New telescope

[poncho (Poncho)]

Hi guys,

Am a beginner, had a 8"dob til recently. Had to sell it.

Am now looking at 10" dob with synscan.
Mainly for visual astronomy, but wouldnt mind getting some average qual pics with a webcam.
Would the synscan make viewing much easier and quick?
And the size bump wont be tooo big will it?

[ZeroID (Brent)]

Hi Poncho,
Webcam ( or DSLR with movie mode) can get you planetary video for stacking or even lunar pix, single frames or video.
Not so good for Deep Sky but it has been done by some with short exposures and many frames.
Synscan will track but you will have field rotation problems in long exposures.
Have a go with the Webcam, nothing to lose, everything to gain. Careful you don't start the slide down into the expensive black hole of Astrophotography like us poor souls.

Plenty of advice on here to get you started. Heheheheh

[Allan_L (Allan)]

Originally Posted by poncho

Hi guys,

Am a beginner, had a 8"dob til recently. Had to sell it.

Am now looking at 10" dob with synscan.
Mainly for visual astronomy, but wouldnt mind getting some average qual pics with a webcam.
Would the synscan make viewing much easier and quick?
And the size bump wont be tooo big will it?

Hi Ponch
Just on the observing questions
Moving from an 8" to 10" would provide about a 1.56 increase in light gathering. So DSO's will appear slightly brighter, there wont be a notieable increase in magnification (as this is generally limited by atmospheric conditions).
GoTo will make finding DSO's quicker, and Tracking will make observing easier.

However, the Synscan needs a bit more time to setup and align (level base; enter time and location; align on two known stars).
It also requires power, which brings into play batteries and cables.
(Don't trip over the power cord, or have cord wrap, or you need to re-align)

So your setup has gone from plonk & go, to a bit longer. But it is worth it (IMHO)

The physical size jump of OTA and mount, is not huge. And if the move is from solid tube to collapsible, then the OTA is actually easier to handle.
What might be an issue is the weight of the mount. Synscan mount has the gears and motors incorporated of course. This could nearly double the weight of the mount.

[AEAJR (Ed)]

Originally Posted by poncho

Hi guys,

Am a beginner, had a 8"dob til recently. Had to sell it.

Am now looking at 10" dob with synscan.
Mainly for visual astronomy, but wouldnt mind getting some average qual pics with a webcam.
Would the synscan make viewing much easier and quick?
And the size bump wont be tooo big will it?

I don't have the scope you are considering. I have an Orion XT8 Intelliscope, a PushTo rather than a Goto. It tells me how to move the scope to find the target but hit has no motors so it does not track. My Meade ETX 80 is a full Goto scope, so I am familiar with the set-up time and the benefits of both.


Would Goto make viewing easier? Sure. It finds the targets for you and tracks them.

What you add in set-up time you save many times over in prep work to create star-hops and shortening the find time.

I use my Dob both manually and with computer assist and using computer assist allows me to spend more time observing and less time hunting and virtually eliminates the prep time with the charts.

As for size bump, that is easy to answer. How much did your old scope weigh? How much does the new scope weigh?

Where will you keep it? If you have to carry the scope down 3 flights of stairs and have to do that twice to get tube and base to the observing area, that is a lot of work. If it lives in a garage or shed on a cart that can be rolled out to the observing site then the size and weight don't matter.

My 8" Dob lives on a cart in my garage. I roll it out, align the intelliscope (5 minutes) when I plan to use that. In the future I plan to upgrade to a 14" scope that will weight 3X as much, but it won't matter because it will be on a cart.

So, easier and more convenient star gazing? I would say yes!

Is size and issue? Only you can say.

[poncho (Poncho)]

Thanks guys!! ended up getting the 10" synscan skywatcher.
Been cloudy so have only taken it out a couple of times!
Some points relating to your replies
- difficult to notice the difference in brightness until now
- significantly heavier, but is okay as am transporting on a trolley from inside to outside
- takes a while to setup the goto, but is awesome in finding things!! havent got the alignment perfect yet, and im sure my speed in setting up will increase!!

[ZeroID (Brent)]

All part of the fun ....