[okiscopey (Mike)]

I’m considering in the near-future going a bit mad and purchasing something like a 24-inch SDM with my retirement money. It’ll be in a permanent set-up and will be my attempt to avoid getting aperture fever this late in life. (If my employer was more generous, what the hell, I’d go for the 32-inch!)

I’m not sure where my true interests lie yet (fairly new to practical stuff), but I’m keen on visual, plus having a set-up that can tackle most types of photographic work to a high standard. I think I’ll be keen on DSO imaging with narrow-band filters, but probably not serious planetary imaging.

I’m aware my own knowledge and experience would be the limiting factor for a long time, but I’d rather be limited by my grey matter than the equipment.

What I’m thinking about at the moment is whether this type of scope can be made to do just about everything well, given the right combination of peripherals … Argo Navis, Servo Cat, field de-rotators, equatorial platforms, etc.

It seems to me that the big aperture, fairly fast focal ratio, and the respectable three-metre focal length is good for all sorts of tasks … but what about the tracking ability?

The critical question is: when a big dob like this is permanently set-up, is it possible to achieve the accuracy of, say, a G11 mount by any combination of add-ons? (Is that the sound of guffaws and ROFLs I can hear in the backgound?) If this is possible, then surely this scope becomes ‘nearly perfect’.

I assume that add-on equatorial platforms do not have anywhere near the accuracy I’m thinking of. If so, is there another solution, possibly using a field de-rotator? Comments on IIS in the past have given me the impression that these are ‘more trouble than they’re worth’.

Am I on the right wavelength, have I missed something, or do I still have to end up with two or more different scopes to do different types of work?