Tiago

Just to bring a (temporary) conclusion to this thread. Looking through local classifieds, I managed to get an ST-80 plus associated eyepieces, RDF and diagonal for 90 European Union credits. Considering I have guitar pedals way more expensive than that, I’m pretty happy, and I’m seeing that thing finding its way to the pelican case on my motorbike. 
Still saving for something fancy, though

Had a brief first light when the clouds opened. Crappy afocal photo with a crappy old phone, but it is nice to have a refractor again. 

Hi Victor

Thanks, it was indeed. More food for thought, particuarly given that since stocks are low in all shops, I'm not pushed to take any immediate decision..

 -T.

19 minutes ago, Victor Boesen said:

I was in somewhat the same situation as you for a little more than a year ago. I have a 10" dob and a pair of Helios Apollo 15X70 binoculars, that I've brought to Mallorca on holiday. This was great, and the lagoon, frigid and etc looked great with my OIII and UHC filter, I did, however, want some more flexibility with regards to magnification and decent performance on the planets. I highly considered taking the leap for a tak-60 or even the 76DCU, but ended with a much cheaper option, the Skywatcher Evostar 72ED DS-Pro. I use it one my Manfrotto tripod and alt/az mount head without much trouble even at 100X.

 

The view through it is far from bad, resolving detail on the Martian disk in May this year at a diameter of just under 9 arc seconds and the Cassini division in Saturns rings. I sadly don't have a 2" diagonal yet for my 24mm, 82 degree eyepiece, but I could imagine it could provide outstanding views of the NAN, Veil, Andromeda and etc. What I also really like is the focuser, which is surprisingly sturdy in my opinion. Chromatic aberration is little to none at high power on the planets, but a slight yellow hue is noticeable on the lunar limb. In my opinion this is not a problem at all, nor does it draw my attention from the target itself.

 

I know you haven't mentioned imaging, but the Evostar 72ED is a very capable imaging scope with an OVL field flattener and a decent mount. I've used it to take some pictures with my star adventure mount on my Manfrotto tripod and DSLR.

 

Good luck with your choice! I love my small refractor for it's portability;)

 

 

Hi Victor

Thanks for your input. I actually considered that telescope (and the TS 70mm) when I bought my Dob. While I certainly don't regret getting the light bucket, there's a certain allure in small refractors. How small does it pack?

As for imaging, I satisfied that bug with a Minitrak 3 and my camera. I cannot possibly be bothered to be outside with a laptop, heavy duty mount and fancy stuff - the 8" is at the limit of what I personally consider to be practical, and serious imaging is a deep, twisty rabbit hole I'd rather avoid. I do rather well with that minimalist setup - Minitrak, old Pentax K1, cheap achromat prime lens (135 mm). It's stupid easy to set up and I can even shoot galaxies with it

34 minutes ago, Stu said:

For sheer flexibility and ruggedness I don’t think you can beat a small apo refractor. Jeremy’s suggestion is wonderful if budget is no issue; I had a Tak FC76DC for a while and optically they are superb, really lovely scopes.

Another option might be something like the TS72mm or similar available from different brands. These are FPL-53 glass and although not in Tak Fluorite territory still excellent scopes.

Well, budget is always an issue, but I’m far more inclined to spend more if it is a worthwhile, long-term purchase rather than a “consumer product” kind of thing. 

18 minutes ago, jock1958 said:

Bought my little Tak FS-60C/Q second hand a while back for airline travel and trips away. All I can say it’s a little beauty and for a scope with only 60mm aperture it punches way above its weight. I had it out last week and it was showing some outstanding detail on Mars & Jupiter. I bought mine on the back of Mathew @DirkSteele brilliant reviews on the FS-60 range and mighty glad I did!

Good to know, that one has always been appealing to me - although that 76 mm is really neat too, if significantly dearer to one’s pocket. If I understood that correctly there’s also an extender for old-school long f-ratios. 

8 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

Takahashi FC 76 DCU

Designed to be airline portable, light enough for simple light mounting and optically impeccable. I have a thread on it on here somewhere. I took it with me to India for the first 3 months of this year.

Hi Jeremy,

Thanks, I had not seen that one. It looks rather interesting, if somewhat conducent to a lower bank account balance.  🤔

Quick question, do you use the 6x30 finder scope?

Hi everyone. I hope your having better skies than me here

I have been considering getting a second telescope, with an emphasis on portability and ease of travel. Despite the current circumstances, I do find myself going around a bit, and I will make a point of getting my butt to at least 2000 m ASL as soon as that doesn’t land me in quarantine here in Germany (ergo, probably not that soon).

Anyway, 6 months ago I became the rather happy and satisfied owner of an 8” Dob, which has been a lot of fun to play with. However, portability is not exactly its strong suit, and I’m looking at something that:

a) I can take with me when flying 

b) I can take with me on the sidecar when the wife and I manage to escape from family life again, or in whatever room is left on a car when dragging a family with 3 kids around. 

