"Edward" wrote in message
link.net...

"Stephen Paul" wrote in message
...
I made a run at my globular list, generated from SkyTools. I really like
that software. I put the 12" just outside the sliding glass door off my
den..

Remind me again which 12" you bought? What do you think of it?

Ed T.


Meade 12.5" F4.8 Starfinder Dobsonian.
http://www.meade.com/catalog/starfin...tarfinder.html

Like all the inexpensive Dobs I've used or owned, it needs some TLC to make
it mechanically better, but optically there is nothing bad to say about it
once equilibrated and collimated. In fact, I think historically there has
not been a bad word said about the 12.5" optics.

Made in America, priced under $850. Needs a replacement focuser pretty much
out of the box. Begs for a replacement mirror cell to allow better cooling,
and eventually to maintain proper figure of the primary. After trying the
$99 Orion (Japan) 2" "All Metal" focuser, I eventually (months later)
decided that I really don't like rack and pinions and installed a (used on
A-Mart for $125) Moonlight CR1 Crayford focuser. A week later I replaced the
particle board mirror cell with the $48 University Optics cell. After
replacing the mirror cell, I had to add 7.5 lbs to retain balance (borrowed
from my Losmandy counterweight set for my C8). At some point, I will make
taller side boards on the base, and move the altitude bearings up toward the
focuser. The OTA (without weights) now weighs about 50 lbs.

I've had and regularly used the scope with the 2" metal R&P since March, but
having made the above mods in the past two weeks, it has really become a
different scope, operating at a whole new level of goodness.

It had been reported that Meade was no longer making them, but I still see
them listed on the Astronomics web site, as drop shipped for an additional
$79. So the total cost to make it as good as, or better than the current
Asian scopes with a Crayford is about $1100. A small premium to pay to keep
some of your fellow Americans (Meade, Moonlight and UO) employed and
contributing to, rather than unemployed and drawing from your tax dollars.

Stephen Paul