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Old 13-03-2018, 08:58 AM
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gaseous (Patrick)
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Join Date: May 2016
Location: Brisbane
Posts: 782
1/ Could I manage the 12” myself on a flat bed trolley or parcel trolley with rubber tyres due to the additional weight ? Not knowing your physical prowess, only you can answer this, but I would imagine that a decent trolley with rubber tyres would be able to take a moderate increase in weight without too many issues. I have a 16" dob which I sometimes put on a very ordinary flat base with castors and a handle from Bunnings, and it's fine. The slope of your driveway may be an issue for handling though. 5°-10° is a decent slope.

2/ Does the 12” have a clear advantage over the 10” in regard to observing power on small DSO objects, planetary and detailed lunar terrain

Again this is probably a subjective point, but theoretically the 12" will have 113 square inches of aperture compared to about 78 square inches for the 10". Some people may notice a large difference, others not so much. It should make SOME difference, though your own eyes and seeing conditions may place limits on this. You would hope to gain something on the brightness of DSOs, but unless your focal length increases to give you more magnification I wouldn't think the lunar views would improve much - they're probably blindingly bright already. I stand corrected if others have a contrary opinion on this.

3/ Being a collapsible dob is there an issue with stray light ( street light 20 metres away ) crossing the open pathway of the optical tube ? ( I’m not in a totally dark site ) A light shroud will alleviate this - you can get one for under $50. If you've got a nearby street light I'd invest in a shroud.

4/ How do you level such a beast for good az alt alignment ( my driveway has a 5 to 10 degree slope ? That's a nasty slope. I put some adjustable furniture legs from bunnings under my 8" dob to get it more or less level with a spirit level - not sure what you can do on such a pronounced slope. I've heard that the syncan will take into account your "uneven" ground providing your location/time is entered accurately and your star alignment is correct, but a level surface would be best and you'd probably want to run this by the telescope vendor.

5/ Does the 12” goto use the same 12 volt 5 amp power supply as say a HEQ5 mount ? Can't answer this one, sorry. A low-end jump starter from supercheap auto will run a scope for several hours.
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