Louis D

Do you like the silver or black focuser and dew shield adapter rings better?  It probably comes down to price shipped with all taxes and duties figured in.

Does either company individually inspect each scope for quality control purposes or do they just ship out whatever comes in from China?  Stellarview in the US now hand figures the optics in telescopes delivered from China to give some value add and differentiation.  They no longer sell telescopes as delivered from China.  I think there was just too much variability in the quality of the figures.

If you can keep it inside, especially in a climate controlled house as we have here in Texas, that would be ideal.  Humidity can cause degradation of the mirror coatings, corrosion in the electronics, rust on the fasteners, and expansion of wood products.  Of course, if you live in a desert climate as in Arizona, outside storage is a much safer bet.  There's it's just a matter of keeping critters out of it and ensuring temperatures don't get too hot.  Winters in cold climates can wreak their own havoc on telescopes stored outdoors, but I have less experience in this area.

16 hours ago, bomberbaz said:

Old thread/question louis I know but did you ever resolve this question?

Steve

No, but from my reading elsewhere, the NAV-HW have more eye relief than the Ethos, but even then, not enough for folks with deep set eyes wearing eyeglasses.  Those without eyeglasses find them easier to take in the view than with the Ethos thanks to the more generous eye relief, however.

1 hour ago, John said:

When we can travel around again, come along to a star party and have a look through some larger aperture telescopes. The views can be quite startling

The difference between, for example, the globular cluster Messier 13 observed with my 100mm scope at 150x and my 300mm aperture scope at 150x is really marked in terms of both brightness and resolution. A completely different experience.

This is why I bought my 15" Dob.  Not for hunting faint fuzzies, but for gaining higher resolution and contrast at higher powers.  Planets start to show real detail, globulars start to resolve into pinpoints of light, bright nebula start to resolve into filaments, etc.

2 hours ago, Knighter said:

Hi that’s great guys thanks for the advice will keep looking. I’m thinking of an aluminium case where I can fit everything bar the tripod and cut the foam to suit 

Most cheap "aluminum" cases are actually textured plastic that are easily punctured.  Real aluminum flight cases are way more expensive.  If you want a rigid case, I would get a Pelican-style, blow-molded plastic case.  They're much more rugged.

1 hour ago, JeremyS said:

Is that a zero power laser Louis? 🙂

 

No optics to be looked through, so not sure how to classify it. 🙄

53 minutes ago, johninderby said:

If you mounted a stright through finder backwards so you looked through the wrong end you would have a negative power finder. 😁😁😁

You're just baiting me, aren't you? 🤔

1 hour ago, Stu said:

Now, I suffer from my fair share of neck stiffness and pain so fully understand the comfort issues

Most RACI simply don't have enough eye relief to use with eyeglasses, so I've been making my own with a cheap 70mm f/4.3 "toy" scope, some PVC plumbing parts, a cheap 2" dielectric diagonal I had sitting around, and a widest field 2" eyepiece yet to be settled upon.  It will work out to about an 8x70 to 10x70 finder with about an 8 to 9 degree true field of view.  Severe field curvature is the major issue right now.  I don't have a spare TSFLAT2 to use in it at the moment.

I recently injured my neck in a fall to the point that it is incredibly painful to use a unit power finder or straight through finder now, so I've been aiming strictly with the green laser sight lately.  Now that is an incredibly intuitive aiming device.  I know y'all in the UK are incredibly opposed to them.

It also hurts just to look down into a diagonal when bending at the neck, so I have to back up and bend more at the waist.  Hopefully it heals up over the next few weeks/months.  I'd go to physical therapy, but they're all closed due to social distancing.

46 minutes ago, John said:

If you cannot see any stars with the naked eye in the sky then I agree that the zero power finders would be difficult to use.

 

Ugh.  They're unit power finders.  They have 1x, not 0x, power.  The magnify everything by 1x.  If they were 0x magnifiers, then they would demagnify or compress everything to a point like a massive focal reducer and be of little use.  Sorry @John, it's just a pet peeve of mine when these are referred to as zero power finders. 🤓

4 hours ago, Stu said:

With dark skies, good dark adaptation and an OIII filter, the little scopes do amazingly well on the large, faint objects. Of course a 100mm is often better, but the fact that a 72mm can go anywhere with you makes it a winner. The 4 or 5 degree field will fit the whole Veil or NAN in beautifully. Worth a go if you have never done it. It is not a detailed view, but shows the whole object in context which I enjoy.

Exactly.  At a given exit pupil, the image will be basically the same as in a larger scope, just less magnified and less detailed.  That has its advantages when viewing large objects as you noted.

