TheSkySearchers

https://www.costco.com/explore-scientif ... 05499.html Thanks all

The thread on c.n. was pretty positive.

First off, it's an ES product. Second, Costco is offering it for a very reasonable price. I don't think you can go wrong with this, especially with Costco's return policy.

Cheers

That's nice

It looks new to me - it's not the same kind as their earlier 10/12/16" series that cost a whole lot more. It's hard to go wrong with that. 10" is the best size for average use, 12" gets too heavy. Personally I'd rather have a collapsible or solid tube because the truss takes work to assemble. It does not list a shroud as included, and they are unclear about the eyepieces.

Frankly I'm shocked about some of the Dob prices I see elsewhere, I got my Z12 for $630 with a much better build and accessories as it seems. I would wait until after the holidays. It looks like the prices are going up in anticipation.

Here is the scope on the ES site that has the same model number that Costco is offering. The accessories are slightly different, you get more eyepieces on the ES site whereas with Costco you get a 1.3 megapixel camera. The Costco site is very vague about what the focal length of the eyepiece is but I'm assuming it's somewhere between 20 and 26mm Plossl. Regardless, it is still a good deal although on the ES site it's the same price.

https://explorescientific.com/products/ ... ebc8&_ss=r

Found this image on the WWW. Looks like a 6 inch comes close to brightness as a 10 inch. This is surprising to me. Has anyone ever compared a 6 inch against a 10 inch aperture scope? Left click the image.

M57 is kind of odd. Looks same in most scopes. The surrounding stars are what changes. A 6" may see the 12th magnitude star on the side of the ring, maybe not. A 10" will easily see it.

Jones wrote: ↑Tue Oct 05, 2021 5:21 am M57 is kind of odd. Looks same in most scopes. The surrounding stars are what changes. A 6" may see the 12th magnitude star on the side of the ring, maybe not. A 10" will easily see it.

Yes, with small scopes. It depends on what you mean by most scopes. If you mean under 6" aperture, yes, then it shows about the same. In my 6" MK66 on great nights one starts to see color, not much, a pale yellow straw color. As aperture increases the color becomes more vibrant. The largest scope I viewed M57 with was a 40" RC f9 at about 600-800x. The colors were very saturated with brilliant yellow, gorgeous red tips and blu and green infilling and the central star. I've caught the central star in my Z12. There's also a barred spiral galaxy in the field IC 1296. It takes a bit of aperture to catch it. Usual rule of thumb is that it needs 20" aperture, but I've caught it with smaller.

I've seen M57 as brighter in the 10" than the 6" frac, though they are similar in appearance.

Refractordude wrote: ↑Tue Oct 05, 2021 12:45 am Found this image on the WWW. Looks like a 6 inch comes close to brightness as a 10 inch. This is surprising to me. Has anyone ever compared a 6 inch against a 10 inch aperture scope? Left click the image.

I don't have 10" scope but my 9.25" SCT definitely shows more details and color in brighter targets and go much deeper in detecting faint targets compared to 6" frac. 'Get as large scope as you can handle' rule always applies.

But let's consider 'as you can handle' part. 10" DOB is substantially larger, heavier and more time and hustle to set up compared to your 6" frac. Since it is truss design it will take even more time to setup than solid tube DOB. For every user there is a limit in how much aperture they can comfortably handle, at certain point it becomes too much trouble and the scope is sitting unused in the closet.

Bigzmey wrote: ↑Tue Oct 05, 2021 8:20 pm But let's consider 'as you can handle' part. 10" DOB is substantially larger, heavier and more time and hustle to set up compared to your 6" frac. Since it is truss design it will take even more time to setup than solid tube DOB. For every user there is a limit in how much aperture they can comfortably handle, at certain point it becomes too much trouble and the scope is sitting unused in the closet.

This, unfortunately, is the dilemma faced by all users of telescopes (both visual and AP) at some point or another. And everybody's personal answer is based on their own unique local factors. It is not something that neither you nor I can predict. But getting them to think about it is half the battle. Thanks Andrey.

Basically, once you figure out the routine needed to set up that particular scope it will either wed you to that scope or drive you to a different size/configuration.

In essence, be prepared to buy another telescope!!!

Cheers,

JayTee wrote: ↑Wed Oct 06, 2021 5:36 am

Bigzmey wrote: ↑Tue Oct 05, 2021 8:20 pm But let's consider 'as you can handle' part. 10" DOB is substantially larger, heavier and more time and hustle to set up compared to your 6" frac. Since it is truss design it will take even more time to setup than solid tube DOB. For every user there is a limit in how much aperture they can comfortably handle, at certain point it becomes too much trouble and the scope is sitting unused in the closet.

This, unfortunately, is the dilemma faced by all users of telescopes (both visual and AP) at some point or another. And everybody's personal answer is based on their own unique local factors. It is not something that neither you nor I can predict. But getting them to think about it is half the battle. Thanks Andrey.

Basically, once you figure out the routine needed to set up that particular scope it will either wed you to that scope or drive you to a different size/configuration.

In essence, be prepared to buy another telescope!!!

Cheers,

Yes, I have purchased 11" SCT OTA just to realize that this is too much hustle for me to handle.