Which Dob to buy?

[Jackson42South (Paul)]

I want to buy a 10 or 12" Dob, but I am still a little unsure of the quality of these brands:
Guan Sheng, Saxon and Bintel.
All of them have similar specs and are similar prices, but is the quality of the Optics, Coatings and hardware good or bad?
Which one is better?

Paul.

[gbeal]

I'll start the ball rolling. I looked at a LightBridge 12" in Sydney recently, and if I was going down your road, it would be my choice.

[davidpretorius]

Paul, if you are coming to lton, pop in and have a look at the 10" GSO dob I have.

Saxon are finished off very nicely and Bintel cant be faulted.

When I bought my 10 GSO from Andrews, it was cheaper by a fair way in terms of freight than Bintel.

I have since mentioned this to Bintel, but am unsure whether they are now competitive freight wise.

LIghtbridges look great for portability.

At out local get together, we have 2 x 8" bintel, my 10" gso and a 12" bintel.

I really do like that 12" for galaxies!!!!

[dcnicholls]

The GS/Bintel 12" is quite a handful to lug around (even out into the back yard) but excellent value for money. The 10" is easier to move around and easier to get into a car.

However, the Meade Lightbridge 12" (also made by GS) is a lot easier to move than the full tube 12" and disassembles into packages you can fit into a small/medium size car. More expensive but IMO worth it. Similar fittings and optics to the GS/Bintel full tube models.

See the Lightbridge thread in this forum for a bit more information.

DN

[janoskiss (Steve H)]

Re optical quality in general, it depends on how fussy you are I guess. Quality of the optics varies a bit from scope to scope. Last week we star tested two 12" GSO Dobs side by side both purchased within the past 6 months. One clearly had a better mirror: defocused star image showed rings of more closely uniform brightness, the other (mine ) showed inner 3 rings much darker, which I believe indicates spherical aberration (undercorrection).

I don't know how Synta and GSO optics compare. The Saxons (e.g. from AOE) and GSO look-alikes (?) sold by a dealer in QLD (?) are the only mass-produced Dobs I've seen around that use pyrex mirrors. Might be worth the extra cost for your climate.

[ving (David)]

theres a 12" for sale here at this site!!!!!