Most of you will end here, and that’s fine.
Why? Because it’s a lot lighter, compact enough to get in the trunk, and have your backseats free for more friends to come along. When I bought my 18” Dob, I never knew how much more I’m going to use the compact and lightweight 12” Dob. And if you start here, you are never going to use these scopes later when you purchase larger ones.Īdvanced – $800 to $1100 – My favorite place for shopping. Mid-range scopes are a bit ‘complicated.’ They are nice and better than most people had at the beginning, but you’ll need to spend a lot more money in order to get a meaningful improvement over 8” aperture. Most of the Dobs you buy at this price range, you can use them years later, these are always going to be great for the craters on the Moon and the planets.īudget – $400 to $500 – This is the fun range, not too expensive, not too small. This is where every backyard astronomer should start to learn about the night sky, constellations, and star hopping. These scopes can do what the larger ones can’t, like get the entire Andromeda galaxy or all the Pleiades in your view with a lot of stars around them.īargain – $250 to $350 – This is where most of the exploration may begin. I’m sure 5” aperture can’t compete with 12” Dobs, but make no mistake they are great for the Moon, the planets and some of the brightest deep-sky objects. If they are small doesn’t mean they are incapable. Starter – up to $150 – Please don’t underestimate this small ‘starter’ reflecting telescopes. Also, the aluminized surfaces of a reflector’s mirrors may need to be sent off for recoating every 20 years or so, more frequently if you live in a high humidity environment, near the sea or badly air-polluted urban area. These are a heavy-duty, very durable, and tough piece of engineering, just don’t put too much dust on them. If you happen to be observing at a very dusty location, then very, very softly dust off the mirrors every now and then.Īfter 3 to 5 years of moderate use, you can wash the mirrors properly with water and soap after dismantling them from the tube. Some are saying that because of their ‘open’ design, you should dust and clean them regularly, but in my experience, a bit more dust won’t impede the viewing quality at all. Just dust off the primary and secondary mirror, and that’s about it. Reflectors are quite easy for maintenance. If your Dobsonian loses the collimation during one night of usage, you should check the construction of the truss poles, tighten the screws, check the spider of the secondary mirror and the cell where the primary mirror is embedded. With almost all telescopes, you aren’t going to lose the collimation, but please check before every stargazing session. You should have the custom to collimate your Dob before every use, it takes just a couple of minutes to properly collimate both of the mirrors to make sure they are aligned, and your viewing quality is as it should be. I would strongly suggest you buy a laser collimator they are very cheap, they are easy to use and speed up the collimation process. Other non-collapsible tube scopes aren’t prone to mirror skew. Most of the Dobsonian reflectors require collimation before every use.
That coupled with a nice set of narrowband filters, your Orion scope will be all you’ll ever need for occasional stargazing. That’s why I would recommend buying at least the cheap aspherical eyepieces for start, and later you should definitely buy one high-end eyepiece between 10 mm and 25 mm with an ultra-wide apparent field of view at around 100°. The first one is a 10 mm Plossl, which is complete nonsense and the 35 mm, 2” Plossl is somewhat useful for larger DSO, but you won’t get much of a contrast with it. The rocker base (mount) disassembles into smaller parts as well without the requirement for any tools.Įven with this scope, there are two eyepieces in the box. This is a much more compact version of a Dobsonian reflecting telescope than the previously mentioned Sky-Watcher scopes.įirst of all, the tube disassembles into three segments, one where the primary mirror is, one segment with the secondary mirror, and truss poles as the third part. I love the disassembling rocker base compact Dobsonians are probably the best reflecting telescopes out there.