IT HAS ARRIVED! The SkyWatcher FlexTube 250P (10") Dobsonian

 "...and they don't have ANY interest in making these replacement characters well developed. It's all abo--"

"GREGORY!" My mother hollered, interrupting the video.

"Yeah?" I hollered back.

"COME HERE!"

And so I did, thinking she needed help with her online teaching. Instead, she was at the front door, and a very large package labelled "SkyWatcher" was outside.

"Oh my god," I said, "Oh my god!"

I couldn't hold in my smile.

"What is it?" The delivery guy asked, carrying the second package.

"It's a huge telescope," I said, beaming.

"Oh cool," was the reply, and I thanked him.

"Hey! Be sure to look up at the night sky!" I told him, always trying to spread the gospel of astronomy. He told me he would, as he went back into his van.

I got the packages inside, giggling to myself and practically hopping from foot to foot.

I like how my dog's eyes lit up with the flash; a reminder that eyes are optical systems.

And I set to work building the telescope with the aid of my mother. I suspect it could be a one-person job, but having a second person to hold various arts of the rocker-box while it's coming together would be useful.

It took about an hour and a half to build the rockerbox and assemble the accessories onto the OTA.

First impressions:

Family Portrait. SkyWatcher FlexTube 250P (10"), FirstScope 76 (3"), and Apertura DT6 (150mm)

Specifications: The 250P OTA has a large secondary mirror (Gary Russel says its grossly oversized), and a huge parabolic primary mirror. The focal ratio is f/5. Focal length is 1200mm, identical to the Apertura DT6, so my eyepiece collection will provide the familiar magnifications.

Assembly: The assembly was not difficult, though it certainly helps that I have already assembled a Dobsonian rockerbox (the DT6's). The necessary tools are included in the rockerbox package. Almost no assembly needs to be done for the Optical Tube Assembly, aside from mounting the finderscope, adding the 1" visual back, and removing a lens paper wrapper from the secondary mirror.

Weight: The rockerbox is very heavy for its size, but not difficult alone. The OTA is heavier, but still within the realm of what I can carry on my own. The truss-struts work well as handles for the OTA when collapsed. The whole scope assembled is a little too heavy for me to lift all at once for more than a short go. I could try to carry the thing outside, but I think practically it's coming out in pieces.

Finderscope: Though I've had experience with this exact finderscope with the FlexTube 200P (8") Dobs at the Cline Observatory, it's been so long that I'd forgotten how huge they were. After being used to the puny and occasionally useful 6x30 straight-thru finder that came with the DT6, this big 8x50 Right-Angle-Correct-Image (RACI) finder is a welcome change. My first impression was simply, "That's a BIG Finder!" It was pre-assembled in its mount, the foot simply had to be placed into the Synta-style finder shoe on the 250P.

Eyepieces: The scope comes with a 25mm and 10mm "Super" Plossl (which is just a typical 4-element plossl). The 25mm is fine and typical. Another Synta Super-Plossl I tried recently performed almost identically to my GSO/Apertura Plossl, but with a little wider field of view, but a little less sharp at the edge, but you have to be paying close attention to notice a difference. The 10mm looks great, but its eye relief is almost zero. I have very long eyelashes, and I can't see the field stop of the eyepiece without getting my eyelashes right up against the casing. There's another eyepiece visible in the photo which I will explain at another time.

Collimation: At f/5, good collimation is crucial. It was pretty close out of the box, but my mom helped me to fix it up. It's so big that it really needs two people to do it easily (at least, when using a cheshire). Will have to see how well collimation holds, and to what extent the collapsible tube affects that. 

The typical astronomer's curse seems to have worked somewhat oddly. I think the sky, realizing that it had clouded out my view of last night's partial lunar eclipse, decided to make it up to me and made sure the package shipped two weeks to a month earlier than I had been expected! And yet... the sky will still be cloudy, and the seeing spectacularly bad, for most of tonight, and it won't be great tomorrow night either. I'm hoping I can have a First Light later tonight as the clouds let up. I'll make a second report when that happens.

I'm also just really proud about this telescope. This is the first complete telescope I earned with my own money that I made from writing for AstronomySource and TelescopicWatch. Though to fund it I did have to sell the Omni XLT 150, I sold it for the cost of the mount, which I had also bought through writing money, so it still counts. It will also be the largest manual telescope I've ever used. I've used the Cline Observatory's 24" CDK of course, but using software to control it is of course nothing like the same thing.

I'll probably get or make a light shroud for the open collapsible tube, as my current observing site does indeed have quite a few stray lights.

I'm really excited to give it a try.

Clear skies.