yes to planets being very nice, check out iceman's planet images, they are brilliant, you won't be able to do this straight out of the box, but with some barlows for magnifying and some sort of tracking when you want to produce exactly what iceman has, you can do it too. Yes the views of planets are great!
Barlows and tracking are not necessary t have a go however, i have included a link to my jupiter pic without tracking and without a barlow, using a webcam which is equivalent to say a 5mm eyepiece. http://www.precons.com/iis/gallery/I...ter-wavele.jpg
and my orion nebula pic without tracking, using the 40mm eyepiece, without a barlow
deluxe version is a must i believe, crayford focusser is much much better, not sure on the bk7 mirror as i do not have anything to compare with, not sure if a fan is coming with the 10".
I was in the same dilemna in june this year, bintel or andrews. I could understand the extra for bintel due to them collimating (aligning the mirror) and making sure things were spot on, BUT freight to Tassie was $200 for bintel, Andrews $75. I therefore went Andrews. In your case, go and visit both as there is no freight and my guess is that bintels will win you over. Bintel are experts, Andrews aren't. Both are great guys, but as one member recently found out that if there is problem with a scope (it is not very common mind you), that a bit of pre delivery care and inspection is worth the extra money from bintel.
The free bits are much the same. I got 4 free series 500 eyepieces (40mm, 25mm, 12.5mm, 6.5mm) from andrews, moon filter and binoculars. I believe bintel offer a eyepiece case which i have seen and like very much.
The series 500 eyepieces work and provide a decent enough view. They are not crap, but they are the bottom of the food chain. I would strongly recommend spending a little extra from bintel (if you go that way) and get two maybe three eyepiece only.
Say 30mm and 10mm, (others may vary this), but down the track you can buy a barlow that will magnify these eyepieces. ie if you get a 2x barlow, the 30mm becomes a 15mm, the 10mm becomes a 5mm. The 10mm will give very nice
views of the planets.
For my eyepieces, i hardly use the 6.5mm, the 12.5mm is great on jupiter, and the 25mm and 40mm are great for the nebulas and clusters.
If i had my time again, i would forgo the 4 free series eyepieces and spend a little extra on say two good eyepieces and a barlow.
Food for thought. Great guys here for info and are they are only too eager to help u!
Last edited by davidpretorius; 10-09-2005 at 09:06 AM.
Thanks for the warm welcome everyone, and especially thanks for the advice. It helps to feel that someone is holding your hand when spending this sort of money.
I went to Andrews today and had a chat. I have to convice the wife that Christmas has come early, after I check out Bintel.
Love the Captain jokes, I get it on every forum, but for the record I am not a trekkie.
don't worry about the wife, i just told her i was getting it and that was that.....ooops gotta go, she has just walked in......."what was that dear, clean the kitchen????... yes dear ..... i know dear ...... only 452 hours of housework to pay for the telescope, i know, i know!!!"
I've just signed up, and I have little to no knowledge of Astronomy. I am considering buying a dobsonian, probably in December, and I would greatly appreciate it if you could all send some information my way. Assume I know nothing
Hope to be hanging around, at least until i'm a novice astronomer
I'll say this now, so hopefully you can all steer me in the right direction.
I'm thinking of getting a dobsonian, but I want something that I won't need to replace anytime soon. By that I mean that it should satisfy my needs when I become a bit more of a pro. MUCH later as well, I think I will get into astrophotography, so that would be another thing to consider. I believe an equatorial mount is the way to go?
I've been looking at the GSO and Bintel 12" dobs, and just seeking more opinions and guidance. I won't be purchasing anything for several months, so this should give me adequate time to prepare myself for such a purchase. Also if you could enlighten me on good accessories such as eyepieces and barlow lenses, that would be tip-top
Also, I wouldn't mind being able to view both DSO's and planets, but DSO seems the way to go, if that has any bearing on choices of telescopes.
Definately the Dob is the best bang for you buck. If you want to do astrophotography you can do it with a dob, but its not the optimal setup, even with an equatorial platform. If you find yourself loving this hobby, which you probably will , then when you do decide to go for photography, then get a dedicated setup. You can get going with an excellent quality GSO Dob (GS 580, 680, 880) relatively inexpensively and save up the thou$and$ needed for astrophotography
12" reflector - can't go wrong for either dso's or planets.
now the mount!!!
where you save money is by buying a dob mount. whereas allow $1200 plus for a solid eq6 (equatorial mount). not sure if this will get you a motorized mount though. You can buy motorized platforms as well, which give you about an hour of tracking but no more!
i have a 10" dob from andrews with the bk7 & crayford focusser. i am in the process of motorizing it and hope to do it for around $500 ish.
if i did not enjoy the journey of motorizing as much as i am, i would be saving for a eq6 mount!.
the dob is great for viewing all the dso's and planets.
eyepieces: try and go for good one, you can buy series 500 for around $29, but i would budget at least around $50. Also allow for a super wide or ultrawide. I have the 80 degree 32mm ultrawide from andrews and it is great! The nice wide views are lovely and it great for hunting dso's.
allow at least $150 for a good barlow for planet viewing.
the barlow will magnify the eyepiece you are looking thru.
Don't go overboard with heaps of eyepieces, as a 2xbarlow will turn a 20mm into a 10mm, a 30mm into a 15mm, therefore negating the need to buy a 10mm or 15mm
You might get away with that for visual work, confined, but for photography its very unlikely it will be stable enough. If you want to do photography then the safest bet is to work with only 40 - 60% of mount capacity. But with such long tubes you have the additional problem of "lever arm movement" a type of mount flexure that is caused by the leverage action a long scope has on the Dec juntion of the mount head
This link might give you an idea of what you're looking for. http://members.iinet.net.au/~rog1/as...hy_mounts.html and Roger is only trying to mount two small refractors. From only my brief experience with astrophotography I would suggest to start with small scopes. Either Telephoto lenses on a camera or a short tube refractor. The longer your focal length the more demanding it is on your mount and the harder it is to get a successful image, especially with a mediocre mount. You can do a lot with a smaller good quality mount using shorter focal length scopes
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Captain. 
and 
, then when you do decide to go for photography, then get a dedicated setup. You can get going with an excellent quality GSO Dob (GS 580, 680, 880) relatively inexpensively and save up the thou$and$ needed for astrophotography
