Hello there
I am about an hour drive from the famous retail shop. It was really interesting and a joy to view so many scopes of different sizes and styles. My main interest was an eight inch Dob. Since my club canceled a few parties and or I could not attend this visit helped my decision. To me an eight inch Dob is kinda bulky. The six inch Dob looked more to my liking. I will lose a half a magnitude of reach with the six, but it is what I am comfortable with carrying. A two hour drive from home will put me under Bortle dark green skies. A three hours drive and I am under Bortle blue skies. The driving is a joy to me as West Virginia is very green and beautiful.
My six inch f8 refractor has a small chip on the edge of the lens. When looking through it I notice a very small diffraction at the edge. However, it does not distract from the view. At home I use a four inch aperture mask for the planets and Moon which blocks the tiny chip. Most of my observations are with my 20x80 binoculars and I use the refractor to get closer/larger image. It is strange but my 80mm binoculars are just as bright as the six inch refractor. I my get the six inch Dob because the refractor with the SkyTee 2 mount, and extension tube is a bit heavy/industrial. Really would be happy with a lite set up and break down for my darksite. However, I may upgrade to 20x100 binoculars and continue with the frac at my darksite. It is not like I have to left and set up the refractor everyday of the week. May get the Dob this week are the 20x100 binoculars a few months from now. Will let you know.
By the way this afternoon I pulled the trigger on a Celestron 80LCM goto. I will attach my ST80 to the mount which will make finding objects a lot easier. Will appreciate your help with the SkyAlign system. It should be here Friday.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRh4GI25RW4