Which 8" Dob?

[oldannie]

After weeks of research and indecisiveness we've decided to buy an 8" Dob, (probably without GoTo) as our first scope for observation. Several companies make these Dobs - are they all of similar quality so does it matter which one we go for? We don't have a tight budget so it's more a matter of quality rather than cost.

Cheers

Annie

[Charic]

Hi and Welcome..............The Sky-Watcher Skyliner is described as the UK's best selling if that helps ?

In effect they all have 8" (200mm) apertures, its just the minor differences or the  quality of the parts, like the focuser assembly or the eyepiece that is supplied.  Most folk will update their eyepieces along the way.

The only thing I would change on my telescope, if it were crushed or stolen is to get a BIGGER aperture, maybe a 12", But thats a long way off for now, I  think the Skyliner is just right, affordable and very easy to use. The telescope works even better, MUCH BETTER UNDER REALLY DARK SKIES.

[Owmuchonomy]

When I was researching I thoroughly checked feedback in this forum.  They all have their pluses and minuses but I excluded the Orion UK one for example.  See which ones come with the best bundled items.  Availability might also sway you if you want one next week for example.

[John]

In terms of optical quality the Orion Optics (UK) would have the advantage but they do cost a lot more than the chinese 8" dobs from Skywatcher, Meade and GSO/Revelation. Personally I'd not be swayed by bundled accessories as these are likely to be upgraded / changed relatively quickly as your experience grows.

I've owned the Skywatcher 8" dobsonian and I thought it was an excellent scope. I can quite see why they are so popular. I've also owned on of the Revelation 8" F/6's and it was pretty good too although I felt the optics were not quite as good as the Skywatcher. In particular the coatings on the primary mirror seemed to show signs of age a little too quickly for my liking. This might have been improved with the current generation of Revelation dobs though.

The Meade Lightbridge and Telescope Services (TS) dobs have the same optics as the Revelations use - they are made by GSO.

[Baz6170]

After weeks of research and indecisiveness we've decided to buy an 8" Dob, (probably without GoTo) as our first scope for observation. Several companies make these Dobs - are they all of similar quality so does it matter which one we go for? We don't have a tight budget so it's more a matter of quality rather than cost.

Cheers

Annie

Hi Annie

I've literally just taken delivery of a Revelation 8" Dob, and I've been really impressed with the quality of it so far.  I considered the Skywatcher 200P dob for ages, but I went for the Revelation in the end due to it having things like a dual-speed focuser and a primary mirror fan fitted as standard.  There are quite a few more things that helped me make up my mind - drop me a line if you want to chat!

Cheers

Baz

[Baz6170]

Couple of quick pics of my Revelation 8" dob.

Baz

[oldannie]

Thanks - John suggests Orion would provide better optical quality yet Chris excluded Orion - presumably for something other than quality? Availablity is not a huge issue for us though we don't want to wait months and months. We live in a rural elevated situation, not much light pollution, nearest neighbour quarter of a mile away. We did think about a 10" Dob particularly as we will do our observing from our 'backyard', have a dry cool outhouse attached to our house in which to keep a Dob and will only have to move it around 30 feet. Perhaps we're being overly cautious in thinking about an 8"! It's really difficult to decide, particularly as there's no-one locally who owns a 10" and retail outlets are many miles away.

Annie

[John]

Thanks - John suggests Orion would provide better optical quality yet Chris excluded Orion - presumably for something other than quality? .....

Perhaps Chris will say but it might have been cost. Orion Optics scopes cost a lot more than the chinese eqivilents.

The 10" dobs are not a lot physically larger than the 8" ones. At 12" aperture the jump in size / portability is somehow much larger !

My own current dob is an Orion Optics 12" which is excellent

[Baz6170]

Thanks - John suggests Orion would provide better optical quality yet Chris excluded Orion - presumably for something other than quality? Availablity is not a huge issue for us though we don't want to wait months and months. We live in a rural elevated situation, not much light pollution, nearest neighbour quarter of a mile away. We did think about a 10" Dob particularly as we will do our observing from our 'backyard', have a dry cool outhouse attached to our house in which to keep a Dob and will only have to move it around 30 feet. Perhaps we're being overly cautious in thinking about an 8"! It's really difficult to decide, particularly as there's no-one locally who owns a 10" and retail outlets are many miles away.

Annie

Hi Annie

Quite often, the brand name on a telescope is the only thing setting it apart from its 'competitors' because manufacturers make scopes for multiple brands.  I already had Revelations' photo-visual eyepiece set, and whilst it's not top-of-the-range quality, I have been impressed with the views I've had through those eyepieces when using my NexStar, so when I discovered the Revelation dob, I already had an idea of what the quality would be like.  As it turned out, I got the Revelation for less money than a Skywatcher, plus as I say, it had what I considered to be better equipment supplied as standard.  I'm sure there's many people out there who could go on about quality and longevity of optics etc, but the truth is if you're a casual observer like me and take good care of your telescope, I don't see the optics causing you lots of problems - in fact, you're more likely to upgrade to a bigger scope before the optics on a scope needed any attention ; )

Baz 

[C7tsj]

One thing to note, and I don't want to put you off, my 8" Rev is pretty large and can be awkward to move. Need to consider if you could shift such a thing as it will quickly become a pain if you can't. I guess the Skywatcher is equally bulky.

