Cosmic Geoff

The whole point of a CPC is the powered GoTo mount. It is not really worthwhile to use it without power, but you can unlock the altitude and azimuth clutches and reposition it by hand, but you will not have the slow-motions that would make a scope with a 2metre+ focal length usable. If a powered mount is not what you want, sell the outfit, get a similar OTA and put it on a manual mount. The GoTo is actually quick and easy to align once you have done it a few times.

Astronomy is not a cheap hobby, and £100 to £150 will not go far. The Moon looks great through any telescope, but views of the planets may disappoint. I suggest you find and read the "What can I expect to see" thread here. There are a few outfits for under £150 that are much better than toys, but it might be wise to discuss the purchase with your girlfriend. There are secondhand bargains to be had, but you need to be able to tell the difference between a good buy and a dud. An alternative is a pair of binoculars.

The C8 SE is one of the cheapest 8" SCT GoTo packages you can buy, and despite the price of over £1200 is entry level for this class of instrument. It is also intended as portable - you can pick up the whole package and carry it through a standard doorway. The CPC800 variant with the same optical tube is rock steady by comparison - and a lot heavier and more expensive.

I have no idea how that 10mm eyepiece compares with others. Ideally you want several eyepieces to give a range of magnifications depending on what you want to look at, the seeing conditions and how much you want to get in the field of view. In the UK one would look at the Celestron Omni for lower powers and more complex eyepieces for higher powers. The choice is immense. It does appear that the diagonal can be swapped out.

You don't know if the diagonal can be exchanged. Probably not. Which 10mm eyepiece? Unless you specify one, we can't comment. We don't know what is available in your country. But 10mm would be a useful focal length of eyepiece. A Barlow lens should be useful.

The Celestron, Skywatcher and Meade refractors would probably suit you, being 'classic' long focal ratio achromatic refractors. The mounts are likely to be wobbly, but there is not much you can do about that with your budget. And you will need to know how to set up an equatorial mount to get the best out of it. I would issue a cautionary note about the C90 spotting scope. This is designed to be a low-power terrestial scope, and though it can be turned on the night sky, you should confirm that the eyepiece can be swapped with higher power 1.25" (31.7mm) barrel size eyepieces. The 45 deg erecting prism may not be the best for high power astronomical use and I suspect you cannot swap it out. In short, a Maksutov supplied for astronomical use with a 90 degree digonal would be better. And is a mount and tripod included in the deal?

There is a Sky-watcher part that should do exactly what you want - basically a dovetail bar joined at right angles to a camera mounting bar. I got one with my AZ-4 but I expect they can be bought separately. Be aware that you need an equatorial mount for long exposures.

The Moon looks great through any telescope. What you buy will depend on what's available to you, and your personal preference. Try to avoid very small Newtonians with short focal ratios and spherical mirrors, e.g. f4 as they will not perform well. I do not recommend the Meade. For looking at the Moon the type of mount is not that critical so long as it is not excessively wobbly. If you are looking at scopes of 80mm aperture, a refractor may make more sense. I don't know about the Celestron as this exact model is not available in the west. It looks like a rather basic model. A small Maksutov would also prove practical. If terrestial use is a consideration, look at the class of telescopes called "spotting scopes" as they could fill both roles. You can also use an astro scope on terrestrial targets so long as you don't mind the image being upside down or laterally flipped.

At 500 Euros you still have to make compromises and decide which of your wants have to be sacrificed. 500 Euros will buy you a rather small (and portable) Go To mounted telescope, or a slighly bigger telescope on a tracking mount, or good-sized Newtonian telescope on a basic Dobsonian mount, but the last will not be well suited for imaging anything, just for visual use. (and it might not match your definition of portable),

Beware the glossy astro photograph, as these rarely represent what you can see from your backyard with an affordable telescope. Also be aware that a processed planetary image taken with e.g. an 8" telescope will often show a lot more detail than an inexperienced observer will see visually with the same telescope. The Moon looks great through any telescope. Saturn may not look quite like that through an 8"SCT, but I have imaged it and been able to record the major division in the rings and bands of colour on the planet. Either the C8 SE or the C8 Evolution would be a sensible buy - with the Evolution the extra money buys you a better quality mount with various extras you can look up on the sales pages. Also budget for a +12v power source, a dew shield and some higher powered eyepieces.

