Sky-Watcher's Dobsonians are an affordable alternative, and very popular with amateur astronomers of all levels.

The 1200mm focal length allows better eyepiece selection to achieve high magnifying power, and the  teflon bearing surfaces of the mount ensure smooth tracking ability about both axes. This model is a true "light bucket".

The Dobsonian mount usually relies on the friction between the side bearings on the optical tube of the telescope and a frictional material on the saddle to hold the optical tube in place. If there is too much friction, the telescope is difficult to move to centre an object in the filed of view. If there is too little friction, the telescope will not stay where it is positioned. This makes stabilising the optical tube of the telescope difficult when using a Dobsonian mount, especially when accessories, such as a finderscope or an eyepiece, are added to the optical tube. As long as the amount of friction is at an appropriate level, and therefore stabilisation of the optical tube is achieved, the telescope can remain in its desired position to view an object and maintain its position even when the mount is rotated.

The devices for stabilising a telescope on other Dobsonian mounts currently available include: a sizeable weight to counterbalance the weight of the telescope; a friction lock that must be adjusted to inhibit movement of the telescope; and a spring attached between the telescope tube and mount to aid in stabilisation. These devices are inconvenient to use because they do not provide a simple and user-friendly way to adjust the friction.

This model features a tension control handle: the object of the Sky-Watcher Tension Control Handle invention (US Patent No. 6,940,642) is to provide a tension adjuster that users can easily turn to add or reduce tension, thereby increasing or decreasing the friction between the optical tube and the sideboard of the mount. By providing such a tension adjuster, the telescope does not need to be balanced in order to stay in position. The tension adjuster can be tightened such that the optical tube can stay in a position but can still be moved when prompted to adjust the position of the optical tube. Alternatively, the tension adjuster can be completely tightened to lock the optical tube in position.

The Sky-Watcher 254mm (10")  Dobsonian telescope has a paraboloidal primary mirror to eliminate spherical aberration and a four-arm, secondary- mirror bracket with fine supports (0.5mm thick), to reduce diffraction spikes and light loss. A parabolic or more accurately a "paraboloidal" mirror, is ground to a shape which brings all incoming light rays to a perfect focus, on axis. In addition, this model includes a 2" focuser with a 1.25" adapter, allowing the use of either eyepiece size.

A Dobsonian is a simple, elegant form of an alt-azimuth mount made to carry a Newtonian reflector and it was popularised by John Dobson in the late 1970's. The Dobsonian mounted telescope is popular among amateur astronomers and telescope makers because of its simplicity. In its simplest form, the Dobsonian mount consists of a box which allows the optical tube assembly to pivot in altitude, while the box itself is swiveled on a base in azimuth.

The Sky-Watcher 10” Dobsonian features a primary mirror made of Pyrex glass. Because of its very low coefficient of thermal expansion, Pyrex glass is less affected by changing temperatures. This greatly reduces the cooling time of a telescope larger than 8” in dameter without using an extra fan. The great stability of this low expansion glass ensures high quality images. It is also substantially more resistant to scratching the plate glass.