Picking the right second scope

Thanks for reading. I am new, having just bought a 4.5" Newt EQ (Celestron 114 Firstscope - I love it for the money, but am getting greedy). I want decent views of Saturn and Jupiter, primarily, and want to know if I would be better served (optically) with an 8" Dob as opposed to an inexpensive 4" refractor (Celestron C-4R).

Given that aperture is king, this is probably a dumb question, but my curiosity remains.

"...want to know if I would be better served (optically) with an 8" Dob as opposed to an inexpensive 4" refractor..."

===================================

An 8" scope of any type will stomp a 4". The dobsonian version is stable, relatively portable, extremely easy to set up and inexpensive.

Eightinch Dob wins in almost every way I can think of unless you have astrophotography in mind.

Alex

If your planetary viewing is high on your priority list then I would choose an EQ mount over the dob. The dob will be a faster setup and more mirror for the money. The EQ mount (with a ra motor) will give you tracking so you can bump the power. On the dob their are alternatives for tracking - dob driver, servocat, eq platforms and plain old hand chasing.

If you start gravitating to DSO's you'll hang out a little more in mid power so a dob works nicely for this.

The 4.5" to 8" jump is probably a good jump to make. Anytime I jump for aperture I try to jump 2 sizes. Jumping one doesn't seem like it would give enough to really feel like you jumped. I started with a 4.5" and moved to an 8" and later added a 12.5". Since I "tweaked" my 8" to get every last photon out of it that I could, looking through a stock 10" doesn't feel that different then the 8". The 12.5" gives me a much much different view then the 8". Why do I keep the 8": it is on an EQ and it totally rocks on planets.

Ed