W/C 4th February

[swamp thing]

Hi All

I have a poxy cold at the mo, so don't fancy being out in the cold. Hoping to feel a bit better by the end of the week.

New moon on Sunday, lets hope for some clear ones next week. Maybe we can get to a dark site too that would be great, almost forgotten what a dark sky looks like, its been so long.

[Dizeee]

Amazing views this evening.

No more clear skys forecast over the next 5 days though.

[jimieee]

Sorry to hear that Steve - get well soon!

Glad to hear you got out there Dizeee. My little one has been sick all evening, so I've been stuck indoors

[Dizeee]

I've been taking out the very basic bins and having a peruse, also on the way to work on Sunday morning at 5am I was excited to see that Saturn and Venus were in the sky (for the first time since I have been paying attention). Didn't get to see much though as I was in the car, however, the A3 at Esher has no street lighting, and at that time of day there were no cars on the road so I managed to have a little sidewards glance now and again out of the window.

I am thinking more and more now of not bothering with GOTO and spending around £800 on a scope only. Will that get something good? Thinking of a dobsonian for deep sky viewing.

[swamp thing]

£800 that'll get you a beauty of a Dob, are you sure you wanna spend that much on a first scope?

£800 worth of Dob is going to be BIG

[jimieee]

I think you can get a 150 dob with goto for that budget, but you're probably better off getting something a bigger aperture if you want to do DSOs... I have a 150 on an EQ mount and it's a little on the small side.

Mine does have the advantage of being very portable (if heavy) though.

[Leebert]

Wow! £800 would get you a new Skywatcher skyliner 12" dob with £80 ish to spare. Alternatively, how about the 10" version and you'll have £350 to spare

[swamp thing]

Do they still sell the skyliner 12" Lee, I thought that was discontinued (for the life of me I don't know why)?

[jam1e1]

Still love my skytee2 with 250pds sw scope , not a dob but prefer the setup hope to see you all soon, feels like coming up to half a year!!

[Leebert]

I think you're right there Steve. It looks like the 12" flextube is still produced but that comes in at around £850

[Dizeee]

The budget was around 1k but I now realise how limited I am in terms of knowledge so I am thinking perhaps smaller. That said, I am happy to spend on something worthwhile that will give me good images, my viewing area is epic so deep sky would I would be spoilt for choice.

How heavy is the dob you mention - would I be able to get it in and out of my summerhouse alone with ease?

[Leebert]

I can lift the 10" and base okay but it's awkward and I wouldn't want to go too far. Having said that, it only takes a few seconds to separate the tube from the base and them it's nice and easy :-)

[swamp thing]

I must admit I always split my 10" to move it, it's just easier and only takes a few seconds. I was going to fit handles so I could carry it in one piece but in the end, as I always transport my scope to use it, it's easier to split it to get it in and out of the van.

An 8" or 10" Dob makes a very good first scope. The Flextube goto variants are very nice as the choice of whether to manually find stuff or rely on the on board computer to do it is up to how you feel. As I've never compared one with a non Goto side by side I can't say if pushing the Goto about is any harder, but I have used the 16" flextube Goto and that moved pretty well manually.

[Dizeee]

Interesting. Well my scope would live in my summer house which is only a few metres from what will be my viewing deck - shuffling it along or taking it in two pieces should be ok then I guess?

[Leebert]

If it were me, I'd do the trip with the two bits separately. For the sake of a few extra moments separating the base and scope, it's not worth the risk of slipping whilst trying to man handle the complete dob.