300P AUTO for sale on SGL £725

[Craig]

http://stargazerslou...auto-dobsonian/

Luke and I are selling our 12" Skywatcher Auto Tracking FlexTube dob. (Luke previously listed this for sale last month.) We purchased the dob in September 2010 and it has mainly be used at SGL and Kelling star parties. We have had some of our best views ever with this dob. The only reason for the sale is that we have now bought the 16" FlexTube dob.

Sky at Night Magazine review: http://www.opticalvi...ocuments/93.pdf

Primary mirror diameter: 305mm

Focal length: 1500mm (f/4.9)

Tube length: 144cm (extended), 92.5cm (collapsed)

Base diameter: 64cm

Tube weight: 21kg

Base weight: 18.5kg

Tracking-On mode: 1x, 4x or 8x sidereal rate

Tracking-Off mode: 32x slow, 64x medium or 800x high speed slewing

Whilst the dob is generally in excellent condition, there are a couple of marks/scratches on the primary mirror. These are extremely fine and are only visible at a certain angle and can not be seen when looking directly down at the mirror. Because of this we have been unable to get them to show up on any photos. They have no impact whatsoever on the views provided by the wonderful scope. Also the 1.25" adapter is showing a slight discolouration, but otherwise is perfectly useable.

Included are the standard 10mm and 25mm eyepieces, 9x50 finderscope, 1.25"/2" eyepiece adapters, cables and the Auto Tracking handset.

Due to the size, collection only please from Bedfordshire (near to Bedford). We are looking for £725, cash on collection. Whilst we do not have the original boxes, we do have some of the original foam packing for the tube, which we have used when transporting the scope to star parties.

Whilst the marks on the mirror may not affect the view, this would be a good haggling point. I sold mine for £700, which was MINT.

[Brantuk]

Just a word of caution - 2010 is when I bought mine and it was pre-motor/encoder upgrades. I have a lot of backlash on mine which can be overcome with handset settings and "approach" to the object. But worth mentioning for possible haggle'ability.

[Doc]

It's the only bad point about these scopes is its backlash, its pretty bad.

[Craig]

I got mine towards the tail end of 2011 and it still had that. I have no basis to compare with earlier models, but it was there.

That said, once I got the hang of it then it no longer bothered me. The optics are just superb on them and that's the bit I miss the most... all that light!