[mura_gadi (Steve)]

Hello,

I'd be looking at your weight as the guiding limit, depending on that you can sort out your size to budget.

There is a huge difference between an ultra light 16" and an SW 16" in regards to weight, an UL 16" will weigh less than the OTA of the SW 16".

Just about all of the light weight dob's will have someone recommending after market changes though. Same for the SW if you want to pimp your scope...

The 16" was my cut off for size, mainly as I read that at some stage you get no real visible gain in aperture in light polluted areas past 16". Not having a permanent dark site or frequent access to one it made sense to look at 16" or less. (That also means that I can dismiss aperture fever in my backyard viewing, which was very appealing)

I saw a Hubble 16" at $2400 in Melbourne a few months ago, but couldn't get to it. So, ultra lights do come up but very rarely.

I'd look at the weight first, you want the biggest scope possible your going to look at and say "yeah I want to move that". The easier that is to say the more you'll use the Dob anyway...



Steve
Ps. There are after market kits for SW/Light bridges etc that look pretty schmick and cut a lot of weight out from the original designs. _ don't have the 16" yet, but that was my thinking on the Dob I want.

The point of a Dob is to be a light bucket, so, get the biggest light bucket you can move and use easily.