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Obsession Telescopes

Question
I am considering purchasing a 30 inch Obsession Telescope. Anyone have any experience with these telescopes??
Anwser
The behauvior of the 24″ Obsession we have here in Finland depends strongly on the weather. It usually works well as long as the night-time temperature is over 0 Celsius. But as Finland if between 60-70 northern degrees latitude it is not unusual to have temperatures close to -30 C in the wintertime. -10 C is enough to change to ’scope to what we call the Depression. Focusing becomes impossible. Now it work a bit better after the focuser was changed to a model without friction-based drives. Collimating the Obsession has also been quite painful as it is owned by several people around Finland and therefore the telescope travels a lot in its container. This problem will of course not arise if the telescope it situated in an observatory building. To sum up: The big Obsessions are excellent IF you are living in a warm (and dry) climate and have some experience with big telecopes. If the telecope is not within a dome wind will be a serious problem. The tube has about as much surface as a sail of a small sailingboat! Byu some good-quality 2″ eyepices and a set of 2″ narrowband filters to get the best results. Good luck!
Associated Obsession Telescopes Question: Is there anyone who owns an Obsession Dobsonian or knows something about it?

Anwser:I don’t own one but several of my friends do. I’ve used both the 18 and 20 inch versions. And surprisingly there is a very large difference between the two: the 18 is a nice size, I have to use a ladder only quite near the zenith (though I must point out that I am 73 inches tall). The 20, OTOH, is huge, requiring a ladder most of the time. From my perspective there is thus a VERY large difference in easy of use between the two. I have not yet actually used both sizes side-by-side but from memory the images are not all the different. I do agree with David Knisely’s comments about their excellent overall quality. If I were buying another telescope today (I currently own a 12″ LX200) I would buy an 18″ Obsession. — Bill Arnett bi…@znet.com http://www.seds.org/billa/ “I know that I am mortal and the creature of a day; but when I search out the massed wheeling circles of the stars, my feet no longer touch the earth, but, side by side with Zeus himself, I take my fill of ambrosia, the food of the gods.”

Associated Obsession Telescopes Question:Obsession. Any good advice is appreciated as I may be in the market to get rid of the SCT and buy a nice dob.

Anwser:And this might not be a bad idea. IF all you want to do is visual observing. Sure the 15″ presents a “better” image of a deep sky object–it should because of the larger aperture, offering a near 300% light gathering advantage. Just be sure you won’t be sorry you gave up the driven mount and the other niceties than C9.25 offers. I own a 12.5″ truss tube and like it very much. It’s a simple no-fuss no-muss kind of telescope that just performs. That said, I use my SCT more often because I have a wide variety of interests–imaging, etc.–in addition to visual observing. Don’t get carried away, either. In the quest for aperture you can get to the point where it gets messy: that is, your choice of vehicle is decided by your telescope. A 12-15 inch won’t cause many problems in this regard, though. Obsession is great, as is Starmaster, and several other custom dobs. You can also build one yourself if you’re handy about woodworking, etc. AstroSystems offers the Telekit, which produces a beautiful scope–in some ways the most impressive of all the truss tube. Before you decide to turn in your SCT and build or buy a truss tube dob, I’d suggest you do some long, hard thinking about your planned observing projects, etc. I’d also suggest you trot over to Willman Bell’s web site and buy Berry and Kriege’s _The Dobsonian Telescope_, which is a wonderful book, the bible of the truss tubes. Peace,
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