrated glossary; it identifies all the key parts of a Dobsonian telescope, similar but not identical to the one we are building. Thanks for sharing this info! So what is a Dobsonian telescope and why are they so good? My previous scope only showed dots for stars, that was it. Kenneth Novak & Co. - Box 69T, Ladysmith, WI 54848, 715-532-5102 Generally regarded as one of, if not the, best makers of mirror cells, spiders, and other mechanical parts. After all, a telescope that doesn’t gather much light isn’t very useful. Dobsonian telescopes are incredibly good and are great for amateurs and professional astronomers alike. The lens constitutes of convex lens, concave lens, concave mirror, focusing distance, field of view, magnification, and resolution. The annotated photo below will serve as an http://www.cloudynights.com/category.php?category_id=42&pr=2×9. I have a 10 inch mirror at home that I need to build something around, I plan on building a Dob out of it! They are also very economical compared to other telescopes. For emmission nebula like the Crab and Orion, the best all around filter is Orion’s Ultrablock filter. Ohhh, and Olaf – the 6″, 8″ and 10″ Orions are all the same focal length (around 1200mm) so as far as fitting them into a car, they are all about the same length. When most astronomers “THINK” of a Dob, they think Newtonian Reflector on a Dobsonian mount. The other thing is what light pollution filter would you propose to use? A light bucket! I hear the one on the Orion works nicely. The mount is at your feet, not your waist. I don’t want people to complain that the noise makes them awake. I will definitely keep this in mind, though! But I want to see nebula, and this will be in a country bad for astronomy because of the light pollution. More so lately, some manufacturers have put GoTo systems with motors on some Dobsonian mounts. galaxies), and other celestial objects because of several advantages in using this telescope… telescope, similar but not identical to the one we are building. And More…, Episode 698: Open Space 95: Would SpaceX Have Survived without NASA? Previous: Anatomy The Guide to Space is a series of space and astronomy poddcasts by Fraser Cain, publisher of Universe Today, Episode 700: Interview: Wallace Arthur and the Biological Universe. If money is no object, then get the Lumicon Narrowband. https://www.amazon.com/Universe-Today-Ultimate-Viewing-Cosmos/dp/1624145442/, Audio Podcast version: I get this question all the time, usually around Christmas. My own and most favourite telescope is my Skywatcher 10-inch Dobsonian and I will probably be using it for many more years to come, as it is difficult to beat! Dobsonian sizes range from starter scopes of 6 inches up to 30 inches, but common sizes are 8 to 16 inches in diameter. Because of this robust simplicity, they are very economical and popular with astronomers of all levels of ability. So buy? But technically speaking, “Dobsonian” only refers to the mount, regardless of the OTA on it. Having said that, you’ll find me at the EP of my 18″ Obsession 99 clear nights out of a 100: aperture kills =-). Dobsonian/Newtonian telescopes have a big advantage over telescopes with lenses such as refractors and Cassegrain telescopes, as mirrors are a lot cheaper to make than lenses. A basic manual mount which supports the optical tube and can be manually moved by hand in the Altitude (up/down) and Azimuth (left/right) axis. Simple! But don’t be fooled by this simplicity. These bump the contrast up heaps for the objects that they work on, but they tend to only work very effectively on a smaller number of objects, and they kill the view entirely on galaxies (galaxies are broadband emitters). Instagram – https://instagram.com/universetoday, Team: Fraser Cain – @fcain / [email protected] Broadband LPR filters do a reasonable job of cutting LP. Monday, 2013-Feb-11 10:00:30 -0500. To get the best contrast enhancement on nebula (noticably better than broadband LPR filters), you typically need to go to narrow ‘line pass’ filters, like Hbeta, [OIII], etc. My first step was a GOTO scope, which would be handy when you are in a astronomy unfavourable country like me. The SC will work with any of the common telescope mountings -- Dobsonian, German equatorial or Fork. That one was 6 inch I think, basically useless. The “i” gives you easy “push-to” to make finding things easier, but it won’t track. As with the optical part the mount is just as simple, if not more so! Telescopes: Truss Telescopes: Ultra-Light Conversions: Scopes and Testimonials: Parts and kits: Components for the ATM: The "ETT" (Easy Transport Telescope) Telescopes for sale: Links: Contact Us: Pricing: Payments Paypal and Credit Cards . Both Dobsonian and Newtonian telescopes are measured by the size of the diameter of their primary (big) mirror. diameter tube for that size mirror. A ten incher is a nice choice, especially for the targets that you’ve listed as your primary interest. We are asked the what kind question a lot, also, but we always preach that the person (s) should get some sky charts off the internet or get a planisphere to learn their way around the sky, then get a pair of binoculars for their first viewing. The mirror is a 6-inch f/7; it is in a fairly large Karla Thompson – @karlaii / https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEItkORQYd4Wf0TpgYI_1fw RSS: https://www.universetoday.com/audio, What Fraser's Watching Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUHI67dh9jEO2rvK–MdCSg, Support us at: https://www.patreon.com/universetoday Welcome to the scary and expensive world of buying your first, or replacing your old telescope! what? He enabled the average Amateur Telescope Maker “ATM” to create a large and very stable telescope with common workshop tools. You may have some success with webcam imaging with some of the GoTo Mounts though. Don’t go buy a telescope before learning about what you want to see, because i see so many (usually cheeeeep) scopes at garage sales that turned out to be what i call “Hoovers” (the famous vacuum cleaner company) because they spent their life collecting dust in the garage after one or two less than pleasant attempts to see something exciting in the sky. Join our 836 patrons! I always tend to look at the big telescopes.