Hi all.
I've been reading as much as I can around here and everywhere, as I am interested in buying a first scope. I currently live in a dark sky area north west of Bendigo. It's strange that it's taken me this long to realize that I should take advantage of the dark skies by getting a scope (duh), but at least they seem to be pretty cheap now. I would like to test some out, but I'd probably have to travel at least 200km to get to any of your various club meetings, so unfortunately I don't think that will happen.
I am currently considering dob reflectors in the 8" to 12" range. My thoughts were, if I'm going to get a dob, then since I don't need to transport it, I should go for 12" since that's the largest "cheap size." But then I spoke to a club member (who sells them) and he said the mirrors used are not precise enough to get any more detail above 8" size. A little brighter perhaps but not more detail. I would assume that all the cheap dobs would use the same mirrors (GSO?), but it's possible that some brands have their own testing and better quality control.
Some people around here were happy:
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/index.p...41,410,0,0,1,0
Some were not:
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...&highlight=dob
I am not going to bother with this or any other product if it has poor quality control. If something is advertised to be 1/12th wave then it should be, end of story. If it isn't, then the dealer should replace it with their apologies. Would anyone who's looked through a few of these things care to comment on the 8" vs 12" difference, or on quality control?
The last thing I want to know is whether I will see anything coloured through it (other than coloured stars, which I can already see). I find reports that most things are white to the eye, but tracking cameras can bring out colour and then of course filters can be applied etc. I am not interested in photography at the moment, so I just want to know what I might see. It seems to me that there ARE some coloured nebulae out there, but I've yet to find out whether these are obviously coloured, faintly "tinged" with colour, or not coloured at all to the eye (through a dob). It's possible to photograph anything in a neutral way, so that the picture "looks like what you see." Unfortunately this seems to be rare in astrophotography so I need help from viewers. Any comments?