View Single Post
  #25  
Old 20-10-2024, 01:17 PM
gaseous's Avatar
gaseous (Patrick)
Registered User

gaseous is offline
 
Join Date: May 2016
Location: Brisbane
Posts: 834
I've had my 20" Stargate GOTO for about 6 years now, and the views from it have been spectacular. I generally only use it after a decent drive to a dark site - there's a fair bit of faffing about to set it up if you're moving all the bits, and under Bortle 5 skies at home it's not really worth it in my opinion. They do take up a fair bit of space when dismantled, but another guy I know can fit his into the back of a medium sized hatchback, fully disassembled. I try to keep mine semi-assembled (poles at full length, mirror on the base) in the back of a trailer, and have detachable wheelbarrow handles with wheels bolted to the sides so it can be easily rolled off the back of the trailer. Lugging the base and mirror assembly separately gets a bit tiresome even for someone with a strong back, and being able to wheel it into place saves both time and vertebral wear and tear.



As Adrian mentioned, the eyepiece height at zenith is around 2m at least, and at 183cm high, I certainly need a small aluminium two-step ladder to see through it, although the finding/tracking for objects in the "dob hole" is a bit hit and miss, so I normally avoid anything this high. Even above 70° you'll often need at least the bottom step of a small stepladder, depending on how tall you are. I'm sure you'll be "wowed" by the views you get though, it's a great scope.
Reply With Quote