Mr. Subatomic
09-01-2007, 07:06 PM
Howdy ho to all those curious enough to look up at night,:hi:
I have been interested in astronomy since I could remember and last year was given my very firsttelescope. I use 'given' literally as this telescope was a freebie. My uncle who had gotton it for christmas never layed a finger on it and it was sitting out in the cold, rotting away on the verandah. That's where I came in and gave it a home. The only problem, it was one of those cheap department/electronic store telescopes. Either way, it was something that gave me my first practical stepping stone into astronomy, and I am now ready to purchase a new telescope.
After tireless research (hours on the internet and dozens of pages of reviews) I have narrowed my choice down to two telescopes: The Skywatcher 8" Dobsonian and the 8" Dobsonian made by Guan Sheng Optical. So far,there is an 80% chance that I will purchase the GSO model because of its added features, i.e. a cooling fan, alluminium tube, crayford focusser and teflon base (tell me more features if you no of any). The SkyWatcher has a larger finderscope and is about $$50 cheaper, but it doesn't have a cooling fan OR crayford focusser. Because of this, I am pretty set on buying the GSO 8" Dobsonian.
What I have come here for is to seek experienced advise from amateur astronomers passionate about the hobby - such as yourselves - on whether I should stick with the GSO model. I would buy the GSO from Andrew's communications for $499, or if worse comes to worse, spend $50 more for the identical Bintel branded telescope from the shop in Sydney. However when it ocmes down to it, the aesthetics of the Bintel 8" Dobsonian don't really appeal to me (not a very nice grey-silver and a big BINTEL sticker, the colours soooooooo clash! Oh and one mor thing: I have read the whole forum about the GSO dob which lead into a heated discussion about the service of Bintel vs. Andrew's, helped me out a bit.
If in the now unlikely circumstance I choose to buy the SkyWatcher, I would make the purchase from the online My AstroShop Store for $425, not including about $20 delivery.
So if anyone has any ideas, reviews, comments or reccomendations to make about the two telescopes and which one I should choose, be my guest.
I would greatly appreciate it, and you would be helping out a teenage boy (me) undertake a big step in achieving one of his dreams to be a professional astronomer or highly experienced amateur.
I thank you greatly again,:bowdown:
Happy Star Hunting,:camera:
Mt. Subatomic. :anaut:
I have been interested in astronomy since I could remember and last year was given my very firsttelescope. I use 'given' literally as this telescope was a freebie. My uncle who had gotton it for christmas never layed a finger on it and it was sitting out in the cold, rotting away on the verandah. That's where I came in and gave it a home. The only problem, it was one of those cheap department/electronic store telescopes. Either way, it was something that gave me my first practical stepping stone into astronomy, and I am now ready to purchase a new telescope.
After tireless research (hours on the internet and dozens of pages of reviews) I have narrowed my choice down to two telescopes: The Skywatcher 8" Dobsonian and the 8" Dobsonian made by Guan Sheng Optical. So far,there is an 80% chance that I will purchase the GSO model because of its added features, i.e. a cooling fan, alluminium tube, crayford focusser and teflon base (tell me more features if you no of any). The SkyWatcher has a larger finderscope and is about $$50 cheaper, but it doesn't have a cooling fan OR crayford focusser. Because of this, I am pretty set on buying the GSO 8" Dobsonian.
What I have come here for is to seek experienced advise from amateur astronomers passionate about the hobby - such as yourselves - on whether I should stick with the GSO model. I would buy the GSO from Andrew's communications for $499, or if worse comes to worse, spend $50 more for the identical Bintel branded telescope from the shop in Sydney. However when it ocmes down to it, the aesthetics of the Bintel 8" Dobsonian don't really appeal to me (not a very nice grey-silver and a big BINTEL sticker, the colours soooooooo clash! Oh and one mor thing: I have read the whole forum about the GSO dob which lead into a heated discussion about the service of Bintel vs. Andrew's, helped me out a bit.
If in the now unlikely circumstance I choose to buy the SkyWatcher, I would make the purchase from the online My AstroShop Store for $425, not including about $20 delivery.
So if anyone has any ideas, reviews, comments or reccomendations to make about the two telescopes and which one I should choose, be my guest.
I would greatly appreciate it, and you would be helping out a teenage boy (me) undertake a big step in achieving one of his dreams to be a professional astronomer or highly experienced amateur.
I thank you greatly again,:bowdown:
Happy Star Hunting,:camera:
Mt. Subatomic. :anaut: