Hi, Folks!
My wife and I should be in the market soon for a new or used dob, max budget £5K, though if something suits us that's closer to £1K, great! I'm looking for something I can move around reasonably easily, not too much more over 20kg for the tube, and similar for the base. I have an old knee injury I need to be a little wary of, and I don't want to do my back in either hauling out the gear! We don't mind whether it's manual or goto, with a slight preference for manual.
We used to have a Skywatcher 400P Goto, which we loved, but I did find it a bit heavy to shift around on my own, and I don't want to injure myself! We currently use a 10 inch GSO solid tube, which is very easy to move around, and I'm up for something bigger and heavier. I'd prefer a solid tube. We used to have a 12 inch Skywatcher solid tube many years ago, and I wish they still made those! It was not that heavy, and the optics seemed better to me than our GSO.
We were thinking about a 14 inch Orion Optics UK dob, but these cost a fair bit new. Should I expect better optics than Skywatcher? I was happy with the Skywatcher optics, but if splashing out a lot more on another brand, I would hope to see a difference at the eyepiece.
Because of our fondness for the old SW 12 inch solid tube, the new Celestron StarSense 12 inch has caught our eye, but we know practically nothing about it. Are these being well received?
Or is it worth considering a 16 or 18 inch dob open design after all, with some DIY to make things easier, such as wheelbarrow handles? If there's a way to make a 16 or 18 inch work within budget that can be stored indoors and taken out without giving me a hernia, then we might be willing to give up on the solid tube preference.
Why solid tube? Well we just found it a bit less hassle, less prone to dew. That was our experience anyway with the scopes we've had, and in some ways, the old SW 12 inch solid tube was my favourite dob, pound for pound. I kinda wish we'd never sold it. I preferred it to the 12 inch FlexTube.
Eyepiece-wise, we have Tele Vue 21mm Ethos and the rest are Delos mostly, and we have a Tele Vue Paracorr, which seems to tidy up the optics a bit on the GSO. So I think the eyepieces can cope with a fast scope? The GSO has served us well, but we'd like to feel like we are significantly upgrading it.
Thanks for reading and for any thoughts. If you need any more info about our needs, please fire away!