The brightest stars are 1st magnitude, even zeroth (0th) magnitude, like Vega, which is defined as being magnitude 0.0 (it’s actually 0.03). It’s a reverse scale, so lower numbers – even negative numbers – are brighter. The brightness of everything in the sky is measured in magnitudes. To explain this, let’s discuss magnitude. There isn’t a whole lotta difference in light gathering capacity between the 8 and the 10, even though it seems like there should be, especially given the approximately two hundred dollar difference in price between 8-inch dobs and 10-inchers. Do this one cloudy night after getting off a long day at work.Įven if you lift, bro, and you’re okay with the extra weight, there’s still the matter of aperture itself. Carry that box from your house out to your observing site. Now repeat the test and put all 4 gallon jugs (and the 1/2 gallon jug if you’re considering the AD10) into the box – that’s the weight of the 10-inch tube, and that’s how you’d be carrying it, too. Then carry it by cradling it – arms underneath the box, box at your chest. A gallon of water weighs just over 8 lbs.įor the XT8, put 2 gallon jugs and the 1/2 gallon jug in the box for the AD8, put 3 gallons in there. Get 4 one-gallon milk jugs (save ’em up as you drink ’em), and a 1/2 gallon jug, too. Get a nice big sturdy shipping box, a box from something you ordered online. Before buying the scope, if you want to see how heavy that tube is, and use the same muscles to carry it, try this test. The 10-inch? Not quite as much, depending on whether 30 pounds is a lot for you to carry out to your observing spot. The 8-inch dob provides the perfect balance between large aperture with portability. Ah, well another night of observing lost. Instead of going out and doing some observing like you really want to, you crack open a beer, ease back into the couch, and watch some more Seinfeld reruns. But instead, in your exhausted state, you look over at that huge, heavy, water heater-sized dob sitting in the corner, and just sigh. You’re absolutely itching to get the scope out. The sky is finally clear for the first time in weeks, and the moon isn’t out to light pollute your view and wash everything out. You’ve just come home from a long, hard day at work or school. Heavy to the point of not actually using the scope as much as you would otherwise want to. Being your standard weakling nerd, which most of us in astronomy tend to be, and speaking on behalf of all my fellow weakling nerds, I find that things start to get really heavy once you get over 30 lbs. total, with 24 1/2 in the tube and 27 1/2 in the base. The Apertura AD8, sold by High Point Scientific (which is the same model as the Orion Skyline 8″, and both of which are built in the same factory in Taiwan called GSO), is probably the best of the mass-marketed line of dobs out there, in my opinion. Orion’s Intelliscope versions of each of these apertures weigh basically the same, as do Skywatcher’s dobs. The XT10 is a total of 53.4 lbs., with the tube being 50% heavier than the XT8 at about 31 lbs., and the remaining 22 1/2 lbs. This relatively light weight is just another reason why the 8-inch dob is right at that sweet spot for beginners of practically any age. Orion’s XT8, probably the most popular 8-inch dob out there, is 41 lbs., which breaks down almost exactly evenly between the tube and the base at about 20 1/2 lbs. Let’s first take a look at the weight differences between two popular lines of 8 and 10-inch dobs. Obviously, because of the increased aperture, you’re getting two things: more weight and more light. (Note the word “might” there.) There are two main differences between a 10-inch and an 8. No, this is more of a heads-up as to the differences between these two popular sizes of dobs, the 8 and the 10, and why, unless you’re a gym rat, you might not want to buy a 10-inch dob instead of an 8. No, no, this isn’t yet another anti-dob rant longtime readers will know that I actually do like dobs. Tags 6mm 8mm 9.7mm 10mm 15mm 32mm AAA Arcturus binoviewers astrophotography atmospheric dispersion Baader binoculars binoviewers Bird-Jones Burnham's Celestial Handbook C9.25 Celestron collimate collimation customer service dark adaptation DAS DAS Dark site Denver Astronomical Society diagonal exit pupil Explore Scientific eyepieces field of view filter Great Orion Nebula Great Red Spot integrated magnitude Jupiter kellner light-polluted light pollution Light pollution reduction filter Luminos lunar eclipse Maksutov Mars Meade Messier meteor shower moon Moon & Skyglow Moon and Skyglow mount observing report observing session Orion Orion Sirius Pro AZ/EQ-G ortho orthoscopic outreach Perseids plossl red-dot finder Saturn science seeing Short Tube 80 Skywatcher SLT solar filter solar observing ST-80 star party Stellarium TeleVue trapezium Ultrablock Ultrascopic upgrade Archivesįollow Light-Polluted Astronomy on
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