From a dark skies site I observed a lot of DSOs (galaxies) with my C8 SE and I did not need a wide field eyepiece - just a Plossl. And not even the lowest power eyepiece the 1.25" barrel will take - I used a 25mm and 15mm Plossl. The field of this scope with a 25mm Plossl is about half a degree: a modest number of star clusters are bigger than this, as are a few nearby galaxies (whose outer parts you probably will not be able to see anyway) but uncountable numbers of DSOs are smaller. If you have the Stellarium program you can set it up for a particular telescope and eyepiece and it will generate an "as seen through the eyepiece" view for you of various objects. The Perseus Double Cluster looks great through a 203mm f5 Newtonian - I had one and that cluster was the best view I had with it. 🙂

This is a fairly specific requirement, and one not too dificult to fill. However I should point out that observing the moon and planets may not occupy you for much of your observing time, as the accessibility of these objects varies, so you should consider how you would use the telescope on other objects. This also affects your choice of mount, as if all you want to do is the Moon and planets, a driven equatorial mount will suffice, whereas if you want to use the scope for general observing, you could consider a GoTo mount that will enable you to find faint and non-obvious objects. You don't need an equatorial GoTo mount for viewing, or planetary imaging. For a planetary scope you want a large aperture, especially if you have imaging in mind. You should look at Newtonian reflectors, in particular the long focus f8 variants. With a larger budget, look at Maksutovs and SCTs (as used by almost all serious planetary imagers) as they are compact for their aperture and have a large depth of focus useful for accomodating imaging accessories such as flip mirrors. Wiith an unmodified Newtonian you can have difficulty even getting a camera to focus. I suggest looking at an aperture of at least 6 inches, more if you can afford it, e.g via a used instrument.

I have a CPC800 so feel well placed to comment. The CPC925 or CPC1100 would be great setups but as others have said they are very heavy as the OTA and mount head do not separate. I would not be keen to acquire anything heavier than the CPC800 in this range (at my age) and if I did aspire to a bigger Celestron SCT I would be looking at a different mount so that I could split it it into lighter lumps. Or does your situation allow you to put wheels under the whole thing including tripod and wheel it in and out of an outbuilding? On the plus side the mount is exceptionally stable and vibration-resistant, and free from annoying backlash, and ideal for planetary imaging, and with the GPS is easy to get aligned. I suggest though that you can afford to replace the straight-thru finder with a red dot type finder + a RACI (right angle) finder both mounted on the OTA. (The red dot then acts as a finder for the optical finder - you will find out why...) With a f10 SCT you don't need those fancy expensive eyepieces - Plossls will work well enough in the lower powers - but I expect like other SCT owners to whom I pointed this out you will go ahead and buy them anyway. 🙂

Astronomy is not a cheap hobby and £100 will not go far. You can buy telescopes this cheap but they are likely to be disappointing. The Skywatcher Heritage 130p is often recommended for beginners but is likely to be out of stock with most dealers. Second- hand bargains can be had but you need to be able to inspect in person and be able to tell the difference between a good instrument and a dud. The Moon looks great even in a small telescope, but the planets are likely to be less exciting except on an 'I saw it myself' level.

Sorry, but I use an alt-azimuth mount for planetary imaging and I don't de-rotate the video frames. Nobody does. It is not necessary. (De-rotating the spin of the target planet is a totally different issue.) Not many planetary imagers use Dobs - check the planetary imaging section in this Forum. Not many people seem to use Dobs on equatorial platforms for deep space imaging - check the relevant imaging section in this Forum. There are better tools.

Be aware that the SE mount is only suitable for planetary imaging. Some people have used the more expensive Celestron cameras with success, but other brands eg ZWO are more popular. Don't buy the entry level Celestron planetary camera - I did and had to upgrade as soon as I tried it out. PC? You have to place it near the mount, so you will need a laptop.

