[MichaelSW (Michael)]

Newtonian,

G'day.

It took me two reads of your post to see you probably had my 2 cents worth covered already.

I see you are planning a couple of Tracking Scopes and, "for the enthusiasts one big 12" Dob, 80 mm refractor". A Dob is valuable not just for the enthusiast.

I take my 12" Collapsable Skywatcher to star parties and being able to give someone a go at finding an object for themselves in the finder-scope, and then the eyepiece, can give just was much a "Wow" reaction as just showing them something wonderful.

As for precautions / level of trust:- Apart from a deliberate act of vandalism, can't really hurt my Dob. I use my 25mm plossl for Lunar and Baader Hyperion 13 for most of the rest. I am happy to remind each observer there is no need to handle the eyepiece.

And I always have the light shroud on so foreign objects can'y accidentally be dropped in from the side.

And as a bit of humour for any verbal presentation, I always tell them:-

1: This isn't the Hubble Space Telescope they are about to look through.
2: My name isn't Fred Watson, but I'll do my best to answer any questions they might have.

Cheers.

Hope it goes well for you.