NightSky Scopes 16"

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Brand and Model:NightSky Scopes 16"
Price ($USD):$2750 - $3700
Type:Newtonian
Attributes: un-checked Go-To un-checked PEC
Aperture:406mm (16")
f Ratio:f/4.5
Focal Length:1810mm
Finder:Telrad
Electric Power:12v onboard
Mount:Dobsonian
Tripod:
Weight (lbs):
Dimensions (w/h/d):
Description:NightSky Scopes 16" Truss Telescope is available with Meade or Pegasus Optics.

http://www.nightskyscopes.com/

Vote Highlights Vote
NightSky Scopes 16"
I own a Nightsky 16" truss dob with Pegasus optics. Workmanship is superb in every respect, with outstanding attention to detail. Everything about this scope is first class.

Overall Rating: 10
Optics:9 Mount:10 Ease of Use:9 Value:9
Weight: 5 (Veritable Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=229140 

Rex,

I saw your post on your NightSky Dob, and I'm considering an 18". How is the movement of the mount? Is it pretty smooth? How about the finish? Any other comments?

Thanks,
Tony Hurtado
Tony-Hurtado at comcast.net


>I own a Nightsky 16" truss dob with Pegasus optics. Workmanship is superb in every respect, with outstanding attention to detail. Everything about this scope is first class.
NightSky Scopes 16"
I have a Pegaus-refigured Meade mirror in the 16-inch
NightSky, with the Sky Commander/ServoCAT goto/track
add-on.

The optics are super; the structure is steady and moves
easily. But it's heavy and hard to carry, even broken
down into component parts. I think it's heavier than it
needs to be--the structure wouldn't be much weaker if it
had circular cut-outs to lighten it, for example. But
the fact that you can take out the mirror cell is a big
help. Jim Nadeau is friendly, helpful and easy to deal
with.

My complaints are not with the Night Sky structure or the
mirror, but with the GOTO system.

The Sky Commander/ServoCAT works well when it works, but
I have had problems with it. I had to send it back once
to get it fixed. It's also difficult to switch back and
forth between GOTO and old-fashioned by-hand motion.

For example, if you loosen the cable for the altitude drive so you can aim the
telescope by hand, the cable is likely to jump out of its
track. You'll want to do this, because the Sky Commander
system doesn't have a list of stars. If you want to
show people Albireo, you have to go off-line.

16 inches of good mirror shows you a staggering amount.
The structure is solid and stable and easy to disassemble
and re-assemble. It holds collimation well. But at this
size, the telescope is bigger than you are, and at the
end of a session can feel like it weights a ton!

Overall Rating: 8
Optics:10 Mount:9 Ease of Use:8 Value:9
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=403747

NightSky Scopes 16"
I love my 16" NightSky Truss. The workmanship is first class. What you get for the price of this scope is unbelievable. The support that I have at hand with NightSky is great. Everyone that has seen my scope have fallen in love with it. If I had to do over again. I would still buy a NightSky scope. NightSky constantly strives to provide the best quality. They are currently working on offering a second option for DSC's and is developing a "GOTO and Track System". If anyone desides to order a scope from NightSky, They won't be disappointed.

Overall Rating: 10
Optics:10 Mount:10 Ease of Use:10 Value:10
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=183244

NightSky Scopes 16"
I've owned my Nightsky 16" since the end of April and am very pleased. I bought my scope used. Jim Nadeau (Nightsky scopes) bought it back from the original owner, refurbished it and I purchased it from him a little below the cost of a new scope. It appears as brand new. Jim had the Meade mirror recoated by Spectrum Coatings. It's got wheel barrow handles and a telrad. It's got a secondary mirror heater that keeps the mirror 1 degree warmer than the surrounding air so the battery drain from the heaters is kept to a minimum and in humid South Lousiana my mirror stay clear. It's got two fans behind the primary mirror. The mirror cell is excellent. The frame is made of 1" square tubing (aluminum) welded together. The mirror cell removes very easily and the three large collimation bolts have t-shaped ends and function as legs and feet for the mirror cell. The telescope motion, both side to side and up and down, is silky smooth with no backlash. The telescope is stable and the images are steady with no shaking at 360X. It assembles and disassembles easily and quickly. 6 weeks ago I bought a Sky Commander from Jim. He sold it to me at a good price and installed it (I live less than an hour away). Now I feel like I'm cheating finding things so quickly and easily. The Sky Commander mounted very simply.

Views of Jupiter were super at 360X near the end of it's season. I watched the red spot cross the surface and saw lots of detail. I've been looking a DSOs with success. From my medium dark/bright backyard skies I've been looking at Messiers and globular clusters. The stars in either M3 or M5 (I can't remember which) are so clear and distinct that they appear 3D and have lots of clearly visible threads of nebulosity. I haven't seen the spiral structure in M51 from my backyard yet but one of Jim's Nightsky 16" scopes with a Televue binoviewer elicited comments on the "big dob" Yahoo group on the clear visibility of the spiral structure of M51 from recent star party. A couple of weeks ago there were about 20 or more scopes at our astronomy club's dark sky spot. It was mostly cloudy with succer holes (it was supposed to be clear). I had my Nightsky 16" set up next to a new 16" Nightsky Jim was testing before shipping. We have the same Pentax lenses. He was finding stuff to look at in the holes on his portable PC and called out M numbers to me. I saw M57 for the first time. On a not so good night it was visible in my Pentax 5.2 (360X) pretty clearly. It wasn't cloud free long enough to see the center star so I haven't seen that yet. The images of what we looked at looked exactly the same in each scope. I left early and the clouds cleared at 1am. On our astonomy group's message board, one of the observing reports talked about all the great views from the various scopes on the field that night once the clouds went away. The report ended by saying that the best views of the night were from Jim Nadeau's 16" Nightsky scope. I'm very satisfied with my scope and recommend it.

Lowell McCormick.

Overall Rating: 10
Optics:10 Mount:10 Ease of Use:10 Value:10
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=110221

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