12" to a 16" dob

I have a 12" Meade Lightbridge that I use in light polluted skies.
Will a move up to the 16 Lightbridge give me better or worse views factoring in seeing conditions, light pol, etc.
12" aperture is the largest I have used so far.
Thanks

victor truglio said:

I have a 12" Meade Lightbridge that I use in light polluted skies.
Will a move up to the 16 Lightbridge give me better or worse views factoring in seeing conditions, light pol, etc.
12" aperture is the largest I have used so far.
Thanks

I moved up from a 12.5" discovery to a 16" astrosystems truss dob a number of years ago and I never regretted it. In general, the 16" has always provided me with better views than the 12.5" and the latter had a good primary.
Big mirrors collect light indiscriminately so light pollution remains a problem but bigger scopes tend to do better with line filters such as an 0111 in light polluted and non-light polluted areas than do smaller scopes.
You'll notice the increased weight with the 16" lightbridge so be prepared for it. The 12" is a lightweight and the 16" is a heavy weight and there's no getting around it if you have to lift the latter every time you use it...

Bigger is always better if you can handle it.

Best, John

Victor, Just one more thought to consider. I had a 12.5", wanted more but thought that a 16" would be too much weight. I split the difference and went with a 14" T-Scope Ultralight. The 14 gives me more, no it's not a 16". but it's noticably more than a 12.5". It's not that much less than a 16" in terms of light gathering, noticable but not that much less. So why bother? Easy one, My 14" now weighs less than my 12.5"! I can, if necessary, pick it up and move to a better yard location. Not easy, but I can do it fully assembled.
If you decide to look into them, just know that the reported waits for T-Scopes are
l-o-o-o-ng! But a used one would be worth considering, as would any other lightweight strut-dob.

If you take the advantage of a four inch aperture over the unaided eye as a ratio (20.4), the next aperture that would give you an equivalent advantage would be an 82 inch scope.

So everything we talk about in this regard is just nibbling at the edges. Eight inches, twenty inches, what's the big deal?

Greg N