Do I need a new scope?

[Ags]

For the past 12 years I have had a case of long aperture fever. I wake up sleep shopping on FLO. Whenever I lift a heavy object, I calculate the equivalent weight in SCT or Dobsonian.

I have been told the only effective cure is to buy a scope carefully calibrated to 95% of my lifting capacity. Not heavy enough to cause lasting physical damage, but enough to discourage further upgrade ambitions.

Edited April 28, 2023 by Ags

[Ags]

I could just buy another eyepiece and see how I feel in the morning…

Edited April 28, 2023 by Ags

[John]

For me, getting a 10 inch and then a 12 inch dobsonian really was a game changer in the hobby. Far, far more so than my more recent acquisitions of top class 100mm and 130mm apo refractors.

I can't speak for others but for me the aperture opened up many more observing possibilities and has provided me with my best observing experiences.

You need to be able to handle, site and store such a scope of course. 

"Your Mileage May Vary" as the saying goes 🙂

 

 

[DaveS]

I need more (Or any) clear nights more than I need another 'scope.

Not buying any new astro kit for the foreseeable, as there's no point.

[Alan White]

The answer is yes, it’s Astro shopping, however beware as one leads to two leads to three and onwards!

[Guest]

The answer for me is no.  I do not need another scope.  As mentioned above i need clear skies to use the three that i have. 

[Guest]

46 minutes ago, DaveS said:

I need more (Or any) clear nights more than I need another 'scope.

Not buying any new astro kit for the foreseeable, as there's no point.

So true

[Elp]

1 hour ago, Ags said:

I have been told the only effective cure is to buy a scope carefully calibrated to 95% of my lifting capacity

Okay.

We're talking deadlifting capability here right?

[Mr Spock]

There's no substitute for aperture. In good seeing the 12" shows such fine detail on the moon no other scope is worth looking through. Small refractors have great presentation but ultimately they are only as good as their aperture. Size does matter!

Even tonight when the seeing isn't so good here, x217 in the 12" is just so much sharper than the 4" refractor at similar magnification - x224  with a better eyepiece (7mm Nirvana v 3.3mm TOE).

[Ags]

I do have nice 66 mm and 90 mm refractors and a very useful 150 mm SCT. I think what I am missing is something with more aperture, to be used for general visual ogling and solar system imaging. I calculate that a 10” reflector is about my limit, budget wise and weight wise. With a plan to build an astroshed in the coming months I have the option to use heavier equipment.

I am thinking a GSO or OOUK dobsonian might be a good fit. I don’t use goto so I can save on electronics, and for the solar system imaging a platform should be sufficient.

[Sunshine]

Yes! now let me read your post.

[cajen2]

Then when you've done your back in shifting an enormous dob, you decide to downsize and get a nice little frac......(this is what I've done). You appreciate that sharp frac view, tell yourself you did the right thing, then slowly but inexorably miss the big aperture and f/l.....and so it goes, round and round, till bankruptcy looms.😉

[Guest]

10 minutes ago, cajen2 said:

Then when you've done your back in shifting an enormous dob, you decide to downsize and get a nice little frac......(this is what I've done). You appreciate that sharp frac view, tell yourself you did the right thing, then slowly but inexorably miss the big aperture and f/l.....and so it goes, round and round, till bankruptcy looms.😉

I told you that you were going to miss the 8 inch.  

[cajen2]

Of course I do, but the Starfield is so good that there are compensations.

[Space Hopper]

My experiences differ somewhat.

I find 5.5" of refractor aperture more than enough for my Bortle 7 sky's, and ticks all the boxes.

I've had a 10 and 12" Newts before and they are obviously at their best in darker sky's. Showpiece objects like M11, M13 etc all looked great of course, but my 140mm refractor has a decent enough aperture

to hold its own ; it's certainly no slouch on DSOs. And i can use the binoviewer on the refractor !  : its not so easy with a Dob / Newt.

All my experiences show my current 140mm scope will outperform and often bury any comparable reflector on the Planets.

I remember a shadow transit on Jupiter of its largest moon Ganymede a few years ago when i was using a 10" F6.3 OO Dob.

