6" or 8" Newtonian?

[Jon Sales]

Want to do AP as well as visual so have changed my mind on an ED frac and mount.

Thinking about a newt so have a good aperture for visual and decent for DSO'S AP.

Both are f5 and I will be using a DSLR for the time being, so which will be better?

The 6" or the 8"?

Bearing in mind I can afford either scope.

[RichM63]

LOL Jon, check my signature, I accidentaly ended up with one of each!

Both a great for visual. I'd have a hard time saying one was better than the other.

The 6" is easily more portable and is used for short or unplanned sessions.

The 8" is obviously a lot heavier and takes a little more preparation in setup.

I've only dabled with limited webcam AP but I get significantly less vibration with the larger beefier mount. 

If I was seriously thinking about AP I'd put at least 70% of my budget into the heftiest mount I could find S/H and then see what I had left over for the scope.

Minimum mount EQ5, but aim for EQ6 or better, it is stability you are after for AP, the OTA is almost secondary.

Others have more experience.

Rich

[cotterless45]

I don't think there's a generic scope . I've see. And heard about the 130pds as an excellent base for imaging. For visual, nothing will beat an 8" Newt. Perhaps an

Heq5 mount with an f6 200 Newt and an

130 pds ota

Would do you for imaging and observing,

Nick.

[gooseholla]

I started off with an 8 inch newt. Solid bit of kit. Rarely needed collimation. Wasn't hard to set up at all. Easily liftable by one person.

[Kropster]

130pds is good for imaging... light, compact, easy on the mount and not bad in a breeze.

If you go for an 8" then you will need a butch mount to cope with the size and mass.

[Spoon]

i would go with what nick said, a 130pds, ive had a little play with one and its a really nice scope

[GuillermoBarrancos]

With either 130 or 150DPS you can get away with a HEQ5 mount for imaging.

With a 200PDS you would need to consider a NEQ6 Pro Mount, as the 200DPS is a real windsail due to it's size.

So you have to take the Mount into consideration as well with your planned Budget.

[laser_jock99]

Depends really on the mount your going to use. If planning an EQ6 (the budget mount of choice for larger tubes) then the 8" (or even 10" (but not a 12")) would be good.

Also consider the shorter focal length F4 scopes if much imaging is on the cards (I just brought my fourth GSO F4 Newtonian, a 6, 8, 10 & 12" are now in my collection!). At F4 the tube lengths are correspondingly shorter, lighter and easier to manoeuvre.

When thinking about Newtonians remember to cost in a good coma corrector and a decent laser collimator (avoid the budget Chinese ones) as these are essential tools to get the best out of your scope(s).

I just picked one of the GSO 10" Newts for £399 from Telescope House- for that sort of cash it's a "light bucket bargain".

10" F4 vs 6" F4

[Jon Sales]

Was looking at the Celestron AVX scopes as an alternative to the Skywatcher range too.

Sound impressive. And the price is cheaper too.

[Baffa]

If you are planning to get the AVX, go for the 150PDS.

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