Hi Liz,
Nice one, must be my short squat head eh?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Thoreau
Thankyou for the warm welcome guys,
My mum promised (she would intergect otherwise) she would buy me a telescope, but apparently $1000+ is ridiculous for a telescope, I suppose ignorance is bliss in some circumstances.. No, Chris, unfortunately your hazardous guess is incorrect, Hydra is not my favourite constellation (is that a recurring theme for newbies?). I am split between Serpens (as it contains NGC 6611 - Eagle Nebula) and Scorpius (as it contains NGC 6334 - The infamous Cat Paw Nebula). As currently all of my funds are engaged into my Herping obsession, it will take me (if I tried) maybe 6 months to save up for the beauty my eyes are set on.
Oh and don't worry, I am quite "buff" so I don't think the 12" will be too much trouble for me.
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Hi Callum,
No doubt you can bench press a small car, most 14 year olds can...
Being strong is not the issue, the bulk of the scope when assembled is quite big and awkward to carry far in one piece. I can do it fine, but the novelty wears off quickly after a while. You also bash the base board into (my) knees a lot when hoisting it up and down stairs. Pulling it apart and carrying the tube and the base separately is OK, but the point is I am physically capable of doing both quite easily, but groan at the prospect of lugging it all out the backyard or in the car, to the dark sky site, lug it out, set it up, pack it up and reverse etc. simply because of its size. This means that I don't use it as much as I should.
If I was smart about it, I would have got the 10" and it would have been much easier and THEN....the scope would get MUCH more use.
I reckon an 8-10" dob has to be the most suitable size for portability versus aperture.
The Hydra reference was for the Herpetology reference only...trying to be funny
Cheers
Chris