Oh, how did this happen?

How did this 6" dob that looked so HUGE when we first took it out of the box suddenly become so small? I mean, it seriously seems to be getting smaller every day.

I just keep repeating to myself, "Portability, portability, portability..."

Another question: do y'all have binoculars as well? Are they truly a "must-have" astonomy item?

I'm sensing that there could be no end to the $$$ one might put into this little hobby. 8O

Kay

Yeah, It has a name: Aperture Fever.

As for binoculars. No, they are not a necessity. I spend a lot of time without them. The binocular experience is fundamentally different from the telescope experience. Yes, they both show off some things in the sky. But , walking is not running. And riding a bike is not driving a car. They all do the same thing--get you from point a to point b, but the experience is essentially different.

If you have a few dollars for binoculars, get them. They may help you find more guide stars when star hopping, and are particularly good at larger objects like big open star clusters. But do not expect them to do what a telescope does.

Alex

While I agree with Alex and Rick that binoculars are not a must have, I personally couldn't imagine doing without them.

As far as your telescope shrinking, I went through that with my 8", it took a 12" scope to finally satiate my fever, not cure mind you, but it does help with the burning part of the fever.

Kay,

Please do enjoy your six inch scope. Observing's the thing. There are probably a couple thousand things you can observe with it in the night sky. Each season there is something new, and you can always look up your favorites over and over again.

I know it's hard when you see all the beautiful scopes on Astromart.

Have fun,
Rick

Kay:

There is absolutely no way that you could have exhausted the capability of a 6 inch instrument already. At least not yet. My opinion is that you are having a case of buyer's remorse. I have had that with every car I have ever own, namely it could be bigger, faster, more economical, etc.

Another thing is that all of those pretty pictures in astronomy books and magazines, as well as the box that your telescope came in set unreasonable expectations about what you can see with your eyes.

Part of this hobby is learning "to see". This is something that is hard to explain but is at the core of what this hobby is all about. Once you reset your expectaions, and train your eye, you can really enjoy what a 6 in DOB has to offer.

A couple of questions:
Have you look at any of the following?
Orion Nebula M42
Open Cluster Alley in Gemini and Auriga (M35, M36, M37 and M38)
The Pleiades (M45)
Any double stars? Castor is an easy one to split at 100x.

All of the above are good targets for your scope.

Have you taken another look at Saturn lately?

Your answer to these questions will help us figure out how to advice you.

Rey

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Sorta like fishing. No end at all.

The portabilty aspect is significant. It's much easier to get a portable scope out of town to darker sky. Which will make any scope into a whole different experience.

Another scope make over for the same sized scope is to use more detailed charts. Whether printed or electronic. Can't recommend this enough. Either format is more affordable, acurate and detailed than ever before.

Hi Kay,
If you are looking for a telescope to hunt down dimmer deep space objects, I recommend at least a 4" increase in aperture. For lunar/planetary, an 8" will give you a noticeable increase in resolution and image scale, assuming the optics are at least as good as what you started with. Bear in mind that the larger the scope, the longer it takes to cool down in winter, although cooling fans help you out with this problem.

A lot of people like astronomical binoculars because they have brighter and sharper images than a telescope of the same aperture viewed through a single eyepiece. This is called "binocular summation factor," i.e., two eyes are better than one. So a good pair of 85mm binoculars will have about the same resolution and image brightness as a 100mm telescope of the same optical quality. It is important, of course, to have your binoculars mounted on a good sturdy mount of some kind to receive this benefit.
David E

Welcome to the world of Amateur Astronomy. I went from $zero to $35 thousand in less than a year. I was just getting back into the hobby after a 30 year hiatus. I started with a Celestron 102SLT because I wasn't certain I would stick with it. The 102SLT goto gave me a reasonably priced entry point and grab and go capability.

