Astronomy
| After considerable research, it seems Discovery Telescope's 8" f/6 Dobsonian was the best deal. I checked numerous web sites and the opinions of several amateurs on sci.astro.amateur. The customer service at Discovery has been unparalleled in every way even going as far as exchanging a diagonal that I scratched. They have a customer for life!
Immediately after obtaining my telescope, I made several small modifications to it: |
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| I marked the bottom plate every five degrees. I then drilled a hole on the top plate so I can read the azimuth readings below. A couple of AA batteries, a momentary switch, and a high efficiency red LED are used to light the area.
I also added a handle so I can move the base around with one hand. |
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| An even cruder altitude system is made by using velcro to attach a protractor to one of the bearings. | 
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| A small foam pad was hot glued to the front panel brace just in case the scope should ever tip straight up too fast. The pad will cushion the scope. | 
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| A couple of lashing straps and a piece of mountaineering rope form a handle to carry the scope. Credit to Jim Mueller for this one. | 
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| Altitude bearing tensioner to eliminate some of the rebalancing when changing eyepieces. Made from a 5" diameter hose clamp. Picture above shows clamp pulled out so scope can easily be moved in and out of the base. Credit to Mark Fadale for this one. | 
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| Center spot on primary mirror greatly assists in collimating scope accurately. | 
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| Digital camera view through focuser. Camera parallax is throwing view off slightly but you can see the secondary is centered in the focuser as are the reflections and center spot. | 
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| Not shown: "Magic slidersŪ" (teflon pads) were added to the base to smooth out azimuth motion. I used the 1" circular pads. Three on the outside and three on the inside near the center bolt. | |