Frac / dob / frac / dob / frac / dob.....

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Having made the mistake myself, I don't think it's just the time to set up a scope, it's the "grunt" required. I designed a "portable" pier for an 8" refractor and a motorised lift trolley to raise the 40kg scope onto the mount which all worked and enabled me to set it up in about 3 minutes. It was quick but it wasn't effortless. It was more like those soldiers stripping down a big artillery gun at a military tattoo! It was the heaving and straining that I used to dread - to the extent that I tended to cut observing sessions short to get the dreaded pack down over with. A permanently mounted instrument in an observatory is  probably the best of all worlds, though it's a luxury that's neither practical nor affordable for the vast majority of people

I'm a "dyed in the wool" refractor man myself, but wonderful though they are, they can't really compete with the light grasp of a big reflector on deep sky stuff. If your particular situation allows it, a 12" Dob that can be easily wheeled out of the garage is probably a good option. I think that the Dob design overcomes most of the ergonomic problems that often beset equatorially mounted Newtonians.

Ease of set up is probably the key rather than time to set up. IMHO ten minutes of pleasant pottering is probably preferable to three minutes grunting and straining!

Absolutely. You do not want to rush things. All components of my main scope are very easy to handle, even with cold hands at the end of a long session. I can set the scope up in about 5 minutes, but usually prefer to take 10-15.

[Peter Drew]

In case anyone is wondering, stopping the aperture down increases the focal RATIO not the focal length.