Portability

[Moonshane]

best of luck Alan

we'll be waiting for your reports in due course. with an 8" newt and dark skies, I'm envious.

[Astro Imp]

Good luck Alan.

I'm sure sure you're in for a lot of fun.

As Shane said above don't forget to keep us updated.

[inksmithy]

Hey guys,

Just in the spirit of keeping things updated, I just called Rother Valley Telescopes and had a chat with one of the guys there, who told me that in reality, the idea of the 200P FlexTube AutoTrack Dobsonian would probably be a decent alternative to the one I had chosen, which was the 200P EQ5 with motor drives.

Nearly had me swayed, I can see the convenience of a Dobsonian, particularly the flextube variants, but after getting off the phone, I've had another think about it and I'm going to stick to my guns and get that 200P on an EQ5 mount with motor drives.

If my calculations are correct, I should be putting the order in at around 09:01 on Thursday morning...

Alan

[Ad Astra]

If you have any hopes of significant astrophotography, you need an EQ mount for sure. A dob (or any Alt-Az design) can only photograph for seconds at a time before star trails and field rotation begin to defocus, and ultimately ruin your image.

"Astrophotos", "Portable scope" and "inexpensive" don't really fit in the same box. keep in mind that visually, the scope is most important, while in astrophotos, the mount is absolutely the key to everything.

If I had to choose one scope for a) great views, great photos, c) still portable for one guy to toss it in the boot in a small car and carry it off to a dark sky site - I would choose a Celestron CGEM-9.25". The Schmidt-Cassigrain design is very compact, the mount is fabulous and will accept autoguiding, and the whole thing breaks down in to very manageable pieces. This is WAY beyond the budget you stated, but it is EXACTLY what you asked for in every other way.

As my old dad would have said, "You have champaigne tastes on a beer budget!" You need to decide if you're going to settle for beer (visual astronomy) or sink the money to buy champaigne. Spending money on a champaigne bottle and glasses to put your beer in isn't spending wisely.

Best bet is to go to a local astro club and hang out with the photo folks for awhile. See what they consider "portable", and "affordable". They will be happy to talk your ear off about their kit - and the education you get will save you thousands in bad purchasing decisions.

I hope that helps,

Dan

[inksmithy]

It does, thank-you. One of your other posts tipped me over, I started a new thread instead of adding to this one, which on reflection, I should have done.