|
Hi Mark
I was annoyed with hand tracking also and sold my 10" dob with AN for a HEQ5 and 8" SCT because i wanted tracking. Living in quite badly light polluted skies the views have never really impressed me as much as the dob. Dark skies it's still very nice though. Currently thinking about getting a 12" or larger dob again to be honest as the tracking wasn't as useful as i'd hoped and the longer setup time makes things more difficult. I finshed work an hour ago and with a dob could be out viewing at the moment but it's too much work to setup the mount, balance, align etc in the dark. The fork mounts maybe quicker than EQ for setup but then you need to worry about tube currents and waiting for it to reach ambient temp. Then the dew problems.
End of the day it's up to you but i'd definitely try both setups a couple of times if i could before i changed. I'm not unhappy with my decision to change but both have their strengths. If i could own just one it'd probably be the dob. Could you afford to keep it and save for a CPC unit and have the best of both worlds???
|