We'll they worked well for my beginners eye last night, it was the weather that was a let down, frequent light showers and although not huge cloud cover they were moving quickly across my field of view. I didn't really do much specific hunting just pointing and finding stars that when I checked with software had never heard of (remember I'm a total noob and this was the first time I'd ever even looked through a telescope). But on the whole with a couple of beers as well a wholly enjoyable first evening.
There was however one problem that nobody had warned me of. That being my wife who has absolutely no interest in astronomy, but continually moaned "let me see" "give me a go" "don't hog the thing all night". Oh well I suppose when I finally upgrade this small but mightily impressive scope will never go un-used :0)
I'd also like to add how easy it was when the showers came it was just a matter of picking the whole thing up to bring inside and then take back out again due to its Dob mount and very lightweight which was one of the main reasons for choosing this scope.
Welcome to my world - at least your wife is keen to have a look. I had a big bad jupiter in my eyepiece last week absolutely sparkling and do you thin kI could get the wife outside? Too cold she said I'm watching Q&A.
Well at least it might work in my favour when it's time to upgrade, maybe she won't be so "how much".
While on the subject of next scopes I was thinking what I'd like next is a decent scope for planetary and lunar viewing, something to give really good detail and be good for photography. Am I correct in thinking I would be best off with a refractor for this type of work and if so what aperture would we be looking at. It would be sometime down the road, around 6-8 months, and I haven't even got a camera (I just use the iPhone camera for everything at the moment).
Could someone give me an idea of a complete set up with camera, for say around $3-3,500. As I said this would be for planetary and lunar photography not DSOs.
You can also take pics with a dob. I have taken many pics of the moon (even in afocal mode), and also some of Jupiter, Saturn and even Mars, but the moon photos are the best of course in terms of details. http://www.iceinspace.com.au/63-201-0-0-1-0.html
PS: I don't have an iPhone, but apparently their cameras are not bad at all for astrophotography. Some people say they are almost as good as webcams, although I don't know if it is true.
I have taken many pics of the moon (even in afocal mode), and also some of Jupiter, Saturn and even Mars, but the moon photos are the best of course in terms of details.
