EQ6 with 10" or 12" reflector

[davo]

With christmas around the corner i'll be treating myself to a few bits. Question is .. to what?

My first (maybe silly) question is.......

Is there any advantage in the Skywatcher - 250 & EQ6 Pro rather than the larger 12" with EQ6 Pro? I would prefer to go for the 12" The £200 extra seems justified? or will it be too wobbley for it's own good? :? .

Thanks

[SteveL]

A 12" would give a quite considerable amount of extra light grasp over a 10". The downsides are that being that big will mean it will wander around a bit in the wind, and mirror cool down times will be longer.

Is this going to be for visual only, or some imaging at a later stage?

[RobH]

I have heard of 14 inch Orion optics scopes being used on EQ6's so the mount will be fine, but as Steve says, for imaging it'll be prone to wind wobbles. (sounds painful )

Cheers

Rob

[Ben Ritchie]

The downsides are that being that big will mean it will wander around a bit in the wind, and mirror cool down times will be longer.

One other thing that springs to mind is that mounting/unmounting a 12" newtonian on an EQ mount in the dark might be quite 'exciting', they're quite big!

[SteveL]

definitely not the the faint hearted or weak muscled....

[James]

One advantage to the 10" is that the OTA* will fit across the back of a standard car. The 12" probably won't.

I have a 10" which is at the limit of what I can comfortably put up and take down at night onto my EQ6 (I'm fairly average strength for a 36 year old bloke).

James

* assuming it's f/5 or less...

[Doc]

I agree I used to have a 10" hardin dob and that just laid nicely on the back of my Punto.

[davo]

It would be mainly for visual observing at the moment as I have only had slightly smaller dobs before & like the views I was getting. Now after a few years I wish to go for it and upgrade. Trouble is It takes me such a long time to find out and decide whats good and whats not and I end up going around in circles. It’s really is a minfield for someone like me not being an expert but this site has already speeded things up. Yes wish to get into imaging later on although webcams are quite cheap now right?? (ponder) Would the cables of the cam pull the scope around?? As for weight I did borrow a 8” SCT which bordered on the weight issue when lifting it outside all setup squeezing it out of the patio. Would that be feasable with this setup?

Ponder ponder ponder where’s my dob.

[GazOC]

I used to own a 10" Newt on an EQ6 and while the setup wasn't too bad the awkward positions that eyepiece could end up in was a real pain in the backside.

[George]

It would be mainly for visual observing at the moment as I have only had slightly smaller dobs before & like the views I was getting. Now after a few years I wish to go for it and upgrade. Trouble is It takes me such a long time to find out and decide whats good and whats not and I end up going around in circles. It%u2019s really is a minfield for someone like me not being an expert but this site has already speeded things up. Yes wish to get into imaging later on although webcams are quite cheap now right?? (ponder) Would the cables of the cam pull the scope around?? As for weight I did borrow a 8%u201D SCT which bordered on the weight issue when lifting it outside all setup squeezing it out of the patio. Would that be feasable with this setup?

Ponder ponder ponder where%u2019s my dob.[/]

Skywatcher 305mm 44% more Light Gathering than 250mm, that's quoting Skywatchers own specs, so for visual or if money is not a prob go for the biggest you can afford.

Either scope is not a problem for the EQ6, but be warned if possible go look at the scope in the flesh before deciding what you think you can manage as they are both extremely large and assembling and dissembling in the dark is a challenge.