joe aguiar

ohh sorry I thought was a 5" reflector didn't know it was a 6" as I was on my phone on my first reply so it was hard to open link, so yes your 6" scope will need a eq3 the eq2 is too light. so if you ever upgrade then it should be to the 8"f/5 reflector on eq5 but its abit more heavier and bulky. But since u already have it use for now learn the sky, learn the consteallations and where objects are. That will get you started when you are ready for something bigger and better. joejaguar

i dont think that type is horrible it always comes down to size weight and COST i know where iam the bird jones 5" on eq2 is $239 before taxes ($270 with taxes)The other kind 5" f/5 with parabolic mirror is $70 more at $299 before taxes ($338 with taxes). The bird jones is only 18" long and 7 lbs so its very light and small. If you live in a condo apt and have to carry it out to the elevator and to the outside, a larger scope can get heavy fast when u carry whole mount scope and all. Now for some people $70 more then taxes can for some people put them out or over the budjet. I think its better to buy a 5" birds jones if this is your max budjet vs someone buying a 3" reflector then. sure it will give u less clear images over 150x power and being only 7lbs and 18 iches long it can go on a eq2 mount easily the long version will be at their max weight. so if you have it already use it and once u feel u done enough maybe then go 1 step up (dont sell that but get the parabolic version of the same size) like 6" reflector f/5 WITH a parabloic mirror then you will see a big difference. joejaguar

i do iam on 5 books now i can go back and see everything like: what day month year i looked at something what scope i used (since i probally owned more then 60 since 93) what location i was at, maybe a cottage maybe camping. i been to may areas what colour zone was that in LP zone what was the sky conditon and temp what eps filters i used on a object and a drawing of what i saw etc etc every information i need is in my logs joejaguar

I see the slow motion control in the 1st pic look close. its not the long cable kind its the short version ones but its there. Yes the tripod is something u can start with but u should look for a 2" steel tripod used if u can. the finder upgrade to a telrad or rigel. The eps is ok to start and u can upgrade them over time. the mount is ok but ya I agree wont be solid on a 10" scope. you will have vibrations and will have to wait many seconds for them to calm down in windy days even slight winds it may be a pain. The focuser is ok u may be able to just get away with a 1.25" 32mm ep since that ota is about f/4.8 its already wide field. If its cheap enough then sure but that's a big scope and weighs a lot. personally I would max go 8"f/5 on that mount for weight and portabililty. if u go bigger I would go sct then. joejaguar

Looks good to me Does it have the front dust cap? If not u can make your own. Coming with any eps? Cept the one in focuser? Again norm if it not u will have to buy more eps Barlow filters maybe laser collimator. It looks like a drive is attached which is an upgrade but does it have the hand controller and battery pack? If not just take it off and u can buy new one if those are missing. As long hes not charging for the price of drives and it missing parts. All else looks good just look down tube to the main mirror. Dont worry if it has a little ust that's normal for a used open front reflector. Joejaguar

agree the heq5 is better then both lxd85 or avx BUT the heq5 is also alot heavier mount so depends if u want portable too just saying

If your considering the avx then look at meade lxd85 mount. Its same class. I have seen soo many avxs for sale least 1 per month or more. To me that's makes me feel like it's not good enough or robust that many sell it. I have also read many issues on them to on forms. That y I decided meade lxd85 mount. Only thing I dont like is it doesnt come with any way to power it ac or DC or battery. It comes with nothing u either have to figure it out or buy meade ac power wall pack or the cigarette power adptor. The ac wall power pl is $107 with tax and shipping. It's really stupid it doesnt come included with something. Joejaguar

U can keep the scope and add a focal reducer it will turn it into an f5.8 which is only 1 focal ratio more then your talking about. 2nd or get a 2 inch diagonal and a low power ep like a 50 to 55mm 2 inch Or both and that's probably just even wider than the 6 inch f5 Joejaguar

agree for low cost and most times the extra 7 to 9% wont do much anyway. our eyes cant detect anything under 9% anyway as it too small for eyes to process, a camera could but that's a different story. I also have 2 or 3 none dieelectrics too and they are fine for normal use anyway good buy for $50 joejaguar

Seems to cheap I have bought these for 169 plus taxes almost 200, with the name brand models. I also just sold a brand new one just last week that came with my skywatcher 100ed f9 that I just got like 2 weeks ago. I sold it for 125 it wasn't used I just didnt need it as I have my own but still has to be cheaper than someone buying from store. So is skywatcher meade celestron and Orion just making 3x what they should off us? Or is this Amazon to cheap and it's not a real dielectric? Joejaguar

