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Telescope Dobsonian

Question
Greetings everyone I am a 22 year old, who decided to get back into astronomy. I have been recently doing alot of research on telescopes to figure out what type i should buy. I am willing to spend upto $1500 Australian dollars , which would be something like $1000 US dollars. After looking around, i have decided that its either going to be a 6“ Schmidt-Cassegrain from celestron, or a Dobsonian Starhopper ($1450 AU – $940US) from celestron again. The Dobsonian has a 8“ apature tho, which is larger than the Schmidt cassegrain. I Dont know if there are any similar models from other companys which are in the same price range . My Dilema is that the dobsonian hasnt got a finder, and does look abit “Plain” as a telescope, but its got a bigger apature, as the Schmidt cassegrain is smaller, but has everything. I am seeking some advice from people that owe either type of telescopes, and what they think about their telescope. Any suguestions are welcome and considered. Thanks.
Anwser
When purchasing a telescope, one of the most important features to look for is portability. If you cannot easily load your scope into the car, set it up, take it down and maintain it, you are not going to have a good experience with your telescope and it will site around gathering dust. Having said that, it is also important to decide what you want to do with your scope. Do you plan on astrophotography!? If so, you need to look for something that you will be able to upgrade easily. Are you interested in the planets, or deep-sky objects? For the planets, a moderately sized refractor may be in order. For deep-sky observing, you need as much light-gathering ability as possible. I like to use different scopes for different jobs. When I want to just look around and am not worried about being polar-aligned and having the clock drive going, a Dob is a really awesome telescope. It sets up in about 5 seconds and has enough light-gathering ability that it makes for a nice evening of observing. I have not found many that did not have a coma problem, though. If what you are looking for fills the center of the eyepiece well, then this should not be a problem. SCT’s are really nice. They take about 10 minutes to set up and get polar-aligned (if you are purchasing a wedge with that SCT). An 8 inch SCT performs very nicely on planets, as well as the deep-sky stuff. They are easy to upgrade and get motorized clock drives installed on–really nice when you are spending a lot of time looking at one object, or taking photos. Binoculars are often overlooked as astronomical tools. A really good pair can be a lot of fun, though, and I have spotted some deep-sky objects much more easily in binocs than telescopes (M33 is a prime example). While the detail is not there, the field of view of binocs presents the Milky Way very nicely. To end this rather long reply, I will say that the best advice that could be given to anyone thinking of purchasing a scope is to hunt down an astronomy group and become a member. Get to know the people, ask a lot of questions and try out as many different types of scopes as possible. Ask someone if you can help them set up their scopes, if there are any problems that they are having with their equipment, etc…. There is no substitute for experience, IMHO. If all of that has failed to help you in your decision, then the only thing that I have left to say is buy tthe SCT. I would try and make sure that it was an 8 inch scope, though :)

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