Which Dob

[SkySearcher (Daniel)]

Hi Everyone

I am new to this site but it looks fantastic! I grew up surrounded by astronomy and have always used refractors. I am looking at purchasing a Dob but am not sure which one to choose. Does anyone have any experience with the cheaper ones advertised in the Assie mages (ie. Bintel and GS). Are the optics any good compared with the light bridges and celestrons? Any help would be great help.

Cheers

[Dobman (Simon)]

Hi Skysearcher, I've had my 12" Bintel premium Dob for 2 years now and love it . I'm no expert, but optically I think it is very good and I'm sure a lot of others in IIS land would agree with me. I get stunning views of deep sky objects such as M42, Carina Neb, Tuc 47, Omega Cent., tarantula etc etc etc. But I also have great views of Saturn & Jupiter. Well collimated, I get nice sharp star images and great lunar detail.You can get great views of planets with a dob! Of course, it helps if you have good EP's as well. I've only got 2 EP's- a 24mm Panoptic & a 8.8 Meade UW + a barlow and I'm as happy as a pig in %@#*!
I would highly reccommend this scope to anyone.
Hope this helps
Simon

[duncan]

Hi all.
I couldn't agree with you more Simon. I'm also saving to buy one of these beauties. Haven't heard a bad word about them. And i know it will blow my mind when i finally get to look through it, having only ever looked through a Tasco 4.5" reflector. I just can't wait.
Cheers,
Duncan

[acropolite (Phil)]

Ditto what the Simon said, IMO buy the biggest you can afford, subject to transport and storage constraints. There is a Bintel store in Melbourne so you can drop in and compare sizes. The deluxe models with fan and crayford focusser are well worth the extra money.

[rmcpb (Rob)]

GS optics are great value for money. To go beter you are into hand figured one off optics with the associated high price tag. My 8" GS is a joy to use and because of its relatively low price tag I have learnt an awful lot by modifying it, if it was an expensive scope I would not have done many of the things I have tried on this one.

As a proof of the optics have a look at Mikes images he has only ever used a 10" and 12" GS scope for those images!!

Cheers

[davewaldo]

I also have a GSO 10" Dob and I'm very happy with it. I beleive the optics ie. mirrors are the exact same ones used in the Light bridges and are out of the same factory! Top notch!

The only problem I have had with the budget dobs is the quality of the paint on the OTA. I have only had mine for 8 months and I have recently had to get it powder coated as it was starting to get surface rust. But now it feels and looks like an expensive scope! (see my recent thread for pics).

I personally like the 10". It is a good balance of portability and light grasp.

If you buy one you will never regret it.

Cheers,
Dave.

[luka]

I think I read somewhere that Bintel and GSO are using the same mirrors so there should not be much difference.

With GSO's paint/rust problems seem to be common - Bintel owners, do you get the same?

[ving (David)]

bintel scopes are GSO scope, they are just relabeled.

so GSO, Meade, Celestron... they are all pretty much the same performance wise, you just have to weigh up what comes with them i guess... some say skywatcher dobs have a better finish to them, the meade ones are truss. if you buy a GS over a meade you wont be disappointed, that goes the other way around too...

it comes down to what you can afford in the end.

i have a GSO 8" that i bought as a dob but now have it equatorially mounted. the optics are pretty darn good.

[Dobman (Simon)]

As mentioned earlier, I've had my Bintel dob for 2 years and the tube still looks like new, apart from scratches I've put on it. And it gets used in some quite damp conditions
Simon

[Miaplacidus (Brian)]

Hi,

Welcome to the forum. You'll like pretty much any dob you get, I bet, but join an astro club and check out things for size and weight, or rock into one of the astro shops and make a pest of yourself.

Cheers,

Brian.

[circumpolar (Matt)]

Originally Posted by luka

With GSO's paint/rust problems seem to be common

I have found this to be the only problem with GSO's. Optics are very good. Price is good.

Buy one, and with the money you save get as many premium EP's as you can afford.

[GeoffW1 (Geoff)]

Originally Posted by circumpolar

I have found this to be the only problem with GSO's. Optics are very good. Price is good.

Buy one, and with the money you save get as many premium EP's as you can afford.

Fully second that, as long as the primary does not rust.

[Tamtarn]

Hi SkySearcher

Welcome to IIS.

Where abouts in Melbourne are you. We have a Bintel (GSO) 12" Dob that you are quite welcome to view through to give you an idea of what you will see.

David.

[ving (David)]

Originally Posted by luka

With GSO's paint/rust problems seem to be common - Bintel owners, do you get the same?

this rust problem seems to effect a few people, however i have had mine formore than 2 years and i dont have a spot of rust on it. i am also guessing that the new ones are less prone.

but once again, bintel dob are GSOs.

[Mr. Subatomic]

Hi SkySearcher and welcome to ISS!

