Been set on the 10" flextube as my next scope but...

[BeerMe]

I'm always gonny wish I had went that bit higher right?  I'm seeing 12" solid tube dobs going for 300 2nd hand right now, good nick apparently and with decent accessories (RA 9x50, etc).

The portability of a 10" flextube outweighs the extra aperture tho, right?  Right?!?  Assure me i'm making the right choice with the 10" flextube please :-)

Still a couple of months til I buy btw...

[Stu]

I would be considering where I will be using the scope most. Will it be at home or will you be regularly transporting it to a dark site. If the Flextube allows, or even encourages you to do that more frequently then I would still go for that. A 10" scope under a dark sky will show you more than a 12" under light polluted skies.

If you have decent skies at home, then perhaps the 12" is worth considering, just lifting the scope out of a shed into the garden is not so much hassle and in that case the extra aperture wins. Just bear in mind a 12" scope is a big bit of kit, so make sure you know what you are buying!

[BeerMe]

Right now i'd be lifting it from my home in to the garden, although it's not far at all (maybe 20 steps at most).  Still, there's a couple of steps and tree stumps in my path...

I'd be transporting it regularly to a dark site though in my car, and although my car can handle both no problem, I think I'd need all the back seats folded down for the 12", whereas with the 10" I think I'd get away with only 1 or 2 of the back seats folded, which could make a difference. 

I'm coming from only a 5" Heritage too, so it's a big jump :-)

[John]

Good advice from Stu. Worth seeing the 2 scopes side by side if you can. The 10" chinese dobs are reasonably portable, even in 1 piece at a push. The 12" ones are somewhat heavier, larger lumps.

[scarp15]

A 12" manual flextube is a little hefty yet manageable and portable. I use to have one of these and take it on quite frequent dark sky trips, it coined the name cluster buster. they too fairly routinely come up second hand and are also good value at retail.

[BeerMe]

1 hour ago, John said:

Good advice from Stu. Worth seeing the 2 scopes side by side if you can. The 10" chinese dobs are reasonably portable, even in 1 piece at a push. The 12" ones are somewhat heavier, larger lumps.

Yep, sound advice indeed :-)  I'd love to see the 2 scopes side by side but I doubt i'll be so lucky before the time comes to decide unfortunately.

1 hour ago, scarp15 said:

A 12" manual flextube is a little hefty yet manageable and portable. I use to have one of these and take it on quite frequent dark sky trips, it coined the name cluster buster. they too fairly routinely come up second hand and are also good value at retail.

I've been watching, but I haven't seen any so far ;-)  A 12" flextube would be the pinnacle for me right now but even second hand, I think it might still be out of reach.  See what comes up when I'm ready to buy though, I've seen some incredible bargains already in the 8-12" range :-)

[cloudsweeper]

I recently saw a 12 inch Dob and was shocked (really) at its enormity.

The benefit of more aperture is limited by the darkness (i.e. lack of it) of the sky, so the Dob I plan to get will most likely be a 10 inch, solid tube - more manageable, no need of a shroud, and perhaps likely to require collimation less often than a flexitube version.

Doug.

[Size9Hex]

9 hours ago, BeerMe said:

The portability of a 10" flextube outweighs the extra aperture tho, right?  Right?!?  Assure me i'm making the right choice with the 10" flextube please :-)

It really depends on the target.

I'm going to caveat that I've got 2" binos, a 4" frac and 10" dob, but have not looked through a 12". Anyway...

I've compared them at home (faintest star mag 5.5, so really not all that bad) and a somewhat darker site (mag 6.3 maybe).

On faint extended targets (nebulae, galaxies), the slightly darker site seems much more important than losing a bit of aperture. The dark site binos beat the 4" at home (in a fair test where I don't just put a high power EP in the frac) on M33, M31, Running Man, M42. The frac and dob really are very different in scale, but again the dark site frac takes the win on a lot of faint extended targets (Veil, Pleiades Nebulae, plenty of others).

For point source targets such as open clusters, many globulars, many bright (but tiny) galaxy cores and also high power targets that need high resolution (planets, lunar, doubles), the 10" dob with a bit of light pollution beats the dark site 4" easily.

The 10" solid tube is for me at the moment in the sweet spot for aperture vs. hassle (although I might go for a larger solid tube one day if I ever find myself with a bigger car or living somewhere darker). So give some thought as to what targets you're enjoying, what your observing sites are like, how often you're likely to travel to dark sites etc.

Good luck with the choice!

[niallk]

Hi,

I've a 250px, and it has shown me just so much: my overall best bang for buck astro purchase without a doubt

However, I think you are right to wonder will you want more, especially if after DSOs and have access to darkish skies!  If you see a 12" and look up videos of people setting their scope up / fitting it into a car and think you can manage it ok so that bulk won't become a barrier to use, go for it!!

I would think that you will be delighted with the views through either a 10" or 12".

Then after a while of course, you are likely to start wondering about a 16" or 18"... 

Best of luck,

-Niall

 

 

[John]

Sometime back we had a poll on the forum on the most used / most useful aperture of scope by members and I seem to recall that the 10" size was the "winner". 8" and 12" were popular as well of course but I seem to recall 10" being generally regarded as a sort of "goldilocks" aperture.

[estwing]

Yes the 10" is the easier to lift but if you're a regular dark sky tripper then it's a 12" dob. Regular dark sky viewing just fuels the fire for more aperture. While the 10" is a wonderful tool to open up the nights treasures a 12" will be all you need for many years observing 

[scarp15]

16 hours ago, BeerMe said:

Yep, sound advice indeed :-)  I'd love to see the 2 scopes side by side but I doubt i'll be so lucky before the time comes to decide unfortunately.

I've been watching, but I haven't seen any so far ;-)  A 12" flextube would be the pinnacle for me right now but even second hand, I think it might still be out of reach.  See what comes up when I'm ready to buy though, I've seen some incredible bargains already in the 8-12" range :-)

Yes perhaps not lately, maybe as we get closer to the Summer period and keep checking astro buy & sell, ebay and on here, or place a wanted add. An advantage of buying one of these when they do come up second hand, is that the owner would, as is often the case, quite likely have undertaken a few mods / improvements and included an astrozap shroud which really is necessary. Therefore you buy into a package and the savings can be very good. I had bought mine from new and when it came to sell, it had the benefit of many improvements and a new focuser. With dobs you have to almost expect that 'its never done until its done' which is actually part of the pleasure of owning them. Either a 10" or 12" under a dark sky will each deliver excellent performance, so long as the seed isn't sown, based on your initial statement, thinking about a little more aperture.