Posts Made By: Jeff Pike

I'm just learning the night sky and looking for a little friendly advice. I'm okay at star hopping so far, but my area has significant light pollution and it makes it tough and frustrating for a rookie to find dimmer objects. So I'm looking to upgrade to an Orion 10/12" dob with an object locator which will help me find the deep sky objects. My question revolves around which is right for me.

I know aperture rules, and I'm not overly concerned about the somewhat significant cost difference. I live in a fairly light polluted area, but I do have access to some darker skies if I'm willing to drive. However, I don't know how likely I am to transport a 12" dob that won't fit in my car all that way and carry it out to the fields (although I am reasonable fit). So am I likely to see more with a 10" dob in relatively little light pollution or a 12" dob in heavier light pollution? Would more time under darker skies or an additional 2" of aperture benefit me most? Can 2" of aperture make up for light pollution in any meaningful way?

To tell the truth I'm leaning towards the 10" right now for portability reasons. My thinking is I can always upgrade to a 16" or larger truss dob after I learn the sky a lot better a couple years down the road. I'd still be able to use the 10" as a larger grab-and-go and pull out big one when I want to do some serious work. Is my thinking here sound? I'd appreciate any council on this matter that you are willing to give me.

I'm curious about this too. I just bought the little 90mm Orion Mak. I plan to upgrade to a bigger Dob latter this year. I wonder which would be the best scope for the filter. It certainly would be cheaper to get the filter for the Apex, so I'm leaning that way.

13 nagler is first premium and it is my bread and butter EP. 9 nagler is my second premium. My 3rd will probably be a 24 or 35 pan.

I'm an Orion fan, and I'm not overly impressed with it. Weighs the same as the XT12i... of course it breaks down more, so it is more portable. Still if I'm going to take the time to fool with trusses I want 15-18" of aperture. I'm not for the straight finder either on a dob. I'd actually prefer the original XT12 every time between the two.

I'm a relative novice too with a 10" Orion dob. I paid up for the Televues. I have the 35mm and 24mm Pans and the 13mm and 9mm Naglers. My most used eyepieces on DSOs by far are the 13mm and 9mm. They yield about 93x and 133x without the barlow. With the 2x barlow I get 184 and 266 which are also useful magnifications.

The 24mm Pan gets used a lot as a finder eyepiece. It's also good on larger objects like the pleiades or the double cluster.

I regard the 35mm Pan as more of a special purpose eyepiece. It washes out in my light pollution and is quite unspectacular. However, the plan is to use if from a dark site on objects such as galaxies and diffuse nebula where it should really excel.

In summary I suggest two work-horse eyepieces that will give you useful magnifications with your barlow. One in the 12-14mm range and one in the 10-7 range. I've heard the Hyperions are good for the price, but I haven't tried them.

Both are good scopes, but I'd personally prefer the dob for pure visual work. Depending on the mount the dob could be at least as portable as the C8 if not more so. It also offers a wider FoV which is a plus, especially without goto.