When I was new to this forum without a decent scope, I had the same problem. I was set on purchasing a Dob, but wasn't sure whether to buy a Bintel or a Skywatcher and which apeture to buy it in. Well, I ended up buying a 10" Dob from Bintel in Sydney with a $20 upgrade to the 10:1 Crayford focusser, as well as 2 or 3 extra EP's thrown in for free!. I thinkl it's safe to say that I was pretty happy with that.

In terms of portability, I lugged the scope around in two sections at first, but then I got my hands on one of those trolleys. I've seen them for less than $30 in Bunnigns. This has made portability a whole lot easier.

Optically, I don't think the GSO/Bintel Dobs are anywhere behind more expensive models like the Meade LightBridge. I've had a professional astronomer tell me that they're all coughed out of the same factory anyway. Being new to Astronomy, I really don't think that there would be an extremely noticable difference between two dobs of the same apeture but differet brands. If you spent hundreds of dollars more on something like a LightBridge, you might have a scope thats no dofferent to the less expensive GSO's. I think everyone would agree that its probably better to spend that extra money on a telescope acessory shopping spree. what could be better than having a couple of hundred dollars in a telescope store with eyepieces, filters and what not in mind!

I'm not too aware of optical problems like coma and abberation either (by the way, if anyone could explain the main optical problems with telescopes and how to distinguish them, that would be great), but I know that GSO dobs are not major sufferers of these problems. After all, NO scope is EVER perfect.

It was anly after reading this thread that I had my first encounter with a single complaint about GSO dobs. I think if you kept the scope indoors and tried not to scratch it, it would not rust. If I'm not mistaken, I believe that's what causes rusting: chipped paint revealing the bare, exposed metal underneath, vulnerable to corrosion.

so there you go. Overall, I would reccomend the Bintel/GSO dob. you really won't regret the purchase.

[Starkler (Geoff)]

Originally Posted by Mr. Subatomic

Optically, I don't think the GSO/Bintel Dobs are anywhere behind more expensive models like the Meade LightBridge. I've had a professional astronomer tell me that they're all coughed out of the same factory anyway.

At the hobbyist end there are two manufacturers, Synta and GSO.

GSO make the gso (of course) . The Bintel dobs are a gso dob with a bintel sticker on them, and the Meade lightbridge uses gso optical components.

Synta make Skywatcher, Celestron and Saxon dobs, and also Orion dobs for the US market.

Which is better? Its like asking about Ford vs Holden.

There are cheaper (in quality not price) manufacturers churning out junk scopes that you might see for sale on ebay and in camera stores. Stay away from these and you wont go wrong .

[davewaldo]

Just a note on the rust issue...

It seems by reading different threads that getting rust in your tube is just the luck of the draw. Some people have had the misfortune of having their GSO scopes arrive with rusty tubes straight out of the box. Others like my scope began getting the rust after 6 months. Some never have a problem with rust.

In my case it had nothing to do with scratches, the rust was surface rust steming from under the paint. The paint was still intact but rust was forming underneath. This is not scary flakey rust but minor surface rust. I put this down to poor quality control in the factory.

But saying all this should not put you off the GSO's. They are the right price and if you get rust problems they can be easily fixed. Do a search for rust in this forum and you can read all about it.

Cheers
Dave.

[Mr. Subatomic]

Originally Posted by Starkler

At the hobbyist end there are two manufacturers, Synta and GSO.

GSO make the gso (of course) . The Bintel dobs are a gso dob with a bintel sticker on them, and the Meade lightbridge uses gso optical components.

Synta make Skywatcher, Celestron and Saxon dobs, and also Orion dobs for the US market.

Gee Starkler, that's really fascinating, it makes me feel better about not owning a Meade.

Well there you have it, I guess they all do pretty much get coughed out of the same factory!

But do GSO produce the same OPTICS for Meade, and not just other parts? And speaking of the LightBridge, I never understood the truss design. Don't you get a lot of unwanted light flooding in from the sides?

[Starkler (Geoff)]

Originally Posted by Mr. Subatomic

Well there you have it, I guess they all do pretty much get coughed out of the same factory!

Two competing factories in fact. Synta in the red (Chinese) corner and GSO in the blue (Taiwan) corner.

But do GSO produce the same OPTICS for Meade, and not just other parts? And speaking of the LightBridge, I never understood the truss design. Don't you get a lot of unwanted light flooding in from the sides?

You will find exactly the same optics in a Meade lightbridge as you will a gso/bintel/southern cross dob. No better and no worse.

The truss design is about being able to dissassemble into smaller more portable components. The only light that really matters, is that which can be seen by looking into the focuser.

[Mr. Subatomic]

Thanks for that Starkler, It's kind of surprising to find that some of the world's leading telescope brands are produced by two competing companies.

And now I really feel happy with my GSOknowing it's as good as a Meade and a Meade is as good as it!