larger Dobsonian telescopes.

[Guest]

I recently posted about upgrading from an 8 inch Newtonian. Yes I admit, I have apature favour again.

I am thinking of a 12 inch Dobsonian. I have been spoiled with my Orion Optics UK 1/10 the wave mirror. But I don't think that I could afford a 12 inch version.

Does anyone have experience with larger Dobsonian? The main reason for upgrading is to get brighter views of the dimmer objects, nebula and galaxies etc.But it would be nice to get better detailed views of the planets while it is set up. I did have a 10 inch Newtonian which I had a bad experience with. It gave a bright image of Saturn but it was just a very bright blob with no resolution. The telescope was collimated but the mirror was poor. Of the known brands which would have the better mirrors? Is it just hit or miss with QA.

[deepspacehunter]

I have a 12" DOB and it is the best Telescope that I have ever had... I have premium eyepieces and a dual speed focuser... the views are incredible...

Mark

[alan potts]

Grumpy,

I know it doesn't change the price massively but does it have to be 1/10 PV. My dob is 1/8 and that is stunning when the seeing allows. The Orion Optics scope seem to cost a fair bit new but go for less than I would have thought secondhand, maybe wait and check the adverts on Astro B&S and here.

[John]

I've used a few Skywatcher 12" dobs and they seemed too consistently perform pretty well. My OO dob is 1/9th wave PV but I reckon any differences would be minimal at most, probably restricted to performance at very high power under super fine conditions when the slightly better mirror might have a slight edge.

A Flextube 12" Skywatcher produced some stunning views of Saturn a few years back at the SGL star party.

[Guest]

Hi deep space hunter. You scope looks great. I did not know that Celestron made bigger dobs.

A good point Alan. I would not mind a 1/4 wave telescope if that's what it was. It's just that the particular Dobsonian that I had was less than that, very poor and did not resolve planetary detail.

[estwing]

my mirrors about 1/8 wave and thats good enough for observing...12" is a great size,really start to pull in lots of those faint fuzzys!

[Matthew]

I've used a few Skywatcher 12" dobs and they seemed too consistently perform pretty well. My OO dob is 1/9th wave PV but I reckon any differences would be minimal at most, probably restricted to performance at very high power under super fine conditions when the slightly better mirror might have a slight edge.

A Flextube 12" Skywatcher produced some stunning views of Saturn a few years back at the SGL star party.

I remeber that night well john,funilly enough i sold the 300p and bought a 12" 1/12 pv orion optics ultra grade dob.

From my own experience i found the views very similar in both scopes.When the seeing conditions allowed the OO was top class but that only happened 1 in perhaps every 10 sessions ( i will check my notes ).If i was to do it all again i would probably stick with the 300p ( solely down to the weather in this country ) ,you wont go far wrong with a 300p flextube,i hope this helps