Hi folks,
I'm looking for some advice on which refractor I should get. A little bit of background first. I bought an 8 inch Skywatcher Dob towards the end of 2015. I used it a few times, but unfortunately I had to move it upstairs into a spare bedroom when we had to reconfigure the house a bit. It ended up stuck in a corner behind a pile of junk and was consequently too much of a PITA to get it out and take outside, so it just sat there unused.
Fast forward to a couple of months ago when we had a garden room extension and I spotted the opportunity to move the Dob down into the dining room. In the meantime I had bought a nice pair of 10 x 50 binoculars and a tripod to nip out and have a quick look at the sky on the rare event that it was clear. I've recently taken the opportunity to look at Jupiter with the bins, as it was conveniently situated in the southern sky for my back garden. Despite being low-ish in the sky and having to look over neighbouring roofs even the bins were able to view it and the 4 moons that looked like white specks. A few days later I managed to collimate the dob and get it outside for a peek. I couldn't make out much colour due to the poor seeing and probably thermals from the rooftops, but Jupiter and the moons looked way better than the bins (obv). I showed my wife and even she was impressed. Mind, I'm not sure what she'll say when I mention getting another scope after hardly using the dob the last 6 years!😅
To be honest it got me buzzing about getting the dob out again as soon as we get some clear skies, but it's been awful for about the last 10 days. It's also got me thinking about getting out to better skies nearby, which isn't so convenient with the dob. Also there is quite a bit of sky blocked off to my dob by surrounding houses. The skies above my house are Bortle 6, which I know is a lot better than those above major cities, but I can get to Bortle 4 within a 20 minute drive. I've decided that an ideal complementary scope would be something like a 4 inch refractor. The reason being that I could quickly nip outside and use it in breaks in the cloud in my garden, and even use it while waiting for the dob to cool down. I could also just get in the car at short notice and drive somewhere a bit darker and with wider views without having to lug the dob around and have to collimate it every time. Then there's the wait for it to cool down.
So I've been looking on FLO amongst others, and reading loads of reviews, but seem to go round in circles. I'm not sure what the budget is, but it's possible the wife might kill me if I look to spend over £500. 🤪
Obviously I'd like the holy grail of a Refractor that's good for planets and DSOs, but I realise that there are trade-offs for either. Do I get a short tube achro that's more grab-and-go and takes up less room in the house and is good for wide field and DSOs, or do I go for a long tube (say f/10) that's better for planets and has less chromatic abberation, but might be not so good for DSOs due to the narrow field? Or do I go for something in the middle like an f/7 or 8? Apochromatic refractors look like they're going to be way over budget, but I can see the advantages. Then of course there is the consideration of a mount and tripod that will take whatever I choose. I was surprised to see how much some of those cost when you consider how cheap dobs are! I'm only looking to get a refractor for observing.
Anyhow, these are the ones I've been looking at. I welcome any views and alternative suggestions (not a smaller dob). 😁
Skywatcher Startravel 80 or 102 on AZ3 mount for £189 and £249 respectively
Skywatcher Starquest 102 on Eq mount for £269 (not sure what difference is to Startravel 102 apart from colour)
Skywatcher Evostar 102/1000 on Eq3-2 mount for £399
Bresser Messier AR 102/1000 (OTA only) for £239 (but can't find any Bresser scopes in stock anywhere!) I must say I like the look of this one.
Altair Astro 102ED Starwave F7 for £495 (OTA only with no finderscope or diagonal. This is really appealing to me, and I have seen good reports on here, but by the time you add the diagonal, finderscope and mount it is way over budget.
I also saw the Skywatcher Evostar 90/900 with AZ3 mount for only £209, but I don't know if that's any good to be honest.
Are any of the Celestron ones any good?
TIA for any help in deciding.