What should I be able to see in an 8 inch dob?

[Yellow dwarf]

I’ve just purchased an 8 inch dobsonian and I was wondering:

a) is it a good choice?

b) what can I realistically expect to see under bortle 5 skies

[John]

Hello and welcome to the forum !

The 8 inch dobsonian is an excellent scope. Very popular on here and for good reason.

In terms of what you can see, this post is worth a careful read and I think will give you some idea of the potential of your scope:

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/196278-what-can-i-expect-to-see/

If you can observe away from street lights and other forms of light pollution you will see more where deep sky objects are concerned.

The moon, the planets and double star observing are less affected by light pollution.

 

[Kon]

I got an 8" Dob and it is great! I am under 4 bortle. I am into nebulas and it delivers extremely good viewing. Open clusters look great and so far the moon and mars have been great. I only had mine since December so looking forward to the summer for the jupiter and saturn. Have a look at the link john sent above, the viewing is similar to that post.

[Pixies]

I'd say it's a great choice - but I'm biased, as I started out last year with an 8" Bresser dob.

I'm in Bortle 6 - but I think it's more like a 5 in some directions. 

You'll see plenty, but it depends on your expectations. A good place to start is here: 

Not meaning to be self-obsessed in any way, but I'll list a few of my observing reports below and you can get an idea off what I've been able to see over the last year or so:

 

 

[Yellow dwarf]

Thanks everyone for replying, great advice here. I’ll be very happy if it looks as good as it does in the thread linked above. For me it’s not just about observing these objects, it’s about knowing how far away they are, and how massive they can be, for me that just caps off the experience. I already own a Celestron travel scope 70, and Ive had good views of the Pleiades, Orion Nebula and Jupiter and Saturn when they were near each other in December, but I reached the limits of that scope fairly quickly. The 8 inch dob seemed like a reasonable upgrade, and I’m now very confident that it is.😀

[Yellow dwarf]

Oh just to add on to my previous post I also saw Mars and Uranus when they were close together in January through the travel scope 70, so if an 8 inch dob is a significant upgrade I can’t wait to start using it.(Shame about the delays in shipping though.)

[Ricochet]

1 hour ago, Yellow dwarf said:

Oh just to add on to my previous post I also saw Mars and Uranus when they were close together in January through the travel scope 70, so if an 8 inch dob is a significant upgrade I can’t wait to start using it.(Shame about the delays in shipping though.)

It will be a massive upgrade on all objects (except anything too large to fit into the field of view). What you can expect to see always seems like an impossible question to answer, as instead of a concrete answer all that I can really say is that you will see the same objects "better".

[Spile]

I think you have made an excellent choice then I would wouldn't I 🙂

A copy of Turn Left at Orion and a willingness to take your time and you will have a solid foundation in my opinion.