he date of the solar eclipse was drawing near; I was heavily tied up with my new job—often working weekends, too—and the previous winter, my basement workshop had flooded due to a faulty sump pump in the adjacent room. So much for building a small Dobsonian for Chile!

These circumstances led me to commission my friend Dieter Martini to build this 8-inch travel Dobsonian. I also ordered a cell with a solar filter foil for observing the partial phase of the solar eclipse.

An 8" f/5.7 mirror from Hubble Optics had been waiting in my inventory for some time to see starlight. It had previously been rated as excellent on Wolfgang Rohr’s optical test bench. When I spotted this unit in a classified ad, I didn't hesitate for long. The matching secondary mirror—a 54mm quartz mirror from Protostar—completes a Zeiss-quality mirror set.

The focuser for the 8-inch travel Dobsonian—a Kineoptic HC2—was already on hand, as was a small, lightweight projection finder: the Rigel Quick Finder.

Dieter delivered the kit to me promptly, and I was very happy that he was able to build this Dobsonian for me on such short notice.

I also tinkered with the 8" travel Dobsonian and "Gerdified" it a bit (customized it to my requirements). Naturally, I finished it in my signature color: Yellow.

The result is a beautiful and highly functional travel Dobsonian. I use Baader Morpheus eyepieces (12.5mm, 9mm, and 6.5mm focal lengths) with it, along with a 30mm Kokosai Khoki 2" Wide Scan III as a finder eyepiece. Heavy accessories are not suitable for a lightweight travel Dobsonian; however, thanks to its 40cm altitude bearings, the telescope remains perfectly balanced with any of the aforementioned eyepieces—and even without an eyepiece—when changing magnification.

You can read about what I was able to see with this telescope in Chile's Atacama Desert in my trip report on the 2019 solar eclipse.