Eyepiece & Dobsonian question!!

[Neutrinosoup]

My teenage daughter regularly comes out and uses my apos with me - this is a three part question: she’s asked for a Dobsonian for Xmas. Which, as she masterfully points out, would also be used by me 😂

1) Are the StarSense Celestron’s worth the price extra price over the classic Skywatchers?? Id imagine the advantage of her using her iPhone on it might be?? Plus they are a bit shorter and she’s only 5foot 3

2) 8 or 10 inches?? The 10 inch Celestron is probably not too tall for her but costs a lot - equally I’d get to use it so don’t mind the extra cost if it’s not too big.

3) Eyepieces - mine are all  1.25 inch Delos 4.5 to 17.3. I’m guessing a couple of midrange 2

inch eyepieces for her?? But am not sure where price vs performance meets nicely?

Many thanks

Niall

[Second Time Around]

I've always strongly recommended the Starsense Explorer technology.  It makes finding objects so easy, especially in urban areas where few stars are visible.

As the focal lengths of the 8 and 10 inch are the same the eyepiece height is likely to be very similar.

[Ricochet]

56 minutes ago, Neutrinosoup said:

1) Are the StarSense Celestron’s worth the price extra price over the classic Skywatchers?? Id imagine the advantage of her using her iPhone on it might be?? Plus they are a bit shorter and she’s only 5foot 3

The reports on the tech are good enough that I have considered buying a cheap Starsense Explorer and modifying the cradle to fit my dob. The cheapest frac is currently £169 and the difference between the two dob lines is about £200 so I guess it's in the right ballpark for the cost of the tech, and it is only the tech your are paying extra for as these are essentially the same scopes built in the same factory on the same production line. I'm not sure there can be any real height difference between the two either so I would put any listed size differences down to being measured by different people on different days with different tape measures. If you prefer to pay extra for mechanical quality then I think the Bresser is probably the best, then the Stellalyra and then the Celestron/Skywatcher.

1 hour ago, Neutrinosoup said:

2) 8 or 10 inches?? The 10 inch Celestron is probably not too tall for her but costs a lot - equally I’d get to use it so don’t mind the extra cost if it’s not too big.

Height wise they are going to be very similar if not identical. The real difference is the weight. I'm often glad that I didn't go bigger than my 8" when I have to pick it up at the end of the session and so I would lean towards the 8" for your daughter.

1 hour ago, Neutrinosoup said:

3) Eyepieces - mine are all  1.25 inch Delos 4.5 to 17.3. I’m guessing a couple of midrange 2

inch eyepieces for her?? But am not sure where price vs performance meets nicely?

I use 7/10/14mm XWs with my 8" so your Delos eyepieces can definitely be used there. At longer focal lengths I've got a 21E and 28mm Nirvana. Cheaper options would be the 20mm APM XWA (or clones of) and the 30mm UFF. The real field of view provided by those two is going to be pretty similar so based on the resultant exit pupils maybe go with the 30mm UFF with the 8" and the 20mm APM if you choose the 10".

[fwm891]

Your eyepieces should be fine. The 10 inch will obviously allow you to 'see' fainter DSO's but it really depends on what your daughter (& you) want to observe and whether the extra physical weight and dimensions of the 10 inch will be a burden once the initial Christmas effect wears off...

[Neutrinosoup]

54 minutes ago, fwm891 said:

Your eyepieces should be fine. The 10 inch will obviously allow you to 'see' fainter DSO's but it really depends on what your daughter (& you) want to observe and whether the extra physical weight and dimensions of the 10 inch will be a burden once the initial Christmas effect wears off...

Plus we live in D&Galloway - fairly dark skies at home, but a short drive to dark sky sites —> 8 inch dob might be best?

[Mandy D]

For storage and transportation in a car, there really is no difference between an 8" and 10" Dobsonian mounted Newt. Based on my own measurements of the Skywatcher range, the base is 520 mm diameter for all the scopes from 6" to 10". They all take up the same floor space if the tube (OTA) is stored on the base and pointed upwards. The difference is the weight, with the 8" OTA at 8.5 kg and the 10" at 12.7 kg. If you can fit the 8" in your car, you will be able to fit the 10" in. IIRC, the base weighs around 13.5 kg, so you will have to manage that weight whichever option you go for. Given that the two of you will be observing together, it makes the lugging that much easier. I can comfortably manage my 8" fully assembled on my own over shorter distances. The 10", assembled, is more of a struggle.  My partner is 5'3" and has to bend over to reach the eyepiece even when the OTA is pointed at the zenith.  I would also add that the views through the 10" are noticeably brighter and it supports higher magnifications more comfortably. Generally, they are both 1200 mm focal length.

[Second Time Around]

On 03/12/2023 at 11:39, Ricochet said:

If you prefer to pay extra for mechanical quality then I think the Bresser is probably the best, then the Stellalyra and then the Celestron/Skywatcher.

I agree with this.  In particular the Bresser has a better mounting.  You can upgrade everything in the future, but it's expensive to upgrade the mounting.

Because of the half moon-shaped altitude axis I found I could carry a 10 inch Bresser tube as easily as an 8 inch from Skywatcher/Celestron or GSO/Ursa Major. 

The bases were more similar.  I chose an OOUK model though that has an aluminium tube and base so is much lighter.  In particular, the footprint of the base is much smaller, making it easier to carry.  They're very expensive new but depreciate quickly so are good value second-hand.  A used 8 inch is very much easier to find than a used 10 inch - I had to wait a year for my 10 inch.

Had I not bought the used OOUK I'd have bought a Bresser.

As Richochet suggested I also bought the cheapest Starsense Explorer model, the 70mm f/10, and did a simple mod to fit the bracket into a finder shoe to use on all my scopes.  

Edited December 4, 2023 by Second Time Around