Quote:
Originally Posted by joeyjoejoe
Hi Ed(AEAJR),
Thanks very much for the suggestions. You are right - I have not bought a scope yet. I really am undecided. I would love to get a 12" dob. Storage at home and transport in the car are not an issue and I think I'll be able to carry it ok once the OTA and base are separated.
Where I am getting stuck is wether to go-to or not go-to. I have visions of me getting annoyed at constantly having to nudge a manual scope all the time. So go-to may well be handy but the extra cost would mean I have to go down in aperture probably to 8" (my budget is around $1200aud). The intelliscope you mentioned sounds interesting but I have not seen them for sale in Australia. As far as I know Bintel is the only Orion retailer here and they only list the go-to Orions. Perhaps I should send them an e-mail to ask about the intelliscope version.
So do I just go manual 12" now and then if I do get annoyed in a few months time, add a go-to kit to it later? Or do I get a smaller aperture now and enjoy the convenience of go-to and then replace the OTA with something bigger later on if I am not wowed by the view? I really have no idea what the image difference is between 8" and 12".
I have even thought about buying a 2nd hand scope but as luck would have it there is nothing suitable in the for sale threads.
p.s. your username sounds a little familiar. Are you on RCGroups at all? I used to be (flew FPV and foamie gliders) but am having an extended break from radio control at the moment.
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Yes I am very active on RCGroups in the electric section and the sailplane section. Also active on RCU, Wattflyer and others. I wrote an on-line book on electric powered flight that is posted on Wattflyer.com. And have been very active in the Eastern Soaring League. However, with my rising interest in astronomy I have slowed down over there.
That is me narrating the video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8iGTPatwMU
Back to astronomy
Are you a hunter or a tourist?
Do you want to hunt for things or do you want to see things?
With RC, are you:
- a kit builder? (think star hopping and setting circles).
- More of an ARF guy (think intelliscope)
- Or did you prefer BnF and RTF? ( Mr Goto!)
If you like the idea of the Intelliscope speak to your Orion dealer and ask if he can get them. I really like mine.
The joy of computer assist is that you can find ANYTHING that is within visual grasp of the scope. Star Hopping is great but you need to spend the time preparing, studying so that you know where the guide stars are. Some people find the hunt as much fun as observing the target. I am not one of them.
So, do you like using a map to plan your road trips, watching the odometer and looking for signs, or do you like to put the address in your GPS and go? I used maps for years. I am more of a GPS guy now.
If I try to star hop to something and can't find it, I can turn on the computer and either find it or confirm that my hop was right and it is just not visible from my site based on my sky conditions with this scope. Due to the light pollution in my area I find this very very helpful.
Once I have been to something a couple of times, I leave the computer off. I know I can see it and I know where it is.
Some targets that I want to find are in blank parts of the sky. Using a red dot finer, or a Telrad, there is NOTHING for me to target on. My 9X50 RACI finder gives me more to work with but even then I may not be able to see what I need to see to do the hop. Turn on the Intelliscope and, bang, there it is!
GoTo is even better. My ETX 80 is full Goto. Once the GoTo takes me to the target the scope will track it and that allows me to focus on the object rather than constantly moving the scope.
While serious AP needs a serious mount, Webcam, smart phone and compact digitial cameara AP can all be done quite successfully with a typical Alt/Az GoTo mount. So that is an added benefit of a Goto, tracking for these kinds of AP. I plan to use my ETX 80 for this.
Targets fly through the eyepiece at high mag. With a manual scope you will find that you are spending more and more money on wide view eyepieces so that the target stays in view longer. Even with a 60 degree AFOV eyepiece Mars moves fast at 260X.
With tracking, the target stays within the view of plossls very nicely. And if you are showing the sky to friends you are not constantly repositioning the scope.
There are other benefits to wide angle eyepieces but needing to keep the target in view is not as much of concern with a GoTo. There may be significant savings from GoTo by reducing the need for wide view eyepieces but that is debatable. Wide view are nice for other reasons, you just don't need them as much.
Personal opinion is that I LOVE computer assisted scopes
as long as I can also use them manually without computer assist too. About 50% of the time I leave the computer off, but it is always there when I want it.
Your smileage will vary.
So, what should you do? Well that is up to you. The question is where do you invest your $$
12" manual scope - you plan, you hop, you hope and maybe you find. Lots of people prefer this.
10" Intelliscope - Kind of a half way point. Think of this like the GPS in your car. It guides, you drive. On my XT8 the Intelliscope was about a $110 additional cost (US) over a similarly equipped XT8 manual scope.
8" GoTo Scope - Tell the car where you want to go and it takes you there. Sit back and relax with assurance of a successful trip.
If you have a dark sky and feel you will take the time to prepare your star hops then the manual scope is probably the way to go.
If failure to find what you want to see will be more of a frustration than a challenge, then get some kind of computer assist.
Or if time to prepare your viewing sessions and your star hops is limited and not a key focus, get some kind of computer assist.
Under dark skies you can see a LOT with an 8" scope. Under light polluted skies, can you find what you want to see with a manual 12" scope?
Your smileage will vary.
I opted for the computer assist. Future scopes will be computer assisted too.
I use a GPS rather than road maps. And my old typewriter has a thick layer of dust on it.
Believe me they don't point the Keck telescope or Hubble by star hopping.
