Celestron Star Hopper 6 or 8 portability

mgman · Joined: 23 Jul 2007 Posts: 10

My Daughter is looking at the Celestron Star Hopper 6 Dobsonians Telescope 10600. We would be using this at Bruneau Dunes State Park observatory area and elsewhere in the Idaho desert. Will traveling with this scope hurt it?
Should we be consindering this scope if we are to travel with it?
I was thinking she should go with the Star Hopper 8. What are your suggestions?
Since the area we will be using this scope is away from all light pollution would the Star Hopper 6 work just as well as the 8?
We would also be purchasing other eyepieces and filters with it.
Is there anything else we need to set it up or does the base it comes on work well?
Thanks for any information you can give us.
Dan

Jne_K · Site Admin Joined: 24 Sep 2003 Posts: 5509

Hi

You can travle with a reflector (a Dob is a reflector on a special mount), but you need to take special care with the optical tube. I always placed mine on the back seat and buckled it in with a seat belt.

If you have a ccess to a dark sky, the biggert scope will win in terms of number of objects seen and also deatil seen. Go with the 8 if you can afford it. The 8 also gets you a better finderscope and a 2" focuser that can use both 1.25" and 2" eyepieces.

The first thing to add is more eyepieces - you need more than one to do astronomy. A good way to begin is a basic kit, such as the Celestron 94303
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