My criteria are actually rather simple. It has to pack into as little volume as possible, allow me to mount it on a tripod or at best something like an AZ-GTi, and preferably no observable chromatic aberration on visual observation. I am ok-ish with waiting to buy something more expensive, with a somewhat limited aperture, and to fiddle a bit with it if needed. I like to do a bit of everything with the telescope, but I am also aware of the limitations these criteria impose. That being said, while the criteria are “simple”, the answers are all somewhat unsatisfying. 

I’ve considered getting a small, high quality refractor such as a Televue or Takahashi 60 mm (basically marrying that thing, because at those prices, buyer’s remorse is not an option), a small Maksutov (but then I compromise on DSOs), a SCT such as a C5 (also a compromise), or even strip a Heritage 130p of its mount and carry the damn thing with me.

I live under Bortle 4 skies, and have the possibility of getting away to dark sites relatively often (epidemics allowing), but most of the time I have to pack lightly.

Do any of you more experienced ladies and gentlemen have any recommendations or insights on something that I may have missed?

- Tiago

Ah well, just to give some conclusion to this post:

I scored a ridiculously cheap vintage Tiltall 4602 tripod on the classified ads, and was set to order a Skywatcher 72ED plus accessories. And then I remembered I had my 12x50 binoculars somewhere in a box in the basement.  And I thought, “Hmm, that’s how I started with this, some 20 years ago, and it won’t be THAT different, magnitude-wise...”

A couple of hours of rummaging around the house later, and I had that plus all the stuff, namely the L-bracket and my BST eyepieces.

So, I look into my shopping cart at the online store and emptied it. However, having already said goodbye to that money in my mind, courtesy of the Gods of consumerism and globalization, I pulled the trigger on a discounted 8” f/6 Dob to stay at home, a tracking mount for our cameras to set on the Tiltall (the good wife is a photography nut and also an astronomy enthusiast, if to a lesser degree than me), plus a few assorted goodies to get everything running.

So, visual and astrophography rigs sorted on a budget in one fell swoop. Coronavirus be damned, I shall enjoy my quarantined nights!

I do pity the poor guy dropping all that off at my doorstep, though...

Well, I did make the mistake of sending my request for a quote late on a Friday afternoon - I will have to wait until Monday morning at best. But the good wife has graciously accepted that I may build a pier in the best spot in the garden, in exchange for some digging and mowing of the lawn - a contract of unspecified duration

@everyone:

Thanks for all the input. The point was not so much asking for advice on what to look for, but on the pros and cons that have led you far more experienced gentlemen to use one telescope over all others.

To keep things in perspective, I'm all about value for money these days. I could go on a shopping spree, but it has to be worthwhile FOR ME (a lesson learned the hard way by being an amateur musician with way too much gear, all of which is absolutely lovely regardless of price, and which I can't bear the thought of parting with...)

I do have the benefit of ridiculous dark skies, particularly on winter nights, and living close to hills and 3000ft+ mountains within 10 minutes' drive. I also know that observing out of my backyard will be a good, solid 95% of all the observing I will do, and that means obstructed view to the north, and roofs all around me throwing warm air into my photon streams.

I am currently waiting on some quotes for 70, 80 and 100ED telescopes (2nd hand, ex-demo, returns) and assorted paraphernalia as I realized with a bit of horror that half my eyepieces are in another country and will not be coming to me in the next few months given the current situation. Given that practicality is literally my main concern, I'm looking into something I can use in multiple ways, easily.

So, as I write this, I'm considering a 70/80mm ED refractor on a sturdy tripod/AZ mount. That would mean it would be portable to the extreme, as bump resistant as it could be, and I could theoretically repurpose the OTA for astrophotography should that disease ever be contracted again. And it would probably pair up well with another scope on a dual mount, should I ever feel so inclined.

I may well end up with something else entirely, depending on the VFM and deals I find, but I'll make sure to report back

Cheers,

- T.

EDIT: After I typed this, I noticed the neighbors removing the huge tree obstructing my view North

4 minutes ago, Nyctimene said:

My 8" f/4 Hofheim Instruments traveldob, here shown on the recently released equatorial platform, without the shroud, to show the construction details (and John L. Dobson's signature on one of the trusses!). Very compact, lightweight (8 kgs in toto), can be carried out of the shed in a single haul, Excellent optics, that hold collimation well, a smoothly operating Dob mount. At the moment, in a permanently setup situation - I hope, that one day I will be able to collapse it and to travel with it to view the southern skies.

I guess, it will follow me some day into the nursing home....;-)

http://www.hofheiminstruments.com/8-zoll-dobson.html

Stephan

 

OK, that thing is just gorgeous

28 minutes ago, Philip R said:

My TeleVue Ranger...

Being a 70mm refractor I dont have to wait long periods for it to cool down before I can start observing. Also 'safe' for white light solar observing, (shown in image with a Herschel solar wedge), and terrestial viewing.

