Best DOB under $1500 in Australia?

[kana]

Hi guys!

New here and a few of my friends have suggested a quality DOB for my first telescope, and happy to spend $1300-$1500.

I was looking at the skycatcher 12" DOB, any other suggestions?

Many thanks in advance :)

[barx1963]

Kana
Welcome to IIS!! I assume you mean Skywatcher? A couple of points. Fistly are you wanting a goto or a non goto scope? Obviously there are goto ones in your price range but they will be small aperture. Gotos usually work well but obviously there are electronics and motors that can go wrong and you still need a basic knowledge of the sky to successfully align them. Secondly are you thinking solid tube or collapsible. Again solid tube will be cheaper and are easier and quicker to setup but take up more room and can be harder to transport (depending on your car). Thirdly, have you seen a 12" scope. Many beginners are surprised how big one of these is. As a rough guide think of a smaller hot water tank!

Having said all that, the Skywatcher dobs are generally well made with pretty good optics.

Good luck with your decision!

Malcolm

[Screwdriverone]

Hi Kana,

Welcome to Ice in Space :welcome:

Yes, you could get a non-goto 12" Skywatcher dob (no motors or tracking) for $1500, but if that is your budget, I would HIGHLY suggest the Orion 10" GOTO Intelliscope from Bintel here http://www.bintel.com.au/Telescopes/Dobsonian/Orion-SkyQuest-XT10G/1472/productview.aspx

It is $1499, and 10" to 12" inches difference isnt much, BUT the convenience and tracking of GOTO and sky tours and push a button to find an object cant be beaten.

I know, I spent $1500 on a manual Skywatcher collapsible dob that didnt have goto, and while the views were great, the drudgery of finding things in light polluted skies was a pain. I sold it and bought an eq mounted 8" tube and havent looked back (for visual and astrophotography)

That Orion 10" goto (solid tube) dob I linked is a STEAL for $1499 and will probably be a scope you will keep for many many years.

That's my learned opinion ;)

Cheers

Chris

[barx1963]

Chris does make a good point. Without knowing where you are located though it is hard to judge. I used a non goto 12" solid tube for years but a i have very mild light pollution so star hopping is relatively easy!!

Malcolm

[kana]

Awesome thanks guys. I was thinking the non goto setup, but from your experience the goto sounds like a better idea?

What kind of image difference is there between a 10" and 12" in our skies?

Thanks again!

[kana]

ps. I'm in Brisbane and will use it out West with no light pollution :)

[Screwdriverone]

The difference between the 10" and the 12" is bugger all. The 10" is smaller in size and easier to handle and optically the visual difference is not much at all.

I loved the 12" mirror on my dob, but for me, having a trackable 8" scope which stays on target, I can't honestly say there is much difference to my eye apart from a dimmer image and slightly less detail, BUT that is comparing an 8 to a 12!!

The difference between a 10 and a 12 will be not much at all and the convenience of the smaller tube and goto will make up for the difference in money and wow factor.

Chris

[kana]

You guys made an interesting point regarding moving it in your cars. Chris did you fit your 12" in a sedan with seats down?

[barx1963]

I had no issues moving my 12" solid tube an a small wagon (Holden Astra) but it would have been a struggle in a sedan. The tube would fit on the back seat but the base would have issues. One possibility to consider is that the Orion dobs I believe can be fully dismantled including the base!

Malcolm

[kana]

Cheers Malcolm

You guys see much difference in the quality between the SW and Orions?

If you both take photographs using your gear I'd love to see them!

[cfranks]

Sorry Chris, the difference is in the amount of light gathering and the surface area of the 12" mirror is 44% more than the 10". Can be important if you are chasing faint fuzzies.

Charles

[tones-]

you will probably find you would use an 8 or 10" dob a bit more than a 12"
a 12" dob is huge and pretty awkward to move around and store

if i was to start all over again the first scope id get would be an 8" dob because then you get the flexibility of having a dob thats easy to move around and that can also be easily EQ mounted

id even look at getting an EQ mounted 8", having tracking and goto in my view anyway can make up for an extra couple inches aperture

[kana]

Looks like I'll go with the 10", but after reading a lot more the DOBs aren't ideal for photography.

Anyone got any suggestions that they've used around $1500 that is a good setup for obervations and photography?

:thanx:

[Steffen]

You can do imaging with a Dob, and you can observe with an ED80. However, if you're serious about imaging and observing you need to get both.

Also, for serious imaging the telescope seems to play second (even third) fiddle, as far as the equipment goes.

Cheers
Steffen.

[AG Hybrid]

If you have a choice. Buy the 12". If you buy the 10" you will be forever wondering what you are missing. If you have back problems or a smart car get the 10". That being said. Visually the 10" does not give much away at the eyepiece. Its noticeable. But not dramatic.

[Steffen]

Unfortunately, this argument scales up in increments of two ;)

Cheers
Steffen.

