Wow I thought one needed way higher magnification to see the central star! I’ve never seen it myself. Nice work!!

Newtonian Reflectors can give very good images IF you can keep the size of the "Central Obstruction" down to optimum levels. An f/5 Dom is near the WORST for great, high contrast, sharp views. Years ago, our school Astronomy Club built an 8 inch f10. That's right, an f/10 ! The central Obstruction was right at one eighth of the diameter! So, for Lunar and planetary views, it was EVERY BIT AS GOOD as an extremely EXSPENSIVE triple lens refractor of today. So, if your going mirrors/Newtonian telescopes, stay away from these short focal length, one third of the objective diameter "central Obstruction" models !

Id Hug it too

The scope really opens up when you go 2", and you can go brighter and wider with 40mm superwides (the 38mm you got for your AD12), and 55-56mm plossls.

Nice old c8 tube. I have one like that still in the forks because i had to rebuild a scope collection on a shoestring budget, and a friend wound up letting me have the scope, fully loaded with original vixen made 50mm polar finder, focus and dec motors, original vixen made star prism and 26mm silvertop plossl, and the black plastic trunk case, and tripod and wedge. In the distant past I had an ASGT for a while before getting a losmandy gm8 Gemini. I originally started with a dual axis drive manual orion skyview pro that came with a 127mm mak, and i later got a hardin GSO 8" f4 (a clone of the vixen r200ss that orion used to sell. This was 2004. In the spring of 2006 I started working at OPT and the asgt mount used was one of my first purchases along with an 80ed refractor. The kit steadily grew over the years and I sold off most of my early gear, which was very hardin heavy as they had a fire sale and i got 2 scopes for $100 each, the 6" dob, the 6" eq, and a 90mm f11 refractor. I also had my dad get one of the 6" eq newts (should have gotten the dob), so I could use it when I would go back to visit. I have lived in southern ca since 1986, but was originally from your neck of the woods, the albany area, and my dad stayed in Schenectady till around 2013 or 2014, when most of that side (my stepmother's) of the family moved to the san Francisco bay area. The family had (probably still has) a summer home near vandenberg point on sacandaga. When I was a kid i went to summer camp on lake George, and I had a friend from later in life, a long time ago now, late 90s, who i met through music chat rooms, and we both played in bands, and he ended up moving a few blocks from my dad in Schenectady. When i got back into astronomy (first time with actual equipment) in 2004, i brought my 127 on a small gt mount with me, and got him hooked, and he later bought an old USA starhopper 8" dob, and he takes it into the adirondaks, and is also an avid high peaks hiker. We did lose touch over the years, havent seen him since he came out on tour with a band, and he was able to break away for a night and i took him up to mt pinos, 8300ft, and brought my C11 and televue 101, that was 2009. Actually saw him one last time in late 2010 which was my last time going back to Schenectady and the first time since 2005, since i got absorbed by my commissioned sales job at OPT from 2006-2011, and didnt take any vacations. Until the 2010 one, which was kindof a forced vacation, and my dad and I went to a rush concert at the state fair in syracuse, and also went to the city and the Hayden planetarium. It was my last time ever on a plane, when prior to 2005 i went back 2x a year since 1986... things change. Anyway, i had to share when I saw "adirondack astronomy ", since I have roots there way back.

The 30mm superview is a very light 2" eyepiece. A proper well corrected one will be much larger and heavier, but worth it for the views. Only the center half of the superview will be sharp at f5, even if there also wasn't coma to deal with, but there is that as well.

You will want to put some felt or soft velcro glued on top of the hard velcro, to dampen the azimuth as it can weathervane on just the rollers

It isn't an unboxing until the dog or the cat shows up

I know this is a minority view but I much prefer seeing this to what a camera sensor can do

hidden gem ❤

I’ve recently bought the stellalyra 8 inch but after watching this I may give the 8 to my son and go for the big guy!🤙🏻

There are always terrific to find. How would the details differ if it were viewed through a 22” reflector?

Who’s watching this in April 2024?

"Thank you for helping me put it together!" It took no time at all with this detailed video!"😁💯

Hahaha, that's super sweet.... That was exactly my reaction and excitement when I received my 12" dob last week (1st telescope... I have been waiting 40yrs for this moment). Mine is the Celestron Starsense... Similar enough!

thnx for the video

how do you get the Gimp overlay?

Name of the software?

Enjoyable video. I’ll look for this in a month or two…

To improve the view make sure the white paper target is FLAT no wrinkles. Further, tape closed ALL holes as stray light will washout the image you want to see.

5:35 i was so confused 😂

You Are amazing, which one is good Apertura or gso?

Since you have practice both white and black paper tecnics, wich one is better to use at tekescope?

So awesome i want the apture Ad10..iam going to use a hand truck to move it ..

Might have to get on tic tok. Tutorial would be cool. Merry Christmas, clear skies.

