Oh, these are all great points. Siegfried is picking up on my aperture fever, and the 12" and 10" solutions have their own appeal. The 12" truss Dob loaner that I have been using takes 20 min to set up and collimate, if I am lucky on the collimation. But the 8" solid tube Dob loaner that I first got from SLAS took 5 minutes to set up and was easy to use on nights when I had insomnia and the sky was clear.... Part of me says I should get an 8" solid tube Dob for cheap somewhere and *then* think about a larger scope, and part of me says that I have been using a 12" and need to move up. I'll take a look at pricing on the 10", Daniel and Joe, that is really good feedback. ...oh, and my husband says it needs to fit in our car along with our camping gear. I priced out the 15" ultracompact Obsession with everything on it, and it was just under $11K new. That's pretty steep. So I think it is a good reference figure. I still want a 36" telescope that fits in my purse.... Marlene