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Old 24-12-2018, 12:19 PM
Kunama
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Kunama is offline
 
Join Date: Sep 2012
Posts: 3,588
Quote:
Originally Posted by glend View Post
Well what exactly are you wanting to pay for? If your looking for a good large aperture dobsonian there are many choices to 20" available commercially, built using more modern strut designs, easily transportable, and importantly - have realistic resale value. I would stick with a scope that is no more than 20", simply for ease of transport and resale market size - and eventually you will sell it. The problem i see with SDMs and Obsessions, and their ilk, is that the market is extremely small if you decide to sell. Whereas a large Skywatcher, or GSO, or other Dob, can usually be pretty easy to sell.
Sure the owners of these ultra expensive scopes will dabbled in about attention to detail, finish quality, and all sorts or things used to justify jacking up the price, but none of that has much to do with what sort of performance it turns in when your looking through it. Mirrors are easily upgraded if you want to spend more than the very good offerings through the mass market retailers. That's my 2 cents. I am sure my opinion will be ripped to shreds, as usual, but it's your money, don't be fooled by marketing spin.
I agree, there is a wealth of Chinese offerings that can give a lifetime of enjoyment for a very reasonable budget and if indeed you are not concerned about the last 10% to 15% of performance and some of the niceties that are featured on the top tier scopes then you can save a lot of money.

If however you don't want to gamble on the quality of the optics or the orthogonality of the structure and the scopes ability to hold collimation well, then you may be better off with a custom scope, whether new or secondhand.

I never stress about resale of a large scope, some people think of these things as financial investments where any losses must be minimised. For me, once the money is spent on a hobby I consider it gone and just enjoy what the scope can show me. Anything I get for it later is just a bonus...

Having looked through scopes ranging from 2" aperture to 32" aperture I have come to realise that 18" is the perfect size for me.....
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