For me I would put it on eq3 or cg4 Joejaguar

Think was 2004 maybe 2005 I think I got one of the first ones made Joejaguar

weird i made 1 more post from my cell phone but now i see it not here ok i said this i have 2 more things to add to this 1- i think get the SW 100ed f/9 that way u get the best corrected/image quailty from a mass produced scope in this price range u can get. If you need a wider view you can always buy the focal reducer (not cheap) but least its an option. That way IF you need/want to make it an f/7 which matches that other scope. BUt its still a much better glass scope with 53 glass. it just will still be abit longer thats all. so bascally what iam saying u can make the SWf/9 a F/7 BUT if u buy an f7 51 glass scope u cant make it f/9 and better corrected/better image quailty later. 2- or if you have a 2" diagonal and like me a meade #4000 56mm 2"ep then thats only 16x power and 3.25 degree fov which is big. theres only a few things that may be abit bigger and if you go this way u dont need the focal reducer then. joejaguar

I have the sw 100f9 ed it's a very well corrected scope with zero colour. It's been out for years and always got great reviews. It's called evostar now but was the black diamond before. Everthings the same cept the name. B4 that it was called gold pro. Anyway that's gonna be very hard to beat it's a doublet 53 glass and at f9 that's almost as good as the best. Its rated at 98%on the MTV chart or Abbie rating. Mine is 6 lbs that light my takahashi 102 TSA is 15 lbs. The ts doesnt say what it is besides a premium ed glass. So I'm not sure is that 53 glass or 51? Even if it was 53 glass being f7 brings it down to 93%which is still good but less if its 51 glass it's about 85% rating. If u could find that out that would be good. I dont see many ts scopes in cdn at all since its mainly sold over there more and here they probably got another similar name brand. If its 53 glass then do u want bit more portable? Or best colour image u can get?. If its portability u want then do ts, if image quality then SW 100ed However if the ts is a 51 glass I think get sw 100ed there will be a difference in 85% to 98% Joejaguar

So another scope that's semi big but portable is the 6 inch sct. It may be a bit better than 5 mak cause its 1 inch bigger so you will see more. The mak also has a smaller field of view so the sct may be a better all around scope. U can also bring it on planes as it just fit on carry one. It weights 6 lbs. U can also use a eq2 for lighter packages since it's so light for the weight Joejaguar

ok heres my thought dont get mad just saying my opinion i just repleced the stock focuser of my tak tsa 102 to a moonlight dual speed AND it was very expensive. iam talking about the whole focuser asseble tho not sure if u can just get a cheaper set-up. total cost me $712, now if i didnt have a expensive scope and it was a more entry level i probally wounld not have done it. since i see u r talking about a 5" acro would it make sence to sell it and dont spend the money on the focuser and maybe just something bigger or apo? just throwing that out there. to me the focuser would be 2x the amount of the scope. Altho again iam not sure if theres a cheaper adptor that can be just attcked to the end to make it alot cheaper than mine was, cause mine is threaded from the end of the tube etc. joejaguar

i dont think it needs to be alot i found 2 half acres lots cheap $5k each soo many people pay that just on a ap setup even more or have multi scopes (well i do to tho) but having your own small acrea that noone can kick u out of and u can pick it in the darkest spots u can get to is not alot. Iam not talking about $100,000 lot just something small out of the way etc. and if its not near any lake river its sooo much cheaper than waterfront lots. joejaguar

no u can use a telrad or rigel just to align stars then turn it off iam pretty sure theres even a telrad with mirror u look down into and not through, i have never owned one and also the telrad will be kinda long on your scope tho. they also have risers for these joejaguar

wait 500 uk money is 820 cdn so i would get a 8"f/5 reflector on eq5

a 6"f/5 reflector on cg4 its bit more then $600 but close enough joejaguar

but he said fustr with rdf what are others using so i said i use telrad and rigels only

i only use a telrad on the larger scopes rigel on smaller i never use the 8x50 finders scopes i normally just sell them. when i use a 55mm 2" ep in the scope its almost the same power as a finder joejaguar

grey skies is best i have gotten joejaguar

i just cant do this i get up early 6am mon to fri so i cant wake up 3 or 4 am to do viweing. even late night by 2am iam just too tired. it takes me both sat and sun sleeping in to reset my body. but if u can great. i guess if you have a job that u start at 10 or 11am then that may be different joejaguar

I had a bad 5 in sw mak so as long the mak is excellent made.if it's the mass produced one maybe apo. Once u use 6 inch or bigger mak cooldown takes to long. I think for moon and doubles its probably very close but images still cleaner in apo, but if portability is number 1 concern then stick with mak Joejaguar