|
Maverick, before you lay your money down, I suggest you get yourself to a local star party and/or astro club meeting, and see a collection of scopes in action. The variety of sizes, applications and capabilities will impress. You will also see dob and eq mounts in action. The dob is much, much easier to use. The eq mount looks 'high-tech', but you may end up not using it anywhere as much as a dobbie mounted scope.
These 130mm scopes unfortunately are not the best. They are made cheaply. Those that have a barlow shoved down the focuser use spherical mirrors, instead of parabolic. These are cheaper to make, and do not focus light as a paroboloid mirror. A good scope will not have a barlow in the optical path. It is a tell-tale sign of an inferior scope.
The footprint of an 8" dob is not much bigger than the box of the 130 anyway. If you keep the 130 on its tripod, then the 8" dob's footprint is tiny.
|