Re: EQ or Dob



"W. H. Greer" wrote:

"Starlord" wrote:

I got a e-mail today, from a guy with a yahoo.com account so I'm not sure if
he's here on on one of my lists. But he asked me if I would want my Babalon
8 as a Dob (which it's been for some years now) or as a EQ mounted scope.

Perhaps he wanted to sell (or give) you an EQ mount for your 8-inch
Newtonian.


That was my read of the email but I could be all wet. Better
shut up here. But I prefer GEMs if somebody was going to give me one. The big
issue in Sarlord's case is portability. But if he could
get a nice gem with drive he would be in heaven! Old Cave gem
would be perfect but mine is not for sale or give-away.
.....




As I told him, only during the mid point
of winter can the north star be seen

That presents little to no difficulty for using an EQ for visual
observing, especially from sites for which you already know which way
north is.

what mounts do you like or use and why?

I have equatorial as well as alt-az mounts. For sharing views with
others I prefer to use an equatorial with an RA drive. For much of my
own observing I use alt-az mounts. Alt-az mounts tend to be quicker
and easier to set-up and take-down than EQs; but I find EQs to be more
pleasurable to use (once they've been set up).

I could be wrong; but for you and your sidewalk astronomy I would
expect life to be a bit easier and simpler without a German
Equatorial. OTOH, you could keep the EQ for home use until you've
mastered a set-up, use, and take-down routine.
--
Bill

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