Digital Setting Circles Vs GOTO, Pros-Cons?

Having only recently been back in the hobby since 1990, I've found out just how RUSTY I'm at finding things in the sky. DSCs and GOTO are now looking very attractive indeed. What are the pro's and cons of each? It would seem to me that setting either of them up in the field would be similar but the DSCs would be more reliable as you don't have to deal with noisy high torque motors. Or is that not a problem?

There's a lot of experience & skill here and your comments and advice would be most appreciated. I own both the Losmandy 8 & 11.

Thanks.

Jeff

Jeff Blazey said:

Having only recently been back in the hobby since 1990, I've found out just how RUSTY I'm at finding things in the sky. DSCs and GOTO are now looking very attractive indeed. What are the pro's and cons of each? It would seem to me that setting either of them up in the field would be similar but the DSCs would be more reliable as you don't have to deal with noisy high torque motors. Or is that not a problem?

There's a lot of experience & skill here and your comments and advice would be most appreciated. I own both the Losmandy 8 & 11.

Thanks.

Jeff

It depends on what you want to do with them. For imaging, it's go-to all the way. The go-to systems are usually considerably more accurate and are easier for an imager to work with IMHO. I'm not a huge fan of DSCs for equatorial mounts, period, but that's just me.

Now, Dobs? Somebody was asking me about my 12-inch truss tube job the other day, whether I'd consider a Stellarcat of similar go-to system for it. I had to answer "no." I am perfectly satisfied with the simple push-to/no drives paradigm _for my Dob_.

Which DSC? This is just me, but I have never liked the Tangent style DSCs with their levelling and "warp factors." The Sky Commander is amazingly accurate on my scope, and all it requires is alignment on two stars (oh, you can enter the date too, if you want to look at planets). I also hear good things about the Argo Navis.

8)

Jeff,
I haven't used DSC, been real interested in them though. Seems expensive for what they do.
I have an inexpensive GOTO mount by Meade. It works OK sometimes and other times not worth the trouble. The biggest thing that I see is that you give up the drive with DSC alone.

Scott

Thank you all so much for the advice. What I think I'll do is add DSC to the GM-8 and GOTO to the GM-11.

Thanks again.

Jeff