Woes concerning the UC series are not uncommon.? Here are mine.? In 2017 I bought a nearly new Obsession 18UC from a fellow using?AstroMart.??He had ordered the scope from Obsession and while it was being built contracted a debilitating medical condition that forced him to sell his scope after it was delivered.??He was never able to even look through the scope as his wife was unable to set it up for him.??I managed to acquire the scope at quite a discount.??It was loaded but did not have?ServoCat?installed.??I purchased a?ServoCat?Jr. system from Gary at?StellarCAT?who provided hours of technical assistance in getting a working installation.??Thus began my love, hate-hate relationship with my Obsession 18UC.??The optics were superb, however the mechanical implementation of those optics in the UC platform was flawed.??The design criteria that the scope must fit inside the 26.5” cube airline box was probably the root of the?telescopes?stability issues.??As to meet?this criteria, many shortcuts had to be taken.??All of which contributed to the inability of the scope to hold collimation?during the course of?an evening’s viewing.??The other significant issue with the scope is the amount of flex in the scope when being driven by the?ServoCAT?system.??If you were looking at an object under high power and you needed to “tweak” its position in altitude just a smidgeon to recenter it in the eyepiece’s FOV you were in for a very frustrating experience.??Normally you would select the lowest guide speed on the?ServoCAT?hand pad and poke the up/down motor control buttons as necessary to recenter.??With my 18UC if the last direction the scope had travelled was the same direction you needed to move to recenter, you might get lucky and get it recentered without much fuss.??However, if the direction was opposite of the scopes last altitude movement the scope’s Virtual Mirror Box (VMB) would shift so significantly in the Rocker Box (RB) that the object of interest would be thrown about a half of a degree out of the field of view, then the dance to recenter trying to overcome the VMB and RB slop would ensue.??The slop between the VMB and RB caused me hours and hours of grief as well as many $$$ trying to correct.??I spent a very significant amount of time on the phone with Dave K. of Obsession and Gary with?StellarCAT?trying to resolve the issue.??Dave K. finally gave up and simply told me that the scope met his design criteria.??After three years of fighting this scope, I basically packed it away when we moved to Colorado.??I ended up finding another Obsession Classic scope (20” F5) on AstroMartand have been happy with it.??It is not an ideal telescope for public outreach as the climb to the eyepiece when near zenith was a strong concern.??So, I used the Obsession Classic 20” for personal viewing only.??In 2022 I found that Astro System, the maker of the?Telekit?wood kits for Dobsonian telescopes, would?actually build?the wood enclosure of the?Telekit?for you. I contacted Randy at Astro Systems and?made arrangementswith him to build a new enclosure for my 18”.??I removed all of the telescope’s guts (optics, electronics, focuser, motors, DSC, and finders) and took everything to Astro Systems in La Salle Colorado, about a four-five hour?trip from my rural home in Westcliffe in May of this year.??Randy built my new enclosure, reconfigured (with the help of Gary at?StellarCA) my?ServoCAT?Jr. system to work with the?Telekit.??I picked the scope up last week after about 2 1/2 months and brought the scope home.??After some initial configuration setting issues with the Nexus DSC and the?ServoCAT?(different size bearings and ground board changed the gear ratios) I took the scope outside in the light of a 89% full moon last night and did a single alignment with two stars and then told the new scope to go the binary pair WZ CAS and lo and behold the scope zipped on over and placed the pair within the FOV of my 10mm Pentax XW eyepiece.??Next was Albireo, it was a little toward the edge of the?FOV?so I selected the lowest guide speed on the?ServoCAT?and was able to center Albireo perfectly.??I purposely moved it all over the FOV alternating between the up/down motor controls and the amount of slop was not even noticeable.??I can not express my gratitude with Randy of Astro Systems and especially with Gary at?StellarCAT?whose patience and perseverance helped me achieve the full potential of the original guts of my former Obsession 18UC.??Now I proudly proclaim that I have an 18TK that works like a dream.??

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I had serious conversations with Webster Telescopes, DOC Telescopes in Italy, New Moon Telescopes, and Teeter Telescopes Before I chose Astro Systems for my rehost project.??So if you are experiencing frustration with your Obsession UC telescope, I whole heartedly recommend rehosting your telescope’s “guts” into another host, and I will attest that Astro Systems was the best choice for me, and probably for you as well.

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Customer complaints for products and services should not be ignored. ?I doubt that a group of enthusiasts and satisfied customers will be persuaded to join your cause if they have not been denied the customer service, or warranty repair or a refund from the supplier of the defective product.

I hope your complaint is addressed and wish you a speedy resolution. ?

Regards,

Richard

Hi Guillaume,

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Attached is a photo with the Eagle4S mounted on a homemade plywood bracket that attaches where the wheelbarrow handles normally attach.

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And here is the block diagram of the equipment connections (just realized this does not show my focuser)

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And my power diagram

My Focuser is the Primalucelab focuser and it works great with the FeatherTouch.

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One of the key elements of this was the Pegasus USB3 hub that has the ability to use all previous versions of USB at the same time.

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ServoCAT uses USB 2.0 while my Mallincam video camera uses USB 3.0.? I have not found any other USB hub that supports all USB protocols at the same time except for the Pegasus hub.

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I wrote some Visual Basic software to parse all my data for entry into my MS Access database.

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Good luck with your Telescope system.

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Richard Miller

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