The scope and mount head would probably fit in a decent sized backpack.  The tripod would fit in an appropriately sized tripod or light stand bag for photography.  I bought a Gator brand of the latter at B&H Photo in NYC for my daughter's tripod and mount head, so you probably could find an equivalent at a photography superstore in the UK.  For her 127 Mak, I just got her a sturdy gym bag for $15 and wrapped the scope in layers of bubble wrap inside the main compartment.  All the outside pockets were handy for holding the various accessories, also bubble wrapped.

44 minutes ago, Andy_Gavin84 said:

I want to use it for moon, planets, star gazing etc but i am also really interested in astrophotography. 

For £200, get a visual only scope like a Dob and take afocal snapshots of solar system objects through an eyepiece with a cellphone camera held up to it.  Also, find a dark sky location and put your camera on a tripod and take about 15 to 30 second exposures at wide angles to start getting an idea of DSO astrophotography for cheap.

Celestron is formerly a US telescope designer and manufacturer of telescopes.  I don't know if any design and manufacturing takes place in the US after being bought by Synta.

I have no knowledge of the history of Skywatcher.  I'm guessing it's the European house brand of Synta.

5 minutes ago, Rhino1969 said:

So what is a good telescope maker to buy from?

It's not so much maker as type.  Celestron markets some really good scopes at the higher end of the price scale, but besmirches their good name by selling these J-B scopes at the entry level end.

I would shop for a Sky-Watcher Heritage-130p Flextube, a Sky-Watcher Explorer 130PS AZ GTi, a Sky-Watcher Skyliner 150P Dobsonian, or a Sky-Watcher Skyliner 200P Dobsonian for a massive improvement, depending on your budget.

Lest you think Sky-Watcher is a much better brand than Celestron at the low end based on my recommendations, just remember that both are owned by Chinese optics manufacturer Synta.

5 minutes ago, johninderby said:

The standard tripod does have its uses though. 👍🏻

Useful when observing dim objects to brighten them up a bit?  Sort of like firing off a flash from the bleachers at a concert.  Of course, I made it work at my kids' school concerts by firing off double potato masher handle flashes to light 'em up from 70 feet away.  The kids all knew when I was taking a picture. 😉

I'm thinking a 72 ED would work well for you.  I would go with a Rigel QuikFinder to keep it compact.  At 72mm and f/6, there's very little difference between ED and APO levels of correction.

4 hours ago, johninderby said:

I use a Manfrotto 475 tripod but is a lot more expensive.

Not always.  If you're patient and watch ebay and craigslist, you can often find used ones in good condition for $75 to $150, sometimes with a nice fluid head still attached.  That's how I picked up my and my daughters tripods.  It helps to look for the older names like Manfrotto or Bogen 3068, 3051, or 3033.  All are fantastic tripods that will last a lifetime.  If you get really lucky, you might even score a 3058 (the beast known as the 161MK2B today).  However, most folks know what that tripod is and the used prices reflect that.

For imaging or visual?  Car, train, or plane travel?

I have the original version in all black with the winged eye cup.  It has no detents and just a friction thumbscrew to hold it at various settings.  Your later version seems so much more refined.  Below are images at the 5mm and 8mm settings:

16 hours ago, Cuto100200 said:

How difficult is it to fully split double double, do conditions need to be near perfect? and what sort of magnification would be needed? 

Also thank you all for the suggestions, got a list now lol

An absolute breeze to split at 80x in an 8" scope with a well figured mirror.  I'll have to try splitting it with my 70 ED, 90 APO, and 127 Mak just for fun this summer to see what's possible with smaller scopes.  I have a feeling the splits won't be as clean.

My write-up comparing the Paradigms/Starguiders to the HD-60s/XCel LXs.

2 hours ago, johninderby said:

Used the Krylon on the vanes etc on my Bresser dob. Coupled with flocking it is rather black in there. 👍🏻

The real acid test is to remove the mirror an put the tube at a shallow angle to the sun and see how bright the tube wall looks.  I've yet to find a flat black paint that doesn't look shiny at shallow angles under these conditions.  Perhaps if there was one that sprayed actual 3D particles forming tiny light traps it might work better.  I'm thinking along the lines of the fake hair sprays of the 80s/90s.

The Double-Double, Albireo, and M17 also come to mind.  I don't know how far south you observe from, but there's also M7, M8, and M22.

4 hours ago, Robindonne said:

You are totally right.  Forgotten it for a moment.   Have to check again but indeed when we buy things above €22,- we’re screwed.   Dont know exactly if in 2020 its the same.  Thx for the reminder

Much less of an issue in the US where it's $800.  I've bought items up to about $450 without any customs issues.  There's also no sales tax because the seller has no business nexus in the US.

46 minutes ago, rdb22 said:

I have some sizeable trees in my garden so portability will be important, and I'm a lazy so-and-so, so I'm set on a goto mount - the SW az gti.

If you plan on moving the scope around during the night to dodge trees, you'll have to realign the goto each time, so keep that in mind.  It can also be challenging to find enough bright alignment stars not blocked by trees to achieve alignment.