WHAT UPGRADE PLEASE HELP PLEASE

[Kennymid1]

hi i am new to this site and also fairly new to astronomy about 1 year in,

I have two scopes, a 8 inch lightbridge dobsonian and a etx 125 ec both are very good amature scopes but i am thinking of selling them and upgrading to something big i realise this is probably a bit premature but i thought i just aswell do it now rather than later.

I live in a fairly good dark spot and i am interested in all aspects of the night sky and im also a bit of a sucker for gizmos i have been looking at the meade lx 200 either 8 or 10 " but recently went too a star party where there was a 12 inch meade and a 11 inch celestron nexstar i looked through both and was well impressed with both, howether the celestron as you probably know is no where near the price of the lx200 i enjoy the lightgrasp from my dob and with the 2 inch lenses it really easy on the eye howether i am not really anygood at star hopping yet and this is where the goto etx comes into its own so heres the deal im looking for something with good viewing capabilities and goto, my budget is around 1200 mark and im more than happy to buy second hand any help would be really apprecieated cheers

[Chris H]

Orion USA now do 12" and 14" dobsonian's with Push To object locator. I have the Orion XT10i with Push To and I really like it. If I want to observe without the help of the computerised object locator (COL) I can and more often that not do so, but if I can't find something the COL is there to help me. A 12" or 14" scope would be a huge leap up from an 8"and would keep you happy forever.

The 12" is £1200 and the 14" is £1699 from scsastro.

[Kennymid1]

cheers chris ill look into that

[LukeSkywatcher]

hi i am new to this site and also fairly new to astronomy about 1 year in,

I have two scopes, a 8 inch lightbridge dobsonian and a etx 125 ec both are very good amature scopes but i am thinking of selling them and upgrading to something big i realise this is probably a bit premature but i thought i just aswell do it now rather than later.

I live in a fairly good dark spot and i am interested in all aspects of the night sky and im also a bit of a sucker for gizmos i have been looking at the meade lx 200 either 8 or 10 " but recently went too a star party where there was a 12 inch meade and a 11 inch celestron nexstar i looked through both and was well impressed with both, howether the celestron as you probably know is no where near the price of the lx200 i enjoy the lightgrasp from my dob and with the 2 inch lenses it really easy on the eye howether i am not really anygood at star hopping yet and this is where the goto etx comes into its own so heres the deal im looking for something with good viewing capabilities and goto, my budget is around 1200 mark and im more than happy to buy second hand any help would be really apprecieated cheers

Can you say apeture fever !!!!!!!!

What you need to do is sell both your scopes and buy a 12-14" Dob.

12-14" surely WILL keep you happy for yrs to come.

Its pretty much the size we all aspire to. Go for it and dont waste time suffering from apeture fever.

Fair play to you.....grab the bull by the horns.

[vlebo]

This may be worth hanging around a bit for

Orion XTg GoTo Dobsonians - SCS Astro

USA site

Orion SkyQuest XT12g GoTo Dobsonian Telescope | Orion Telescopes & Binoculars

It has full goto capabilities so looks a winner.

May sell my gear and get myself one .

[ollypenrice]

The downside of the SCT is its long focal length which 'boxes in' your view, making many fine wider targets unobservable. Like the others I would suggest you take a good big step from your 8 inch, not a small one. If you find navigation tricky (because it is!) then I think a computer assisted Dob is a great idea. Fourteen inches - go on!!

Olly