Being a photographer, it wasn't long before I wanted to do astrophotography. I threw down for a Meade DSI only to find the 102SLT mount was inadequate. What next? I found a reasonable deal on a discontinued Meade 102ED on an LXD650 with a complete set of series 5000 EPs. Problem solved I thought until I discovered the LXD650 wasn't quite up to the "tracking" task either. The 102ED seemed to be lacking something as well. So, I acquired a Meade 10" f10 SCT OTA only to find out that the SCT OTA with additional counterweights was taxing the LXD650 in additional weight. I'm only into this astronomy thing 3 months now. I was starting to meet expectations with the one shot color Meade DSI until I realized that a monochrome camera and LRGB filtration was the right approach for astrophotos.

Still biting my lip in anticipation for decent astophotos, I jumped to a Losmandy G-11 mount. By this time I was starting to gain an appreciation for what represented quality and capability in equipment, especially optics. The Meade 102ED wasn't getting it anymore and I searched for an higher end solution. Next step -- a Takahashi TSA102. Now, I can't just slap a DSI on the Tak, it don't look right and the DSI represents a certain amount of inadequacy. How bout a nice SBIG ST2000XM.

Now that I got all this stuff (Don't worry, I'm using the heck out of it.), I discover that it is just not dark enough at my house and need to seek out a dark site. Remember that word portability.

You just can't throw all this high end equipment pell mell into the car and head into the darkness. Besides, there too much of it. So I gets me a pickup truck. Hmmm, now that don't look right -- all this equipment sitting in the bed of the truck and a shiny new Tak laid out in the back seat of the truck and the G-11 EQ head in the front seat. What if I want to take someone with me? Where are they gonna sit? And what about all these different boxes exposed to the weather and such in the back?

Well, I discovered a great company that makes storage cases for all this gear. So, now that I have all my equipment stored in some nice color coordinated Scopegaurd cases I'm ready for the road. It's been 8 months now since I started this madness.

Now all this stuff creates the need for more stuff which I collected along the way -- things like dovetails, rings, filters, guidescopes, power supplies, portable generator, counterweights, more better eyepieces, observing chair, field table -- oh yes, I got to have my 2.1G laptop computer to control it all.

Is there a moral here, I dunno maybe. In amateur astronomy, stuff begets more stuff and at this writing I still haven't reached Nirvana.

You know that the local paper here is advertising some nice acreage about 60 miles from where I live now. I wonder just how dark it gets out there -- I think I need a permanent observatory with a bigger scope/mount and a nice little cottage to go with it.

Scott

[QUOTE]Kay Buchburger said:

How did this 6" dob that looked so HUGE when we first took it out of the box suddenly become so small? I mean, it seriously seems to be getting smaller every day.

I just keep repeating to myself, "Portability, portability, portability..."

Another question: do y'all have binoculars as well? Are they truly a "must-have" astonomy item?

I'm sensing that there could be no end to the $$$ one might put into this little hobby. 8O

Hi,
With your 6 inch, see how many of the objects in Steve Gottlieb's Orion Telescope Company's Deep Map 600 you can find. Use Sky & Telescope's Pocket Sky Atlas.
An 8 inch Dob will show you somewhat more, but a jump to 10 inches will bring a very dramatic and worthwhile increase.
If you go as large as 10, consider a truss tube version rather than a solid tube, if you can find one. You will want to cut down on weight in order to have easy setup and easy portability. Stick to Dobsonians.
Don't go larger if stairs are involved in getting the scope out to observe.
If you have a garage, consider putting an 8 or 10 on a four wheel platform and roll it out.
If you can afford top quality in a portable Dob, consider the Starmaster 11 Hybrid.
Hope this helps,
Bill Meyers

Thanks for all of the responses, advice and commiserations.

Well do I know that I haven't exhausted the capabilities of my 6" dob yet...heck, I've barely even started!!! I just can't believe that I'm already looking at bigger telescopes, reading about bigger telescopes, thinking about my *next* (and did I mention "bigger") telescope when I've hardly started with this one. I'm a little surprised at myself, frankly. As is Mr. Kay. But that's a whole other story. I just have to get him hooked on this whole thing and the topic of our next telescope is sure to be a much more pleasant one...

Now if I could just figure out how to change eyepieces (without dropping them in the process!) when my hands are numb from the cold, I'd really be getting somewhere... Any suggestions?

Kay