Surely nudging a dob limits what you see?

[Moonshane]

well, I've made some steps towards a tracking dob - see from post 10!

http://stargazerslounge.com/diy-astronomer/127311-equatorial-platform-dobsonian-telescopes.html

[leenewtoastro]

reply'd in your thread MS:icon_salut:

[pvaz]

I don't find nudging a problem but I have used tracking scopes a couple of times and they are indeed more comfortable at high mags.

If a dob is what you want, as they are the cheapest option for a good all rounder, then don't be put of by nudging. If you plan to see planets most of the time and don't mind going for a smaller aperture to make budget for a driven mount then go for it. In the end this kind of decisions always come back to our individual expectations, so you should chose the one you feel will be more suited for you.

[acey]

Just to be a pedant, a Dobsonian mount is not just any undriven alt-azimuth mount but a type first built by John Dobson. They are generally sturdy & made of low-cost materials such as wood with plastics such as teflon and formica-substitutes for the bearings.

There's no "official" definition of what a dobsonian is - the word is indeed used to refer to the alt-az Newtonian mount pioneered by John Dobson in the 1960s, at a time when equatorials were the norm among serious amateurs, but whether or not you use teflon or formica isn't going to make a difference to whether or not it's a dob.

As Allan Chapman explains in his book "The Victorian Amateur Astronomer", simple alt-azimuth mounts were the norm for large aperture Newtonians in the 19th century (and even many small ones), and if you were to make a scope like that today then anybody would call it a dob. (Herschel's scopes were made of wood: both mount and tube.)

Dobson also helped found the "Sidewalk Astronomers" in San Francisco; but again, this was nothing new. According to Chapman, in many Victorian cities enterprising astronomers would set up telescopes on street corners offering views of the moon and planets for a "penny a peep" - or for free, in the interests of public education.

There's nothing new (or not much) under the sun - especially when it comes to astronomy.

[Talitha]

So the answer is, You probably will get too see objects for longer with tracking but the quality of the image should be the same.

Exactly.

[Astro_Baby]

Actually Lord Rosse's Leviathan scope was a driven mount. It had workmen pulling on ropes to 'track'. So technically it wasn't a nudge and go.

I prefer tracking ona mount because my experience of nudging scopes, even with slo mo cables on an eq is that between messing with the focus, nudging and waiting for vibrations to settle introduced by the nudging and focusing means the viewing is awful. When you add in typical poor viewing in the uk it all adds up to a poor view of anything. At high mags planets whizz past the eyepiece view meaning for me I dont get to see a lot in between all the messing about. Tracking takes all the stress out and keeps the view steady and tracking allowing decent magnification and only the atmosphere to worry about.

There does seem to be a phobia about using techno gear like electric motors from some astronomers, honestly they are perfectly safe and I would like to assure you they are not an invention of Satan

[todd8137]

well my 12" dob gives me great views of jupiter and its moons on a good nights 4/5 bands and the spot can be seen, dif filters bring dif things out for me a love to nudge the scope and star hopping is easy goto`s are ok, but part of the night for me is the challenge of looking for things button pressing would take the fun away for me .the dob forced me to learn the constellation,i fear a goto would have done opposite but a think its what you wanna do with the scope that will decide the scope

[kniclander]

There does seem to be a phobia about using techno gear like electric motors from some astronomers, honestly they are perfectly safe and I would like to assure you they are not an invention of Satan

and you know this how?

have to say, having always been a dob man, I'm toying with the idea of an eq mount for my mak as all i ever look at from Lp'd london is moon and planets and I'd quite like to learn how an eq mount works - how do people get on with slowmo controls? do they induce vibration or is it really smooth? (I'm not phobic about elcetronics I'm just very anti-faff)