Thread: Total Newbie
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Old 09-04-2005, 11:01 AM
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Starkler (Geoff)
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Quote:
Originally posted by Bazooka

Seems most of you recommend the Dobsonian. I did not see any in the shop I visited (Star Optics). I was shown Sky Watcher and Meade scopes. How do these stack up? The Sky Watcher scopes looked similar to the one Frogman posted and around the same price.
The skywatcher dobs are more expensive and optically inferior to the Guan Sheng dobs as sold by Bintel, Andrews and a few others.
The reason Dobsonians are recommended are that they simple and intuitive to use, have a stable solid mount and provide the best bang for the buck. Aperture does count.

Good solid EQ mounts are very expensive! Any scope in your price range on an eq mount will be shaky at high magnifications and just be a source of frustration. Photography ? forget it!
Why pay for a wobbly eq mount on an aluminium tripod when with a dob the money goes into the important part - the optics

This is your first scope so I would recommend forgetting about astrophotography for the time being and get some visual observing experience under your belt first.
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