Which Dob? 10" vs 8"?

[twotter]

My budget is around £400 or thereabouts. I find myself drawn to the simplicity of a Dobsonian and am particularly interested in the Skyliner range.

One option is to spend the whole budget on a 10" or the other option is to go for an 8" and also buy a set of Celestron eye pieces.

Appreciate the thoughts of the SGL collective

[Talyn]

Do you already have some eyepieces or can borrow any? If so, then I'd say go for the 10". If not, then go for the - presumably cheaper - 8" and get the Celestron eps. A 10" does have more light gathering power than the 8" but it's not that noticeable and an 8" will be more portable.

[dark knight]

10" defo, it comes with 2 eye pieces I think, then save up an get a decent Barlow, these should keep you going for a while. Aperture rules imho, so much so were getting a 12" dob in addition to our 8" Newtonian. The light gathering of the 10" will make a difference when it comes to the dimmer targets, again just my opinion. whatever your decision, have fun....

[seiko]

Yes totally agree with the above on the assumption you can handle the extra size, get the 10" now. If you don't you'll only end up wondering what you might be missing. I went down a similar path and opted for a ETX90 over the ETX125. It wasn't that long before aperture fever kicked in and I upgraded. Note too, eyepieces can/will be collected over time anyway as you decide what focal lengths suit the objects you most like to view.

Just my two pennies of course

[RobH]

10 inch for sure....it won't be too big and the extra aperture will be a considerable help.

If you look at the light gathering area, there is a big increase for a small increase in diameter.

8 inch. 31416 square mm

10 inch. 49087

12 inch. 70686

For a visual scope looking at faint DSO's, you need as much light gathering power as you can get.

Cheers

Rob

[Phil Fargaze]

When I upgraded from an 8" dob to a 10" dob I was impressed with the extra light gathering power and it really gave a boost to my observing, so I guess, go for the 10". Every now and again I wonder what a 12" would be like...........

[The Warthog]

I believe these scopes come with a couple of decent eps. So you could buy the 10", and save up for some more eps a little later. The 10" has 56% more light grasp, so if you can handle the weight, and transportation ans storage, go for the big one.

[albedo0.39]

Every now and again I wonder what a 12" would be like...........

Aperture Fever Alert ! - I have a 16" and keep wondering what an 18" or 20" would be like... terrible hobby this eh ?

[dark knight]

hahahaha lol Steve....Were now struggling to sort out the collimation of Steph's new 12" Lightbridge

[Beulah]

Argh, is there any cheap cure for aperture fever? I have it bad at the moment......

[johninderby]

The 10" does come with some fairly decent and useable EPs. The 8" comes with much cheaper EPs.

As far as portability goes the 10" isn't that much bigger or harder to move around than the 8". However the 12" is a LOT bigger and heavier than the 10".

I think the 10" is a good compromise between aperture and portability.

John

[michigander]

From personal experience I could pick up my 8" and move it around, whereas I had to take the 10" apart and move the base and tube separately.

Dana

[twotter]

Thanks for all the advice

Family Twotter popped into Pulsar/SnS over at Witchford this morning and had a good chat with a very helpful chap called Ralph. He talked us through the various options but in the end his advice was also to go for the 10" Dob and add EPs as I need them.

In time I'm sure I'd like to have a bash at astrophotography but as and when I want to do that then my plan is to look at another scope on some sort of EQ mount.

Anyway whilst I did the Dad thing Mrs Twotter went and dicussed financial issues so I'm hopefully looking forward to a very big present on 10th Sept

Thanks again!

[Doc]

Fingers crossed for you.

[twotter]

I ended up being very pleasantly surprised with an 8" Skyliner , and a tank driving activity day which is something I've always wanted to have a go at :D

With the nights being so cloudy lately I've only managed three observing sessions but each one has been great. I've had some great views of Jupiter in particular and have already bought a couple of extras, a 2x barlow and a red dot finder (the finderscope was causing me some back pain).

Next things on the list include a collimator thingy, moonfilter(s) and a few choice EP's