Thank you for demonstrating how to put it together. I bought the Apertura AD6, due to being a novice at this point, and its pretty much the same. However, it came with no instructions and your video helped me put it together. Thanks again!

I just ordered the AD10.

Wonderful sketch, I love how M15 hangs among the stars.

what do you mean that u sketched it ? Looking for some videos that show what i can expect to see with an eyepiece looking at a p-nebula.

A pretty easy one,in fact probably the only easy planetary nebula .M57 being much harder as it's very small and the Helix diffuse and low from my location (the Helix is the planetary equivalent of M33 bright but spread out although M33 is much higher up so easier to see).In fact M27 is one I've seen in my least powerful optical kit:my Helios 2x40 wide field binoculars weakest magnifying power but not light gathering and my Zeiss Mini Quick monocular at 5x10 weakest light gathering.

Watching your video made my day, as others have mentioned it was sort of like watching a kid open their Christmas presents on Christmas Day! :-) only thing I would add to your video as a caveat is you want to make sure that you don't set the telescope down on its end it's better to open it up while it's laying on its side less chance putting pressure on the screws that achieve the collimation. Other than that though I'm very very much enjoying the video thank you very much for posting it I realize this is a couple years ago but I had to put my two cents in because it just came up on my KZbin feed. Great job and a lot of fun watching it too! :-)

Im saving up for mine currently. But I'm supper excited to get it! Nice demo

Lovely sketch!

I have a question for you, Learned this a life time ago and.. poof, gone Had a field trip to a theme park where we had to (amongst other things) measure the height of a rollercoaster. I remember we took 2 measurements for angle, and took each 5-10 feet apart (a known distance). Figure that's THIS, but forgot how.... the math involved. Any ideas?

Wow! That UHC filter made that much difference! 😳 I’ll have to get one! Nice sketches, sir!

We’re men, sir. We don’t read instructions. 👍 When we recognize that we’ve made a mistake, we correct it. Therefore, it wasn’t really even a mistake! 🤷‍♂️ 😃 Enjoyed your video, just found your channel. Sub’d. Really like the Apertura - looking at Dobs now, and you can’t - not - notice the piece of art that it is. 👍 Gonna enjoy the rest of your presentation now. … Wow, really liked the shot of the moon! Can imagine it’s even better with the Barlow or a higher magnification eyepiece. Appreciate that you showed the naked-eye view just using your eyepiece, so we know what things [actually] look like without photo processing, etc. Nice! We can tell how happy you were to have the scope, as you put it together and took your first views. Like a kid opening a present. Don’t lose that! 👍

I'm glad ordered a collapsible model lol

You should do some tutorials about your process and techniques. I’m trying to get into sketching and it’s difficult to capture the finer details. Love your videos as well!

Keep up the awesome work! I just started astronomy sketching with my 10” dob, it’s so much fun!

I have the AD12 & absolutely love it. However, as a 6'3" guy, i highly recommend building a rolling base that raises the OTA up roughly 10" .. which brings the center of focuser to eye level. Makes for comfier viewing at zenith. Plus you don't have to bend over as low, when doing lower altitude observation. The only other thing, the altitude bearings hit a looser point at some point, in lower elevation ( at least mine does). I'm hunting for ways to improve the braking- if you will; even when cranked down tight it still slips down & off target. Onward to counter weights. I would invest in vibration dampener pads for the feet (if on a deck).

0:51 A cheap way to be even busier with sketching is Solar. I notice from your unboxing video that your 12" Dob has a off axis aperture hole in the dust cap, similar to Skywatcher scopes. For very little cost a square of baadar solar filter film can be taped to the back(inside) of this aperture for solar work. For safety I find that Gorilla Tape is the most robust and secure for solar filter film but always check before every use. Amazing views of sunspots, umbrae and faculae can be had even with such a small aperture to work with, I know as I have done this with my 12"Newt. I have obtained some very nice DSLR solar images with this system. I'm a rubbish sketcher unfortunately and I'm full of envy of your ability! Remember to make a filter for your finder as well (instructions come with the sheet),although a finder is not essential but remember to leave it capped before turning towards the Sun!

Always wanted to do something like that. Although i cant because i suck lol

Dude 😂 thank you for this. I have a 12" & I was in my 01 Camry trying to figure this crap out. Idk why I didn't think of this. My only concern would be the bumping possibility of the knobs below.

I finally the eastern veil with my xt8 with an oiii filter from my bortle 6 skies (Though all I could make out was a faint curve) first time I had some trouble thinking if I was actually seeing it, the second time it felt way easier cause I knew what to look for.

When you write N (North) Is it towar Polar Star ? Or terrestrial horizont?

I hope you found a 2" zoom eyepiece, but if you have not then you can get a "Baader 1.25" & 2" 8-24mm Hyperion Universal Mark IV Zoom Eyepiece # HYP-Zoom 2454826"

Apertura Dobs are beautiful scopes. I have the AD8.