undecided on which one

[jimhaleysscomet]

A dob is simpler than any other design so there is less to get harmed. Keep it covered when not in use and you should be fine.

[Nick R]

Dob it is then , just got to decide how big , Just done a bit of rearrangeing so it will now live in my shed , ramped to the door so no lifting over anything

[wulfrunian]

I have the 10" solid tube from Skywatcher. If I'd gone for the 12" then I might've gone for flextube because of portability, though it would have been quite a bit heavier. But the 10" is only about four feet long, not a problem to carry around through doors etc at all, and will hopefully easily fit in the car as well, though I haven't tried that out yet!

[Nick R]

there the 2 iam looking at 10 or 12 decisions decisions ??

[wulfrunian]

Well, when I had to decide, it was going to be 10" solid or 12" flextube. Solid in the 10" because of the advantages of not having to get a shroud and the fact that it would be portable anyway. Flextube in the 12" because the 12" solid is a pretty big beast to cart around.

That made the price difference quite a lot, around £400 for the 10" and £700+ for the 12". I took lots of advice, including on here, and a long chat with Steve at FLO, about whether the difference in aperture was worth it. Came to the conclusion that it wasn't, as the difference in appearance of DSO's would be quite subtle, and from my light polluted skies, probably not very noticeable at all. On the other hand, if you can regularly observe from a dark sky site, then you might think about what that extra £300 would give you. But I think you'll get a great scope whichever you go for

[JamesC]

I have to pitch in here. I have the 12" flextube and it's a fantastic telescope, but I have to warn it is also a very big and heavy telescope. I got a bit of a shock when it first arrived as I had only seen a 10" before and then only briefly! I am currently nursing a sore back, which I think is to do with struggling to lift the telescope in it's cardboard box (which I keep it in to prevent the spiders in my garage taking up residence in the tube). Lots of good advice above. I usually use a shroud with my scope, partly to prevent dew on the secondary and partly because I'm scared of accidentally dropping something in the 'bin'. The shroud adds to set up time and the more open tube probably isn't as good for dust control. Of course the flextube design allows me to cram a 12" scope in my 9 year old Fiesta and observe from Dartmoor - not bad at all!

[Nick R]

Kids stayed with there grandparents for a few days and saw one of these in a shop

Celestron C8-NGT - Newtonian Reflector Goto Telescope

Any thoughts ? have never had a newton

[John]

It is the same optical design as the dobsonians you have been looking at - actually a dobsonian is just a newtonian optical tube on a simple mount which was invented by a guy called John Dobson - hence "dobsonian".

Obviously the C8-NGT is on a GOTO equatorial mount. Recently you could buy the same scope on a non-GOTO version of the same mount for around £260 - so you are paying around £500 for the GOTO facility which seems a lot to me but then I'm not bothered about having GOTO.

John

PS: Telescope Planet don't have a great reputation - have a look around SGL for some reports on their service ....

[Nick R]

cheers John . Goto is more for the children , hopefully it keeps them more intrested . Have heard/read all about T P

should of actually said a newton of this size , have had smaller ones yrs ago

[lulu57]

Just buy them both and to hell with the expense!!!

You could always not eat for a month.