And recommendation for 11'' Aperture tube to beginner?

[HenryFitz]

22 hours ago, Louis D said:

Will you also observe from the rooftop or carry it down from there to another place?  If observing from the rooftop, you do realize that seeing through rising thermals coming off a hot roof cooling during the night is an awful combination of conditions.  Ideally, you want to place your scope as far from rooftops, asphalt and concrete as possible for these reasons.  Perhaps Oxford, England doesn't get as hot as Texas so y'all don't worry so much about this issue, though.

How much of that will go toward a possible rooftop observatory?  If no observatory up there, why store the scope up there?  Most folks store their scopes in a garage, shed, or anteroom.

Understood, they're not for everyone.  If you want to look for galaxies, I was just trying to get you the most aperture for the money, and Dobs are the way to go for this.  You need aperture, and lots of it, to pull in galaxies.

how about SC ?? celestron EDGE HD ?? 11''

[HenryFitz]

On 28/04/2019 at 11:28, Stu said:

Thanks Henry. What do you mean by efficient?

Beg your pardon if ... I was wondering EDGE HD offers SCT even with bigger aperture, where i can get 14'' under 5000GBP or Celestron RASA series ! 

Edited April 29, 2019 by HenryFitz

[Davey-T]

1 hour ago, HenryFitz said:

Beg your pardon if ... I was wondering EDGE HD offers SCT even with bigger aperture, where i can get 14'' under 5000GBP or Celestron RASA series ! 

I think you need to see some scopes in action as simply getting a bigger and bigger scope doesn't really help with what can be seen and don't expect to see any deep sky object that looks like the pictures in astro' magazines no matter how big a telescope you buy.

Dave

How about coming to the SGL star party in November, not far from you and lot's of scopes to see.

[Stu]

6 hours ago, HenryFitz said:

Beg your pardon if ... I was wondering EDGE HD offers SCT even with bigger aperture, where i can get 14'' under 5000GBP or Celestron RASA series ! 

So by efficent you mean cost effective?

A dobsonian is much more cost effective than an SCT, there is a 20" available used at the moment for £2500.

Do you know what a RASA scope is? As far as I'm aware it is a dedicated imaging scope and you haven't confirmed to us yet what you want to do with your scope.

What are your skies like at home where you will presumably use the scope?

[John]

2 hours ago, Stu said:

So by efficent you mean cost effective?

A dobsonian is much more cost effective than an SCT, there is a 20" available used at the moment for £2500.

 

This is quite correct. I have a 12 inch dobsonian which would cost around £1K to buy new. My astro society has a 12 inch Meade LX600 ACF which would cost over £5,000 to buy new. The Meade has all sorts of clever GOTO tech etc, etc but essentially my dobsonian shows similar views of the sky.

 

 

[alan potts]

19 minutes ago, John said:

This is quite correct. I have a 12 inch dobsonian which would cost around £1K to buy new. My astro society has a 12 inch Meade LX600 ACF which would cost over £5,000 to buy new. The Meade has all sorts of clever GOTO tech etc, etc but essentially my dobsonian shows similar views of the sky.

 

 

I feel you can add to that a much larger field of view too John. Something I fell foul of was thinking a focal reducer and a wide field 40mm eyepiece would see my feet. I feel your type of scope is much more versatile in many ways.

Alan

[JOC]

As a beginner I have never regretted my decision to buy a Goto Dob (yes, such things exist). (200P 8").  Given the problems inherent in our planets atmosphere esp. from the UK and viewing from a roof I wonder if a Scope as large as being looked for would be wasted sitting on a rooftop in Oxford - which is a town - I can understand such a large scope coming into its own under truly dark skies, but I wonder if the OP will be sitting under such ideal conditions.  How many times will say > x200 magnification actually be useful/useable?  I'd be interested to know why the OP won't consider a Dob.

Edited April 30, 2019 by JOC