It was cooled and collimated, but it still gave a rather 'mushy' view with only mediocre contrast. 

 

Having an easy to store refractor that works great on a simple alt-az mount, that i can easily image with, can do Solar and terrestrial viewing,

and requires zero collimation / little cooldown,  performs in average seeing, weighs less than 10kg and HAS A HANDLE 😉 are key features that i'd hate not to have now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[John]

If my skies were Bortle 7 I would not have been so enthused about aperture either. Fortunately, they are better than that.

 

 

[dweller25]

12 hours ago, Ags said:

For the past 12 years I have had a case of long aperture fever. I wake up sleep shopping on FLO. Whenever I lift a heavy object, I calculate the equivalent weight in SCT or Dobsonian.

I have been told the only effective cure is to buy a scope carefully calibrated to 95% of my lifting capacity. Not heavy enough to cause lasting physical damage, but enough to discourage further upgrade ambitions.

All your scopes are light - so that must be for a reason ?

I have a bad back and all my scopes are light.

More aperture for me would be easy - a lightweight 10” Newtonian BUT my back does not like the sometimes awkward viewing angles Newts can get to. For this reason I prefer to always view from the back of a scope and I have settled on a 7” Mewlon as my largest aperture scope.

Your plan to build an astroshed could be a game changer 🙂

Good luck in your search 👍

Edited April 29, 2023 by dweller25

[Paz]

I think trying more aperture is justifiable😀. 10" would be a fair jump from 150mm without being too much of a challenge to handle. It's difficult realise what it will mean until you try. You might realise you like the smaller scopes after all, or that you like more aperture, or that you want to keep a few scopes covering different bases.

I don't personally follow the practice of mostly using big scopes in dark skies although I agree with the sentiment, any scope will do better in dark skies. Ill use any scope in various observing conditons, but I do most of my observing in light polluted (and heat polluted) skies and I get epic views in bigger aperture scopes that smaller scopes can't deliver. However I have a suspicion that the quality of my eyesight is not the best and therefore I benefit from more aperture more than the average observer does.

The best view I've had of Jupiter by far has been with the VX14.

[Ags]

I think I will go for the 10" dob option. My sky and observing site is extremely light polluted being in a city light dome with local light sources in all directions including up. So the scope is really for lunar and planetary observing, as well as double stars and a few brighter small DSOs like globulars and planetaries.

On an EQ platform, a 10" would be big enough to get some nice solar system images...

I'm not expecting the dob would go out every clear night, i think on many nights I would prefer the convenience of the refractors or SCT.

[bosun21]

After having tried all the common scope types, Maksutov, SCT, Refractor and Reflector both on Alt/Az mounts as well as EQ. I have settled on a 4” frac and a 12” dobsonian. I use the refractor for general observing which it does extremely well, however for those moonless nights the 12” definitely leaves it behind. I use it with an EQ platform and a Starsense unit for target location. 

[Ags]

22 minutes ago, Paz said:

10" would be a fair jump from 150mm without being too much of a challenge to handle

Yes, it would go a magnitude deeper. The OOUK version I have half an eye on would be 11 kgs, which is more than manageable. 1/8 PV optics call to me, and at that weight putting it on an EQ mount and shooting some galaxies is not crazy. I also hear the OOUK dob bases are good and light. Have they fixed their infamous customer support?

[Paz]

1 minute ago, Ags said:

Yes, it would go a magnitude deeper. The OOUK version I have half an eye on would be 11 kgs, which is more than manageable. 1/8 PV optics call to me, and at that weight putting it on an EQ mount and shooting some galaxies is not crazy. I also hear the OOUK dob bases are good and light. Have they fixed their infamous customer support?

I don't know about their customer support as I got my vx14 second hand, but those solid tube dobs they do are certainly light and practical.

[John]

I've bought all my OO scopes (3 of them) on the used market so I've side stepped their customer service. I found that I also benefitted from the quite substantial depreciation that seems to afflict OO scopes 🙄

[Ags]

Top tip @John!

[maw lod qan]

I hope to get a Lunt. 

If I could just sell a few of my unnecessary older toys and things I'm not really using.

BIG fishing reel. (Shark rod)

Motorcycle.

Kidney.