[omegacrux]

Hi Kana
I have the 10in dob non goto and very happy with it !
On planets , nebs and globular's they are great
ps also have an ed80 , best of both worlds

David

[rustigsmed]

I'd recommend getting the goto 10" you'll get nice views of everything. You can take some pics (see my goto 12" shots https://www.flickr.com/photos/80336656@N07/ ) to whet the appetite then later down the track get an astrophotography setup like a neq6 and ed80. And keep the dob for visual stuff. Although a 12" would be better for that in the long run ;)

Best of luck, there isn't really a perfect medium so perhaps aim to get one now and one down the track :thumbsup:

[clive milne]

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=119483

[kana]

Thanks so much for the advice everyone - 10" goto dob it is :)

[astroboyz]

Kana,

I've been researching 2 months for my first telescope and learnt a lot from the forums. Like you, I was looking for something that can do both visual and imaging, but trust me, you'd find your budget growing larger to satisfy both worlds. So in the end, you need to decide what you really want to do and focus on that priority.

Many observers use Dobsonian since they are reasonably cheap, even with GOTO system, fairly easy to set up, but difficult for transport with large tube. The cheapest one under $1,500 is 8" & 10" Orion from Bintel, I did search oversea market, but the P&H + GST and warranty would make the price less competitive. The DOB would satisfy the observation, some experienced people said they could do some planetary imaging with this, but for Deep Space Object and long exposure the DOB may hit some limitation in tracking (please kindly correct me if I'm wrong :-) )

The accessories is the killer, you need more than what come with the scope, good eyepieces have different prices and types (Plossls, Panoptic, Nagler etc), but according to my research and advice from the forums, $40 - $70 per piece will get you a reasonable one (50 deg to maybe 66 deg); and you need a few of these, and maybe a barlow as well, so say another $200 - $300.

Filter !!! you need at least the moon filter, about $20 each, a light polution filter (maybe UHC), then again the price is ranging between $70 - few hundreds, I have my eyes set on the Baader 2" UHC-S, about $140, but I think Celestron or Skywatcher is about half price.

For astrophtography, you need T-ring for your DSLR camera (if you already have one), T-extension tube or adapter depending on your need .... so about $60 for both. ... I heard prime 'focus' is going to be an issue, I don't know how people overcome this without using the low-profile focuser for Newtonian tube .... the low profile focuser would set you back another $200 at least.
An alternative is to do eyepiece projection with barlow or low power eyepiece .... but I heard coma being an issue with the Newt tube, so you need coma corrector, and that is another $100 - $300

If you have not had a DSLR camera, CCD camera is also popular ammong astro-imagers, and that has a wide price range, but couple hundreds at least I would say !! .... then you may need different kind of filters for your CCD imaging, and guess what, they are not cheap !!!!

For a bit more serious in imaging, people advised to get a EQ mount, and that opens up a whole can of worms .... :-) Large tube for observing, put lots of demand on the EQ mount for imaging/tracking .... so you need to go for a strong mount .... HEQ5 Pro would handle 8" + accessories ok, for 10" you need NEQ6 Pro or similar.
HEQ5 Pro is about $1,200, NEQ6 Pro is around $1600 - $1,700 .... for the mount only. You need to pay extra for the tube and accessories as mentioned above.

From all the feedback from the forums, I'd say you may want consider the observing first !!! For imaging, please don't just take my words for it, search the forums !!!

Good luck !!!

[raymo]

I've never needed a moon filter, just look at the moon from about 6"[150mm] from the eyepiece, move in to the EP over 10secs or so, and the eye has already closed down enough to be comfortable. The Skywatcher Dobs with their slightly odd 2"/1.25" adaptor arrangement
have no problem with prime focus; you just need the appropriate T-ring.
raymo

[kana]

Right!

NEQ6 + SW F4 carbon fibre 10" locked and loaded - thanks so much for everyones help, bloody excited to see where this is going! After so much reading and a lot of peoples advice + field testing I hope this serves as a good example of getting good guidance on an astrophotography setup, even though I was way off track with the DOB request.

[Amaranthus]

Did you get a CCD too, or are you starting on the DSLR route?

[kana]

Canon 60Da with the T ring Barry?

[Amaranthus]

Sounds like a great one to kick off with. You can get Backyard EOS to control it too - one thing I miss with my NEX is the lack of control software.

[Satchmo]

Kana - You will want to grab at least GSO Coma Corrector too for visual observation . Coma is a linear aberration - it does not just occur at the edge of the view . It starts to bloat your star images away from the immediate centre and gets worse as you look nearer the edge . I don't know how good the GSO is but I have heard the specs that with a Paracor star images are on average 3 X tighter in an F4 with Paracor than an F5 without . Food for thought . Most of the time people report a really bad edge on an eyepice it is actually a strong mx of coma and much worse astigmatism due to the eyepiece design and the fast f ratio.

[opensea64]

I have a 10" Meade Lightbridge and its great. I think I wouldnt want anything larger , the view through a 10 is pretty nice. Was well under $1500.