LukeTheNuke

Sweet! I love transits! That looks like an A380-300 with the vent-flaps modification and the Merlin-Centaur engines. Ahem, I just made that bit up. Mind you, it wouldn't surprise me if some brainbox here could identify the model!

Thanks for the thoughts, everyone! Much appreciated. Stu, perhaps I should reconsider GSO. My 10 inch GSO dob might be over a decade old. I see Mr Spock was chuffed with the optics on his StellaLyra 12". Thanks for the link to the Astro Tuff Truck. I see they have a 16 inch Skywatcher shown! The dob would mainly be for deep sky. John, that's interesting to think about the 12 inch Orion Optics as well, I hadn't really thought about that. I do like the light weight of my 10 inch GSO. I feel like 20 kg would be okay for me, based on Sarah making me shift 20 kg bags of slate chippings around for her garden project! I think our GSO tube's weight is about 12.2 kg. And it looks like the OO VX12 is 14 kg, the VX12L is 16 kg, and the VX14 is 20 kg. So I guess the VX12 or 12L looks like a compromise between what I currently find easy, and the 20 kg I feel I could handle but would feel heavy-ish to me (those slate bags never felt light!) The Celestron 12 inch does have a useful-looking handle on the tube, though at 22.58 kg, I wonder if it might feel a touch heavy to me. Sarah tells me I'd be fine with it, thanks to the handle, but she won't be the one shifting it around! Still, I'm sure her encouragement will take 10 kg off the weight! Phil, thanks for checking about the sky conditions. Our skies are kinda okay for DSO, and our old 16 inch definitely showed more generally than the 12 inch scopes. And it was a big step up on the 10 inch. I'd say our 16 inch at home felt a bit like using a 12 inch at a darker site, like Kelling. Our skies aren't very stable for planets, though. I've never had a view of Jupiter at home anywhere near as good as it was at Kelling one year. Piero, you make a 16 inch scope look practical, LOL! I was thinking about some ramps, it's good to see, thanks, and to hear how well it works for you. I hadn't really thought about where the scope would be stored! Sarah reminded me that we stored our 16 inch SW indoors in the cupboard under the stairs, which is now home to a bunch of board games! We have a shed in the garden where the 10 inch is stored. I think we'd get the OO UK 14 inch in the shed.

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!

Thanks, Steve! Ah, sounds like you have it very comfortable these days, and could do it in your slippers. I do sometimes think it might be nice to do some solar in winter pointing through a closed window! A bit of Baader Optical Wonder on the double glazing.

Thanks! I do have some games related to astronomy, so there is definitely some overlap, LOL! Luckily for me, my wife and son also share the same affliction! When I first met Sarah, she beat me about a dozen times straight at my favourite board game! (cough), and this one...:

Hello there, Mr Ward! Good to see you back in the saddle! Yeah, I know you posted this a while ago. Did it require climbing up any ladders for the time of year?!

Very nice, Dave! So that's what the sun's looking like these days! We're past minimum?!

Hi! I used to post on SGL years ago, under the username Luke, then later something like Drop Of Sun, and I went to some of the fab SGL star parties, along with Sarah. I'd love to get active on the forums again! I hope to get to know some of the folks who have joined in the years since then, and hopefully see some of the old gang on here again! And I'm especially looking forward to drooling over some of the solar images again! Anyway, I am really into board gaming these days. I haven't been doing that much stargazing these past years, but I've done the odd night (probably not that much different to some of you with our UK skies, LOL!), and always make sure I get to see the Orion nebula each year, and have really enjoyed it when I've done it, and I'd like to get back more into the hobby again! My wife Sarah and I have not bought any gear for ages, but we might be in a position to get our dream dob in the near future, which doesn't mean a 20-incher, alas, but something hopefully of a good optical quality that won't give me a hernia or do my dodgy knee in. I dunno whether that would top out at something like one of the lighter, faster 14 inch scopes (we sold our Skywatcher 400P Goto years ago), maybe something a bit posh, like Orion Optics UK. Though I am not sure how those compare optically with Skywatcher / what you get, if anything, for the extra cost (I don't want to make any assumptions or start a war!). Or would something heavier with wheelbarrow handles be doable? Surely not a Skywatcher 18 inch?! So a new or used dob is top of my mind! I've mainly been using our old GSO 10 inch dob for deep sky, which has lasted well, though optically, I think our Skywatcher scopes were better. I wish we'd kept the old 12 inch SW solid tubes - those were brill! I suppose a h-alpha solar scope would be rather nice, but I guess those are still ££££s. Maybe I'll have a look at the Lunts on FLO. I don't think I will get back to solar imaging (processing, maybe, but not capture), though never say never! Anyway, it's lovely to hopefully be back, and I hope you've had some nice choccy today, or something else you enjoy! Cheers, Luke