16" dob vs 11" SCT

[msacco]

10 hours ago, John said:

They are acquired with the assistance of night vision technology. This technology enhances (greatly in some cases) what can be seen visually and imaged.

There is quite a cost to such technology in addition to that of the scope.

Yeah that was really surprizing, can you elaborate more on what is that exactly? Like what's the name of that so I can read more about it?

[John]

7 minutes ago, msacco said:

Yeah that was really surprizing, can you elaborate more on what is that exactly? Like what's the name of that so I can read more about it?

I don't know much more about it. We term it EEVA on this forum and it has it's own sections:

https://stargazerslounge.com/forum/208-eeva-electronically-enhanced-visual-astronomy/

https://stargazerslounge.com/forum/287-discussions-eeva-equipment/

[Cosmic Geoff]

The two scopes are as different as chalk and cheese.  Before buying either, you should take a sheet of A4 paper and write down for each scope:

What exactly you intend to observe with it. Which kind of objects?

Where you are going to store it.

How you intend to get it from store to observing site (in the extreme case you may need a pickup truck for the 16" Dob, for all I know).

How you are going to get it mounted up for each session.

(As an alternative to the above three, where are you going to site your observatory, what about security for it and what's your observatory budget?)

Are there targets you want to image? If so,  what kind of kit is used or recommended for these projects? Only the SCT is really suited for imaging anything, and it is best suited for planetary imaging.

Somebody mentioned EEVA. You should look into that before buying a BIG scope.  I made a couple of experiments and found to my shock that a small cheap telescope & EEVA gear would pick up galaxies just as well as an expensive telescope of twice the aperture without EEVA.  

[jetstream]

35 minutes ago, Cosmic Geoff said:

Somebody mentioned EEVA. You should look into that before buying a BIG scope.  I made a couple of experiments and found to my shock that a small cheap telescope & EEVA gear would pick up galaxies just as well as an expensive telescope of twice the aperture without EEVA.  

Yes, the electronics in the night vision -image intensifiers- can do exactly that...

[msacco]

9 hours ago, John said:

I don't know much more about it. We term it EEVA on this forum and it has it's own sections:

https://stargazerslounge.com/forum/208-eeva-electronically-enhanced-visual-astronomy/

https://stargazerslounge.com/forum/287-discussions-eeva-equipment/

Thanks!!

1 hour ago, Cosmic Geoff said:

The two scopes are as different as chalk and cheese.  Before buying either, you should take a sheet of A4 paper and write down for each scope:

What exactly you intend to observe with it. Which kind of objects?

Where you are going to store it.

How you intend to get it from store to observing site (in the extreme case you may need a pickup truck for the 16" Dob, for all I know).

How you are going to get it mounted up for each session.

(As an alternative to the above three, where are you going to site your observatory, what about security for it and what's your observatory budget?)

Are there targets you want to image? If so,  what kind of kit is used or recommended for these projects? Only the SCT is really suited for imaging anything, and it is best suited for planetary imaging.

Somebody mentioned EEVA. You should look into that before buying a BIG scope.  I made a couple of experiments and found to my shock that a small cheap telescope & EEVA gear would pick up galaxies just as well as an expensive telescope of twice the aperture without EEVA.  

That is really important, when the time comes I'll make sure to think deeply into each of these.

As for the EEVA, I'll also look into that, is there a way I could search for such kit? I didn't find anything similar in local stores website, but maybe I just missed it, what does EEVA stands for?

I guess it would be best asking in the forum itself?

Thanks!

[vlaiv]

1 hour ago, msacco said:

what does EEVA stands for

EEVA - electronically enhanced visual astronomy, a.k.a. EAA - electronically assisted astronomy.

Two sub types are common - one involving "visual" astronomy with NVDs (Night vision devices) - used before an eyepiece to amplify telescope light, and second one - using fast CMOS sensors and fast exposures (just a few seconds) to incrementally stack image on computer screen and "observe" it.