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Greg,
I’ve had my Skywatcher 12” Goto dob for 3 years now and it’s located down at my retirement getaway on the South Coast
It’s stored in the garage and I use a parcel trolley with a piece of packing foam and adjustable belt to transport it out to my car bay area next to the driveway ( about 12m away ) Very easy to move around on the parcel trolley (I’m 61 years old, light framed 70kgs with a history of lower back issues since I was in my late 20’s , regular Chiro and morning exercises keeps my lower back in check )
As far as Goto accuracy , its accuracy is dependent upon your initial set up and sky conditions but in most cases the object ends up in the FOV of most eye pieces, sometimes very close to centre.It has encoders so it remembers its position in the sky.
I added Dew control ( heater bands ) to the stalk of the secondary plus finder-scope and eye pieces if needed , but rarely have to use it
Collimation is really easy , I collimate every time I move it , only takes a few minutes
I use my full compliment of Televue eye pieces which covers DSO and Planetary observing plus Paracorr, Powermates , Lunar filters , planetary filters , UHC filters etc..,
Prior to the 12” Goto I used a 10” GSO dob ( manual nudge ) for about a year until I got sick of finding objects by star hopping around.
On some occasions I have my Nexdome in the backyard up and running , imaging, whilst I’m out the front Observing with the 12” Goto dob
The 12” has enough aperture and focal length ( 1500mm ) under my Bortle 3 skies to experience fantastic views , the 14” would have been too big for me to handle.
Thumbs up for the Skywatcher 12” Goto Dob
Cheers
Martin
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