Dobsonian questions

[blisterfoot99]

Hi all, HELP! I am looking to buy a first scope for my parents, who live in Santa Fe. Unfortunately, I live in NYC and have no opportunity/time to attend a star party, so everything I know about scopes comes from a few hours of internet reading. <br /><br />1) My budget is limited, so I am leaning toward a 6" Dob. But I don't want to get them something they'll feel like trading in to upgrade in 6 months. Is a 6" inch Dob "enough" scope to get them started and keep them interested for a couple years? How big a leap in performance is an 8" Dob (of comparable quality)?<br /><br />2) For roughly $250, I'm looking at Orion Skyquest XT6 and Celestron Star-Hopper 6. Anyone know if there's any real difference between these two scopes? Or any recommendations for other comparable scopes I should be considering instead? <br /><br />3) If they later want to upgrade to a motor-drive/"go-to" kind of system, will they need to buy a whole new telescope for that? Or can you re-mount the tube assembly from a Dobsonian scope onto another mount and add a motor drive? Sorry, I'm a total novice here, not sure how it works... <br /><br />4) In another thread someone mentioned that a wooden deck is not a good set-up spot because of vibration. Was that specifically w/reference to using a scope with a (vibrating) motor drive? Or is it also a bad idea to set up a regular Dob on a wooden deck?<br /><br />Thanks in advance for the help!<br />

 

[CalliArcale]

I have an Orion and am very happy with it. However, Orion has a partnership with Celestron now and is acting as a Celestron retailer. I think they're only using it as an entrace into the world of Schmidtt-Cassegrains, though. (They previously didn't carry them; the only Cassegrains they carried were Maksutov-Cassegrains, which don't scale up so well to large apetures.)<br /><br />My experience with Orion customer support has been excellent. They also have a good reputation in "bang for the buck". <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em>  -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>