For general information and fun I thought I'd include some poll data on big telescopes...Source is the Yahoo! Telescope User Groups.  (May 1, 2002)

For questions like:

bulletWhat size telescope should I get?
bulletWhat is a big telescope?

 

What size aperture do you consider 'big' for routine observing?
Size (inches) # Respondents %
 >= 8 inches 4 2.31%
>= 10 inches 10 5.78%
>= 12 inches 27 15.61%
>= 14 inches 29 16.76%
>= 16 inches 43 24.86%
>= 18 inches 30 17.34%
>= 20 inches 30 17.34%

 

What size (in inches) dobsonians do people on this list actually have?
Size (inches) # Respondents %
4 2 0.83%
6 8 3.32%
8 23 9.54%
10 32 13.28%
12 32 13.28%
14 21 8.71%
16 28 11.62%
17 11 4.56%
18 37 15.35%
20 17 7.05%
22 8 3.32%
24 1 0.41%
25 8 3.32%
27 1 0.41%
30 6 2.49%
32 2 0.83%
36 1 0.41%
40 2 0.83%
41 0 0.00%
Way, way bigger than that 1 0.41%
 

10/01/2017