Comments on: Zhumell Z8 Dobsonian Review, not all dobs are equal

By: Allan Hall

Allan Hall — Tue, 26 Sep 2017 23:33:26 +0000

In reply to Lisa Wieland. That's completely personal preference. I retrofit all my telescopes (refractor, reflector, dob, whatever) to use higher end red dot finders and have a ton of optical finders like the RACI one from this dob sitting in a box. I find that I can get to my target FAR faster and easier with my red dot as opposed to an optical finder. Again, personal preference. Allan

By: Lisa Wieland

Lisa Wieland — Tue, 26 Sep 2017 03:21:55 +0000

The right angle correct image finder that came standard with this telescope is a far more useful and helpful accessory than a red dot finder. Through this right angle finder, you can find star-hops to deep sky objects that make finding anything in the sky a breeze. A red dot finder merely gets you to a ballpark location in the sky for an object, and then you still have to fish for it with dead reckoning. You can do that much with a green laser and then use the RACI finderscope to star hop to the object you want.

By: Ebenezer garbrah

Ebenezer garbrah — Fri, 08 Sep 2017 11:16:24 +0000

I agree that you do the viewing and the imaging separately. For viewing I picked the dobs 12ixx, a truss type dobs (so very transportable) . Bought an expensive eyepiece with a Uttra wide view and of course the Orion stratus eyepieces for planets viewing and DSO. Further reading got me into atrophotography.
My problem is the type suitable mount. I live in ghana at about Latitude 5 N practically along the Greenwich meridian. Most mounts I searched for are suitable for the northern hemisphere and I can understand that. Am sure there is also a reference star for those of us in the south and not Polaris for those in the north.
So, Looking for amount that is not location challenged? Costing about $1700 with a payload of at least 30 lbs. am confused about a refractor , Newtonian reflector or the RC astrograph.. walso confused in the minefield of dove tails., doing DSLR but canon?
Am sure you ca provide guidance on software to use for pre and post processing.