Premium Dob or Not?

I'll try to be brief. I have 2 young boys under age 3 but growing fast! I want to give them many choices of passtimes to enjoy with me when they are old enough. I have done RC, sports, etc. but got curious about astronomy, as I like "equipment", am an engineer (Metallurgical), and have always enjoyed the night sky. I have been seious about this for 6 months now, with a pair of 10x50 Ultraviews. I am loving learning the sky for real! Love the moon, Jupiter, doubles, M42, M8, M20, M13.

The nuts and bolts is this: While I have enjoyed the views with binocs, I find I am liking finding the DSO's more than looking at them (except the ones listed above). So I feel it might be time to buy a scope.

I never miss a day on AMart, so I've been through all the beginner scope threads. I've exhausted reviews by Ed Ting, Cloudy Nights, Excelsis, Todd Gross (all awesome by the way). I love all this equipment, want it all and don't have one scope yet!! I'm sold on a dob of approx. 10" aperature but the question is this: Keeping in mind what I explained of my observing, if I can afford it, should I buy a premium dob (w/Zambuto mirror), or should I still start out a little slower with the likes of Discover 10" PDHQ or XT10?

I have no idea if I have communicated my thoughts well, I only know I failed in being brief. Please forgive and thanks for the input!

-Tim

Well, bear in mind you can order an XT10 or one of the clones today and have it in a few days. A Discovery may take a few weeks. Unless you buy used, any Zambuto scope will take from several months to a year or more to receive, and if you do buy used you may have to take what happens to become available and/or pay a premium for getting it NOW.

If you have the money for a Zambuto equipped scope, what I would do is buy an XT10/clone/Discovery NOW and put some money down to get on the delivery list for a new premium of your choice. Use the import or Discovery until you get your new scope. You will gain a lot of valuable experience, and be able to sell the cheaper scope for little loss when you get your new one. If you don't turn out to like it, I don't know about the policy on returns of deposit money - I'd think the makers would do it since they have more than enough customers for all the scopes they can make - but if not you can still sell the premium scope with no loss, or very little.

My vote is for a Discovery 12.5" truss. If you can afford a 10" equipped with a Zambuto mirror, you can afford a slightly larger Discovery with optics that are certainly very good. Remember Ed Ting's review on this scope?

The larger the aperture, the deeper you can reach into space in terms of brightness and angular resolution. All it takes is perfect seeing and 1/4 wave optics to get perfect images, due to the diffractive nature of light waves. Seeing us normally not perfect, hence the popularity of the premium mirrors which show better images in bad seeing than something a little less expensive. However, judging by the two 14" Discovery dob reflectors I have looked through, you will get pinpoint star images and sharp planet views in "normal" conditions just the same. Discovery optics are quite good.

Jeff Q

I own a Discovery PDHQ 10"... I've looked through (and owned) a LOT of telescopes and have not found one with better optics. I know this is saying a lot, but it's true. One thing I do every time I view is get a good collimation, so this could be a (big) factor. I also like the f/6 due to the lower coma and better resolution on planets. It IS a bit bulky, but I find it easy to move around and even move the entire thing (mount and 'scope) after I get it outside (as long as it's not too far). Good luck in your hunt!

Tim,

I've read everybody else's responses before posting and will say that if you are already committed to purchasing a scope, definitely follow the recommendation on visiting the starparties. Look through everything you can and go on several occasions in case seeing conditions aren't good on one or more nights. You will also get to see a greater variety of eyepieces that way (maybe even a binoviewer).

I am not trying to discourage you when saying this but you must determine how much of this hobby you can afford. Raising three kids is extremely expensive. It is probably better to go with a cheaper mass-produced scope first before you get in over your head financially. This hobby can be extremely addicting and the next thing you know, your wife will say "Where did the $5000 in the savings account go" while she's warming up the frying pan on your head .

Another reason to "go cheaper" on the first scope is to find out if it survives the child destruction factor. I personally don't have any kids but one day, my older sister brought her ~ 3 year old son over to the apartment. I had lived there about 4 years and this kid managed to lay down as much damage in one day as I had in the whole four years. Given that kind of scenario, I would never buy a premium scope of any kind only to see it get trashed in one day.

Dave Keller

I would get the Discovery or the Orion 10" dob. Use the difference in $ to purchase a set of premium eyepieces. 27mm Panoptic, 19mm Panoptic, 14mm Pentax XL and 9mm Nagler. Just my .02$

Hi Tim:

You may be a good canidate for building your own Dob. A fellow that posts in these forums, Mark Harry, makes 6 to 10 inch mirrors. His customers seem quite satisfied.

Plans for Dob construction can be found all over the net. Ray Cash has a good site with plans, San Francisco Sidewalk Astonomers.

If that's not your bag, I've had the occasion to use a few 8" f/6 Discovery scopes and was surprised at how nice each performed.

Steve