So far had several observing sessions with my new 8" Dob.
Since conditions are good for DSO's right now, primarily been hunting for them. I really enjoy the way they look through the scope. Globular clusters in particular have almost a magical/occult aura to them.
I travel about 1.5 hours to a Bortle 4ish sky (21.34 mag/arcsec2) for this.
Just reflecting that, given the time investment involved, it probably would have been better to get the 10" Dob to see the DSO's just a little bit more clearly. (Although understanding 2" more aperture would not be game-changing). I will say DSO's aren't necessary the only thing I'm interested in, but they interesting targets while the moon is not out.
Since I'm only interested in visual astro right now, I suppose my upgrade path would be a 12" Dob in a couple years or or after doing as much as I can with the 8"; will just have to see if that could even fit that in my CX-5.
I also assume selling the 8 for a 10 is probably not worth the hassle.
I guess a benefit right now too is learning the maintenance and care aspects on the 8". Already made one mistake taking it out on a night that had very high moisture (rel humidity: 86% , temp: 48 F, dewpt: 44 F), and got just about all the optics coated in dew, so I won't be doing that again.
That said I'm very much enjoying the visual astronomy part; just went out last night and got a bunch of more messier objects checked off on my list.
Edited by sky_lounge, 26 May 2025 - 03:40 PM.