 

I love refractors, particularly short ones. I just couldn't afford an ED/APO back then, but they are so much cheaper now, and I did find some sweet deals on some EDs all the way up 4 ". With a 70mm or 80 mm, I can just toss the whole thing into the car or sidecar trunk and take it whenever we're able to travel again (the Alps and the Black Forest are a stone's throw away from me). A 4", sure, of course I can bring it in the car. The question is: would I?

1 minute ago, johninderby said:

Might be worth taking a look at this dealer. They test and adjust the scopes they sell not just sell on a scope in a box. 

https://www.teleskop-spezialisten.de/shop/index.php?language=en

Yeah, been looking at several stores. These gentlemen also have an 8" SW Dob on discount, which was one of the possibilities.

3 minutes ago, dweller25 said:

Hi Tiago,

What objects do you observe the most ?

Right now? My computer screens 😕

But back when I was still looking up, the usual stuff - planets, moon, brighter DSOs. Not bothering with astrophotography through a telescope.

Just now, johninderby said:

The hardest thing is finding “Your” scope not someone elses choice. Problem is there are a lot of nice scope to choose from. 😁

Working backwards helps. Forget about the scope for now but think about what you want to do with it. Light poluted urban enviroment or dark sky, portability important or not and a general purpose scope for looking at a bit of everything or is the moon. planets or DSOs more important.

Oh yes. For me, and knowing myself, practicality is key. That's why I originally went with an achromat refractor on an alt-az mount. Priorities are more or less the same, but different setting, different budget, different expectations.
I do know that I can pretty much use anything for sale out there, I was just fishing for what people found more practical to see if it resonated with me.

Just now, andrew s said:

@Tiago given the above feel free to choose what ever you fancy. The only conclusion I can draw from the replies is that observers are all different and what suits one may not suit another.

Regards Andrew 

I had gotten that much when I was typing the original post.
I did get a few interesting ideas though - even though practicality has different meanings to different people, there were a few "Oh, I didn't expect that" moments when reading some of the replies.

4 minutes ago, johninderby said:

If my budget allowed a TEC140 would be my APO choice.

https://www.baader-planetarium.com/en/telescopes/tec/tec-apo-140-ed-triplet-apochromat.html

That's firmly into the vintage motorbike/guitar price range. I'd be afraid of even looking at it

15 minutes ago, mikeDnight said:

That's easy. It's a 100mm Apo refractor. Last night I was using a 10" F6 Dob and I hated the thing. Constant wrestling with what has to be the world's most appealing mount design.  The views were good but not nearly as sharp or as enjoyable as the apo. High powers were soft compared to the 100mm, which will glide effortlessly past 400X without getting out of breath. Deep sky in the 100mm fluorite is remarkably bright and detailed and its star images are unsurpassed. The Moon and planets are simply breathtaking. So, even though I've owned and used many much bigger scopes, including bigger apo's, my most used scope is a Takahashi FC100D. 

That may be priced in the "selling kidneys in the black market category", but I can wait

4 minutes ago, banjaxed said:

My 8” Dob is the most used scope as it is on a platform trolley which can be moved in to position and be up and running in 2 minutes, it is by far the easiest scope for me to use.

Now that is an idea (the trolley) I hadn't thought about, thank you!

Just now, johninderby said:

The big thing we need to know is what is the budget?

My favourite scope foe quick looks is my StellaMira 80mm f/10. Can be used on a photo tripod. Second favourite is an 8” Classical Cassegrain on my Rowan AZ100 Alt-Az mount. Third is my 10” Bresser dob.

 

Budget is somewhat flexible, but I'd rather not have to sell a kidney. The point is not so much price and ease of use. I have no use for say, a €2k paperweight, but if I would be using it every clear night for years, that would be an easier pill to swallow.
I do have to say I have never heard of StellaMira or Rowan, will look into that.

Hi everyone,

After a few years without a telescope (about 5 moves, different countries, etc...) I am looking into buying a new one for me to use in my countryside backyard.

I previously had an 5" achromat refractor on an AZ4 mount which was really nice under the dark skies I had back then, and not much of a hassle to bring out back. It obviously had a lot of shortcomings, but was a pretty neat grab and go scope for relatively few shekels (Maks/SCTs were expensive back then, and international shipping of a reflector was a bit of a scary thought).

As of now, I'm tempted to go with a Dob this time around, but I never did have to carry one. Small Maks do look practical, and I think I'm done with refractors due to size/chromatic aberration. I can polar align a scope, but honestly can't be bothered to do it for visual "grab and go", especially when I have the sky to the North partially obstructed. GoTo is nice and all, but I can find my way around the sky - tracking is a nice perk though :). Still have some pretty damn good eyepieces, so I'm sorted there.

I am also so unbelievably out of date with what is out there right now that there may well be something I haven't considered. New brands, new products, etc..

In short, living up to the mantra that "the best telescope is the one you use the most",  and to come to the question on the thread title: what is the telescope that you bring out on a whim whenever you feel like looking up?

Thanks, and clear skies!

- T.

Thanks for the informative post - it will certainly help when buying time comes.