Copyright © 2004 CloudyNights Telescope Reviews http://www.cloudynights.com All rights reserved. No part of this article may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher. 1 Copyright © 2004 CloudyNights Telescope Reviews Starbuckets – an UltraLight Experience Tom Trusock – 8/2004 Reviewed: Starbuckets 8” f5 Truss Features: Ultralight 6 Pole Truss Design 2” Moonlight Focuser (Dual) Royce Primary Antares Secondary Astrosystems Secondary Holder & Spider Rigel QuickFinder Light Shield and Shroud No-tools assembly Eighty millimeters. That's how big my last travel scope was. Eight zero mm Oh sure – it was a great scope - took high and low powers with aplomb, had minimal chromatic aberration, a decent focuser, but…. It was still only 80mm <sigh> Camping trips off to the big deep dark up here in Michigan really deserve more, but frankly - with a wife, one kid, and another on the way - there just isn't *that* much room in the SUV anymore. Well, assuming I Starbucket Hots Starbucket Nots want to go along for the ride anyway. A 6-8 inch scope would • Amazingly lightweight and • Stability at 300x + be nice, but how? A Mak, SCT portable • 8” is not airline portable or refractor would require me to • Excellent Service and Support • No furnished case or truss tote along a mount, and a solid • Superb fit, finish and mechanics pole bag tube dob would simply take up • Wonderful, superb, fantastic • Non-captive hardware too much space. To keep optics everything to a minimum • Supplies extra “easily lost (especially the mount) it would components” have to be a truss dob of some • No tools assembly (Allen sort. To this end, I'd been wrench required for collimation) thumbing my way through the • A lot of aperture in a small myriad of ATM sites on the space 2 Copyright © 2004 CloudyNights Telescope Reviews internet and even contemplated building my own. At this point my friends staged an intervention to remind me my lack of carpentry skills is legendary. Finally, I was referred to Starbuckets – a small company owned and operated by Neil Carroll. Here at last, was a scope that showed some real promise. But first - some background. Fellow dobbers know that it was a monk named John Dobson who showed us the way: How to take nearly any ordinary everyday junk and inexpensively make a telescope - a BIG telescope - out of it. The Dobsonian revolution has been through two iterations so far – the first was with Dobsons initial creations (somewhat similar to many of the closed tube designs on the market today) - the second came with the publication of Ivar Hamberg’s “[An] Extremely Portable 17.5 inch Dobsonian” in Telescope Making #17 (Autumn 1982). Hamberg was one of the first to construct a scope that fit in the back of a car and could be setup by one person at a remote observing site. You can see the basic design today whenever you look at any truss dobsonian - Obsession, StarSplitter or homemade. We’re now on the cusp of the third revolution - the ultralight. Although no one person solely inspired this next leap, innovators such as Mel Bartels, Bruce Sayre, and Albert Highe (among others) built upon the designs of those who preceded them. In particular Highe’s 12” f5.3 ultralight dobsonian took many of the ideas for an ultralight throughout the ATM world and incorporated them in to what’s starting to become a recognizable design. Highe scopes are distinct because of their single ring upper truss assembly, the light shield instead of a shroud, the use of fewer truss poles, their low profile mirror boxes – and most importantly – their small size and weight. 3 Copyright © 2004 CloudyNights Telescope Reviews Good Things Come in Small Packages There are a few commercial manufacturers that currently offer ultralight designs. Neil Carroll – StarBuckets - offers smaller scopes (6”, 8”, 10” and 12.5”). Neil markets his 6” as an airline carry-on scope, and it makes a good competitor – although a bit smaller - to the UTI (another entry in the ultralight dob category, but based on a slightly different design philosophy). Intrigued by Neil’s products, I gave him a call early this year (2004), and after some discussion placed an order for an 8” F5. I took delivery about 80 days later. My Starbucket came standard with a 8” f5 Royce Primary, Antares Secondary, Astrosystems Secondary support, Rigel Quickfinder, Secondary Baffle, and shroud. I also upgraded the focuser to the Dual Rate Moonlite Crayford (in Blue). I should also add that the fan you see on the back of the scope is my own add on (Courtesy DBA Astronomy), and not Neil’s