Had to choose between a 12-inch Dobsonian and an 8-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain for my first real scope

Picked the Dob because I wanted that light gathering power for deep sky stuff, but now I'm lugging this massive tube out to my car every clear night and wondering if the SCT's portability was worth the trade off has anyone else made that call and regretted it?

2 comments

2 Comments

knight.mason26d ago

Oh buddy, welcome to the eternal struggle of astronomy. You basically bought a small car engine with a mirror on it. Yeah that Dob is a beast to haul around but that light gathering is no joke. You'll have nights where you're sweating getting it in the car and wondering if a hernia is worth seeing the Whirlpool Galaxy's spiral arms. But then you'll actually see those spiral arms and it'll feel worth every grunt and groan. The SCT is tempting for being easy to grab but you'd be squinting at dim stuff and fiddling with collimation more. You made the right call for deep sky, just start doing some pushups between sessions or something. At least you don't have to worry about it getting stolen because nobody's running off with a fridge.

sethc1426d ago

Ngl I was actually leaning toward the SCT when I first read this post, thought the convenience would win out long term. But reading what @knight.mason said about squinting at dim stuff and collimation headaches really changed my mind. Honestly I've borrowed a buddy's 8-inch SCT before and spent more time tweaking mirrors than actually looking at anything. Yeah the Dob is a workout moving it around but when you're parked under a dark sky and that Andromeda galaxy just fills the eyepiece with detail, the sweat is totally worth it. Tbh I'd rather be sore than disappointed.