My wife and I observe together and enjoy going to the Golden State and Oregon star parties. We setup a Webster D14 with f/4.3 Zambuto Mirror and ServoCAT-Nexus DSC with a TEC 140 on a DM6 and Planet tripod. I think this is a perfect combination. The TEC 140 is usually acclimated faster than the Webster and we start out the evening looking at the bright planets at dusk through the TEC 140. Once it is dark the Webster is ready. The TEC 140 is favored by my wife for its ease of use on the DM6 mount. We enjoy the bright DSOs, planets, double stars and wide field of view objects such as Veil or North America nebulas. It is also large enough to detect galaxy clusters. We enjoy the Webster for detecting the dimmer stuff or making the medium dim stuff brighter.
The machined DM6 and wider field of the refractor means we can alway land the eyepiece on the target with the Nexus DSC. Sometimes I have to hunt a little bit more or drop down to a wide field eyepiece when find targets in the Webster using the Nexus DSC. Both have 40K encoders. We use both with Sky Safari linked via wifi to the Nexus DSC on each setup. If I am going to really push magnifications on a night with excellent seeing, I will engage the ServoCAT so we can have tracking a 300+ powers.
I prefer viewing wider fields of view and double stars on the TEC 140. If we are only out for a shorter period or don't have as much room we just bring the TEC 140. If the sky is partly cloudy and the viewing time may be limited we stick with the TEC 140. We always bring both to star parties and enjoy comparing the views in each scope. I also like to setup our Lunt 100m 45 degree APO ED binoculars on a FTX tripod with Nexus DSC. It is fun using Panoptic 24mm in the Lunts and just cruising the dark skies.
So our opinion is it shouldn't be 14 inch dob vs 150mm refractor but both side by side shared with a friend or family.
Edited by JMW, 29 July 2018 - 12:09 AM.