This will leave you with nothing suitable for planetary imaging, for which a SCT would be best buy. If you have deep pockets you could get a SCT on an alt-azimuth GoTo mount for planetary imaging and visual, and a EQ-6 and small refractor for deep sky imaging. What pattern of use do you anticipate? An alt-azimith GoTo mount is generally less work to set up than a German equatorial GoTo like the Eq-6. With my C8 SE + Starsense I have little more to do than carry the whole thing outside and turn it on.

Not when you are carrying it. Otherwise OK.

You can use a variety of things to power a mount (see above replies.) I used a 7 AH sealed lead-acid battery + home-made leads for several years until it seemed to be needing a charge more often. Now I use a Celestron LiFePo 84.48Wh power tank (which also works as a low-voltage inspection light - very handy). I also have an engine starter/light/air compressor unit which I acquired used along with a telescope. It was fine till the mount stared acting up and I found the battery had partly failed. I wanted to repair it, so had to buy a matching battery (12v 22AH, sealed lead-acid) for £47 (ouch). It has a trickle charger accessory to keep it charged between uses. I think that regardless of what engine starter or astro 'power tank' you buy, it will have a standard type of sealed lead-acid battery in it. There seems no reason not to buy an engine starter device, especially if you actually can use it for its intended purpose (that compressor is very useful for inflating tyres). I agree that the cigarette lighter plugs are a bit rubbish. I broke one by tripping over the power lead in the dark. I also made up a 10x1.2v AA Nicad battery set which worked with my SLT mount and was small and light, but keeping 10 cells charged was a faff. All the above devices would work for several sessions without needing a recharge (with my mounts).

The small setting circles on modern mounts are just for show. The accuracy of setting attainable often represents an error angle wider than the field of view in the eyepiece. In the days before GoTo, setting circles were much bigger. I have seen some in Victorian observatories that were about 2 feet across. I tried using the setting circles on my EQ-5 to aim a 203mm Newtonian but it was rather a waste of time. To make setting circles work, you probably have to polar align the mount with the precision needed for astro-imaging, rather than the 'point it near Polaris' that suffices for visual observing.

Everyone will have an opinion, but in addition to the 25mm Plossl that comes with it you should get at least two half-decent eyepieces to give a range of higher magnifications with the most powerful being about 5mm.

If you definitely want a Dob, the Bresser 6" planetary might be a better buy than the smaller Zhumell. And if you later decide that the Dob format was a mistake, you should be able to easily mount the Bresser on a different mount, since it has tube rings.

The GoTo is extremely useful for finding faint, non-obvious objects, but is not necessary if your interest is confined to the Moon and brighter planets, which are a no-brainer to find. For the latter, an equatorial mount with RA drive, or even an alt-azimuth mount, will be sufficient, and release a little more money to spend on optics. Be aware that the lower priced outfits tend to under-mount the telescope with a flimsy tripod. If you ever get to use a good quality mount, you will find that it feels like scaffolding compared with the wobble-mounts supplied with many of these kits. Unfortunately it would be very easy to spend your whole budget on a good quality solid GoTo mount for a small telescope. Do not be put off by the small field of view of a Maksutov telescope. Most astronomical objects are very small, the exceptions being star clusters, and some nebulae, the latter being mostly invisible except in long exposure photographs.

Yes, it does look non-standard. How good are you at metalwork? With a bit of drilling and/or filing or thread tapping, it should be possible to either fit a standard dovetail in place of the I-shaped piece or bolted to it. It would be better to have a dovetail at the balance point of the tube which with the 127mm Mak is about halfway along the tube. Or you might be able to find a pair of small tube rings to fit and bolt a standard dovetail to them.

Anything is possible, but we need to know details of the dovetail or whatever on the Konus tube to advise you further. My (larger) Maksutov has a standard dovetail bolted directly to the tube and it is not obvious whether it can be removed without dropping nuts inside.