Dobsonians for lunar/planetary

[Tomjo59]

From another thread on here ('Dob or not'), there seem to be plenty of Dobsonian enthusiasts about!. I am considering getting an Orion (UK) 10" f6.3 Newtonian (originally plannned to be combined with an EQ6 GEM). Now, for purely visual use, I can certainly see the appeal of a dob mount for relatively low magnification views of star fields, extended faint fuzzies etc, but how do people feel about using one for high magnification views of the moon and planets, which would be my main use for it - is it just too much of a pain to keep moving the tube to keep the object in view, or is this tolerable?

I would welcome members views/experiences.

Tom.

[johninderby]

No problem using high magnification on the moon and planets, that is if you use wide angle eyepieces such as the SkyWatcher Nirvana or Televue Naglers. Perfect of course are the Televue Ethos £££££ if your pockets are deep enough.

John

PS

My favourite planetary scope.

[John]

All my scopes are on undriven, alt-azimuth mounts (like dobs) including an Orion Optics 10" F/4.8 newtonian. You soon get used to "nudging" but, as John says, having ultra wide angle eyepieces makes life a little easier in this respect

If dobs were really unusable for viewing at high power I doubt they would have achieved the popularity they have.

[NGC 1502]

As long as the Dob movements are smooth, then no problem tracking at 200x for me.

And my 200x eyepiece for my 10" scope is a narrow field 6mm. Nudging is something you get used to, a bit like steering your car, done automatically.

Regards, Ed.

[Moonshane]

totally agree with everything said, planets take a very small area even of narrow field eyepieces so you can readily track at higher mags if your movements are smooth.

[spaceboy]

I would welcome members views/experiences.

Tom.

Although I cannot comment on the Best Of British OO's I can offer some contrast against going down the budget (Chinese SW dob) route. I enjoy the simplicity of a dob but the whole nudging thing I found laborious. It was made easier by spending ££££ on wide FOV ep's but more often than not the EP's that give you the best planetary images have very little FOV. Thanks to the inspiration of another me member I pulled my finger out and constructed an EQP. I now have a much larger aperture than I could ever have afforded on a EQ mount and still retain the simplicity of the dob design. Although I have found dobs are more suited to DSO hunting, planetary images are none the less an impressive sight now I'm no longer constantly chasing it across the FOV. I'm sure as you are dedicated and successful enough to have the ££££ to spend on a quality rocker box with silky smooth AZ movements a manual dob will be more than acceptable to use for planetary observing but for the rest of us it remains a compromise of flickering images and modifications.

SPACEBOY