I would highly recommend an 8" dob, owned mines for a few weeks now and love it. You will need to buy a red dot finder or a telrad though as this helps finding objects.

Mark

[C7tsj]

Also, this might be worth a read. Helped me make up my mind on choosing a Revelation over the Skywatcher:

http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/225332-any-negative-points-for-an-8-inch-dob/

Mark

[Tinker1947]

I went for a Skywatcher 12" with GoTo, while you don't need to use the GoTo it does a good job of tracking DSO's once found, no nudging it tracks and does this very well, so if you buy a scope with out it you won't have the option of popping in for a cuppa tea when that very faint DSO that's just taken 20 minutes to find drifts out of the FOV and i spent 45 minutes doing stuff with my imagine mount/scope, come back to the Dob and the DSO was still in the FOV....marvellous i call it....

[Sirius Starwatcher]

SW 200p for me owned it for three weeks now and I love it. It is cheaper than the other makes but as said previously you will probably update eye pieces etc as you get more involved with observing. There's plenty of other posts on here to study. Best of luck with your choice

[Peter Drew]

Another 8" worth considering is the Orion(USA) Intelliscope. I have one, the optics are superb and the manually operated encoders make finding DSO's a breeze. 

[Baz6170]

One thing to note, and I don't want to put you off, my 8" Rev is pretty large and can be awkward to move. Need to consider if you could shift such a thing as it will quickly become a pain if you can't. I guess the Skywatcher is equally bulky.

I would highly recommend an 8" dob, owned mines for a few weeks now and love it. You will need to buy a red dot finder or a telrad though as this helps finding objects.

Mark

I can second all of this - due to the ease of just pulling the dob out of the shed and be viewing within minutes, I took advantage of a half-hour break in the weather last night to get first light in my Rev 8", and after a couple of moves around the garden, realised that the scope is indeed awkward to move!  It's not so much the weight, it's more to do with keeping the thing balanced when you're carrying it.  That said, I was amazed at how easy it was to collimate the Rev scope, and I was really happy with the views I got last night (I used the Mizar double star as a test and it resolved beautifully).  So, it's a big thumbs-up from me for the GSO Revelation 8" dob, and I'm sure it'll get better once I've had a chance to ditch the standard finderscope in favour of my Telrad (not that the finderscope is necessarily bad, but the Telrad is so much easier to use and useful for star hopping).

[Baz6170]

In case anyone's interested, this is the collimation guide I use - it's brilliantly simple and just works : )

http://www.garyseronik.com/?q=node/169

Baz

[nicoscy]

Annie,

First of all, what's the total budget?

This is important as it must be split between telescope, essential accessories and not-so-essential accessories.

[happy-kat]

Sounds like a humble sack truck would make good transport and storage of your dob in your out house, wheel out set up use wheel back

[Tinker1947]

Annie i bet you thought this will be a simple question to ask.....

[oldannie]

I know enough about this new hobby of ours to know that there's no such thing as a simple question! but it's great that so many people on this site are willing to respond and I really appreciate all the comments. We've decided to go for a Revelation 8" Dob to get us started and probably a 2x Barlow, 4.5mm eyepiece and maybe a filter for DSO's plus either a red dot finder or Telrad - that should keep us happy for a while!

Thanks again for all the help, much appreciated!

Annie

[Baz6170]

I know enough about this new hobby of ours to know that there's no such thing as a simple question! but it's great that so many people on this site are willing to respond and I really appreciate all the comments. We've decided to go for a Revelation 8" Dob to get us started and probably a 2x Barlow, 4.5mm eyepiece and maybe a filter for DSO's plus either a red dot finder or Telrad - that should keep us happy for a while!

Thanks again for all the help, much appreciated!

Annie

Hi Annie

Just a note that the Telrad is BIG - it's 8" long!  I've not attached mine to my Rev 8" Dob yet as the place I thought I could position it (between focuser and finderscope) is too small.  I've also read that you should temporarily position the Telrad on the scope with cable ties, to make sure you are 100% happy with the position, BEFORE you use the supplied sticky pads, as apparently they are all but impossible to remove once stuck!

Congrats on choosing the Rev...but I would say that, having one myself haha ; )

Baz

[Tinker1947]

Hi Annie

Just a note that the Telrad is BIG - it's 8" long!  I've not attached mine to my Rev 8" Dob yet as the place I thought I could position it (between focuser and finderscope) is too small.  I've also read that you should temporarily position the Telrad on the scope with cable ties, to make sure you are 100% happy with the position, BEFORE you use the supplied sticky pads, as apparently they are all but impossible to remove once stuck!

Congrats on choosing the Rev...but I would say that, having one myself haha ; )

Baz

Do away with the Finder scope, there pretty useless, a hair dryer softens up the sticky pads enough to get them off, but not in a reusable state..._