|
Decisions decisions...
Guys thanks so much for all this wonderful advice. It's a hard decision to make here. Either go for the 10" aperature over the 8". Or, go for a better tracking system (Eq) over the dob.
I'm trying to work out 2 key things here:
1. How much better is 10" over 8"? I hear that for planets, both are similar, but for deep sky objects the 10" is king. But then the 10 inch is bigger and harder to lug around and is only available in a dob mount. And I hear that the 8 inch can deliver a lot of good quality views and can do just about everything well.
2. Is a manual eq mount (non-motorised) much more better at tracking than a dob or is it only a marginal improvement and therefore not worth getting? I'd like to look at planets in high magnification. I'm worried that with a dob I'd be forced into using lower magnification and also the annoying problem of having to sharply shift the scope aong 2 axis to keep it in view. Would the eq mount allow me to magnify more and also provide a smooth movement of the scope to track planets? Though there's also the worry of how difficult it would be to align to the south pole every time I want to use it.
The temptation of larger aperature is there with the 10" but there seems to be a lot of concessions involved: larger, heavier, difficult tracking. Dunno whether I should fall for temptation or stick with the 8" which should do the job.
|