work. Neil’s integrated fans tend to look a little more – well - *integrated*. From the very first look, I was immediately smitten – as is everyone else who has seen the scope. At star parties, it draws far more attention than its small size should warrant. The scope is a thing of beauty, and Neil is a craftsman whose attention to detail is obvious from the first glimpse. Assembled, the scope weighs around 25 lbs, and the UTA is easily carried in one hand. It breaks down into rocker and mirror box, a small bag containing the truss poles/ hardware and the UTA. For storage and protection of the UTA, I elected to go with a Dosko Sport Extra Large case. As you can see above, this case offers enough room for me to store my UTA, several eyepieces, shroud, filters, light shield, and on the bottom level of foam, collimation 4 Copyright © 2004 CloudyNights Telescope Reviews tools and Rigel Quikfinder. In short, I can fit everything I need to observe in about ½ the space necessary to take along my TV102 and Gibralter. Assembly is straightforward, quick and easy – taking about 10 minutes including collimation. Considering you disassemble it every time you pack it up, the scope holds collimation surprisingly well. My only initial concern had to do with the mirror cell. Instead of clips or a sling, Neil uses a time honored method for small scopes - three dollops of RTV. Stemming from an early bad experience, I’ve never been happy with that design. But I’d never seen it done right, either - at least Need a chair with that? before this. Ultimately, my fears proved groundless. In fact, the more I think about it, the more advantages I’ve found with this method. For one, I never have to worry about the mirror bouncing around in the cell on dirt roads – that’s a rather large piece of mind right there. And with it being spring loaded, collimation is easy as pie. Most nights, the shroud isn’t necessary and the shield is all that’s needed to block ambient light. However given the low Starbuckets also offers an adjustable height Observing Chair with 8 profile mirror box, I’ve found adjustments at 2.5” intervals that yield seat heights from 13” to 29”, the shroud does make a much and served all my needs both with the 8” and my personal TV102 needed dew shield on damp mounted on a Gibralter. Offered in Red Oak or Hickory, it’s evenings. extremely strong for it’s size and was easily able to support all 265(+) lbs of me without flinching, groaning or snapping. My only Fit and finish is quite nice, and complaints: 1) for us big folks viewing targets low to the horizon it Neil’s attention to detail is doesn’t “quite” go low enough, and 2) the chair was prone to closing obvious throughout. Small as you moved it around. Neil’s response to the second complaint was touches like the use of a star to develop a lock mechanism (not shown) – which he immediately for the handle of the mirror shipped off to me, and incorporated into his current line. Overall, at cover, and using a different $135, it’s reasonably priced and highly recommended for a look for the baseboard legs, comfortable observing experience. fill the niches and combine to make a scope that looks as good as it works. I’ve had two issues after several months of use. The black coating on the metal is starting to chip in some places, and I’ve had to re-stitch the Velcro on the light shield. Both very minor issues. 5 Copyright © 2004 CloudyNights Telescope Reviews It would be nice if the hardware was captive. However - Neil’s apparently aware that little bits of hardware - like the truss poll knobs - can be all to easily lost, and supplies several replacement items for you to keep on hand. Optics The views are wonderful and (to use a cliché) quite refractor-like, showing pinpoint stars and crisp clean images. I had one of the best views I’ve ever had of M57 through this scope at about 75x (and I’ve looked at M57 through a lot of scopes). From a very dark site, I found it to be nearly an emerald green elongated donut that floated in a sea of pinpoint stars. It took my breath away, and I sat and stared for a very long time. The 8” f5 mirror provides a true field of around 2.3 degrees with a 35 panoptic (although as you can imagine, there are some balance issues with extremely heavy eyepieces), yet is long enough that coma is not overly intrusive. If the focal ratio were much faster than this, I’d probably want to use a paracorr. With a well cooled and collimated mirror, on-axis lunar and planetary views are superb, extremely sharp and contrasty, again – quite refractor-like.