S&T Test Report by Dennis di Cicco Sky-Watcher's Stargate 18-inch Dobsonian The Stargate truss-tube Dobsonians are billed as the largest mass-market telescopes available. Is the 18-inch model worthy of the hype? Stargate 18-inch Dobsonian U.S. Price: $5,999 ($6,999 as tested with Go To motor drives) skywatcherusa.com What We Like Excellent optics Optional drive offers accurate pointing and tracking Overall performance What We Don't Like Abysmal instruction manual for telescope assembly 18-inch Stargate truss-tube Dobsonian for several months late last year, it's easy to understand why deep-sky observers proclaim that aperture is king. Objects that appear faint and ill-defined in smaller scopes take on a whole new dimension in an 18-inch. Many globular clusters are transformed from small, fuzzy glows into brilliant spheres of sparkling stars. Lots of planetary nebulae appear large and bright enough to show obvious structure not seen with smaller apertures. And the fields surrounding many familiar deep-sky objects are filled with a multitude of faint background stars lending 3D-like perspectives. t The Sky-Watcher Stargate 18-inch with SynScan motor drives for Go To pointing and tracking is a big telescope, standing more than 7 feet tall when pointed at the zenith. While the author set up the telescope by himself, the process would be far easier with two people. 58 A PR I L 2 018 * SK Y & TELESCOPE A LL PHOTOS PROVIDED BY THE AU THOR AFTER TESTING SKY-WATCHER'Shttp://www.skywatcherusa.com