[AngrySpud]

Thanks one and all for a marvellous thread yesterday. I'm STILL looking, though, for some input from folks who have used and/or purchased a medium-aperature Dobsonian-style light bucket.

[CHQmacer]

When you go from a refractor to a reflector your taking a step up even without increased aperature. You can build your own 10" newtonian pretty cheap. The stand with a clock drive will cost more than the telescope. That would be the best reason to go with a production model.

[strela]

Wow - a second thread? I posted one graphic in the first one but I didn't think it was THAT big!

Bump for bigger and better toys!

[PMCarey]

On a related topic. I have a 6" Newtonian (It's a 1967 Cave Astrola that I inherited from my now deceased Father). I took it out to Estes Park, Colorado last year for some summer viewing. I was particularly interested in viewing Mars but when I looked through the scope I didn't see squat. Basically Mars was a featureless disk (I was using Televue Radian eyepiece ranging from 4mm up to 12 mm as well as a 32mm Televue Plossl.) The Estes Park nightime skies are quite good and the mirror has been recently resurfaced.

So, I'm figuring that I need to get some filters, but I would like to know what kind of filters and filter brands would work best. Mars is coming back in a few years and I want to be ready.

[PUGACHEV]

I would say that the size of the aperature you could use would depend on the darkness of the sky where you're viewing and your tolerance for lugging a cumbersome scope to the viewing area. Don't take that last consideration too lightly. I'd imagine that you think nothing of bringing your 4" scope along to the beach or wherever, but you won't have that freedom with an 8 or 10" scope.

My son has an Orion 8" Skyview Dobsonian and we've been to several star parties with much larger and more sophisticated scopes: his has always done better than anything of the same size regrdless of type and has compared favorably with the 10" scopes. It's really a joy to use that scope because the silky smooth Orion Dobsonian mount makes it easy to find objects or just casually wander around the night sky. Unlike some of my other scopes, that Dobsonian mount never gets in your way.

[Vineyard]

Great . .. suggest you check www.astromart.com for 2nd hand scopes, get an even better buy.

I purchased, several years ago, a 13.1" Coulter Dob. I am in the processes of converting the cheap Dob mounting to a computer controlled Alt-Az Drive per Mel Bartel's concept (see http://www.bbastrodesigns.com/cot/cot.html ).

Check the web for further info ... there is lots of it out there. There are many many e-groups for some specialized hardware (Meade, Celestron, Losmandy, etc.) ... so that you can check user comments prior to you buying anything.

I also have a Celestron Schmitt-Cass on a G-11 Losmandy, and I find the e-groups fantastic. And then when you decide to build an observatory, you can find an Observatory e-group (plus a miriad of web sites) to get pro's and con's (oops ... didn't mean to get Bill Clinton in on this thread) of a Dome or a roll-off roof (and how to best build either.)

Mike