B
bbrock
Guest
All<br /><br />I just wanted to report what could have been a big mistake. I purchased an Orion XT10 Dob and love it. I have seen ads for Equatorial Platforms and considered purchasing one to try it. Reading further, I found out that the platforms are taylor made for your approximate latitude. I didn't like the idea of being tied down to an approximate latitude.<br /><br />I was looking through the Orion order book and noticed the Atlas 10 telescope looked exactly like the XT10. I contacted Orion and asked if the XT10 tube could be mounted on the Atlas mount. They thought I would possibly need to remove the Dob mounting hubs. I thought I would try it, and not remove the hubs.<br /><br />I ordered the Atlas Equatorial Mount along with the mounting rings for the 10" tube and an extra 11 lb counter weight. All for about $200 less then the cost of an equatorial platform. The whole thing worked great. I didn't have to remove the Dob mounting hubs, they were well inside the mounting rings. The scope balanced beautifully. The extra 11 lb weight was needed. ( 33 lbs of total counterweight. )<br /><br />Tonight was the first time I have used it. I took great care to polar align and level. The tracking was tack on target. Just to test it I used 400x on the ring nebula and let it run for 30 minutes. I didn't see any drift at all. For the record, I then lifted the tube out of the equatorial mounting rings and set it on the Dob Base -- Just to say I did it. <br /><br />I'm probably not the first person to do this, but I haven't heard anyone else mention doing it. <br /><br />Im lucky ( In hind sight ) to have purchased the Dob first. If I purchased the Atlas 10 first, I don't know if I could have added the hubs and purchased the Dob base later. <br /><br />Just thought someone might like to know this alternative. <br /><br />Bill