Small,powerful,transportable,affordable scope advice!

[black hole sun]

My Skywatcher explorer 200p EQ5 is too cumbersome and large for my matchbox bedroom and to hefty to lug up and down a 3 floor apartment!! Its a cracking piece of kit and love it, but setting up, taking down and limited views through my velux window is not practicle, it needs a garden (which we do not have) patio area etc so its now on ebay and im looking for a as powerful, smaller, easier to set up scope thats transportable.......Help! Still enamoured by new hobby but need to be more practicable. thank you. p.s looking around the £300 mark.

[Moonshane]

sorry to hear that. if you don't have a garden (or at least a balcony) then observing from home will be difficult if not impossible. it's not practical to observe through a window from inside a house as the scope will be plagued by thermals from inside the house.

if you cannot observe from home then you need to go mobile and need a car (pretty much) and surely your 8" would fit in a car?

if not already sold and you have a car then I'd reconsider selling the the 8" as anything else will have the same problem.

the other alternative is maybe a pair of 15x70 bins but this will quickly exhaust your enthusiasm I suspect.

[Moonshane]

ps

an 8" dob (you could make your own base) would take up less space than an EQ mounted 8".

[ollypenrice]

4 inch (max) refractor on alt az mount. While some of the Maks and SCTs are shorter and might be slightly better on the planets the refractor, with shorter focal length, will do what small scopes do best - give you a wide field of view. Yet it will still give good planetary views. I'd try for a second hand Apo. On of my favourite scopes is a little 3 inch TeleVue Pronto bought on here for about 200 pounds. I also bought a second hand TV Telepod mount on here for a hundred.

Olly

[jackruss]

I have a nexstar se4 NexStar 4SE Computerized Telescope (item #11049) / NexStar SE Computerized Telescopes / Telescopes / Products / Celestron.com small enough to carry around and setup but was gift for my birthday so don't know the price sorry

[ronin]

Sorry but being blunt what made you buy a 200P, it will make no difference if it is on an EQ or Dob mount the mirror is at the back so the angle of view through any sort of aperture like a window is so narrow that it is pointless.

If you are going to view through a window then get a refractor, that way the bit that collects the light is at the right place, up the front by the window aperture.

For cost I would suggest an evostar 90 or 102, something like f/8 and an achro. Mount wise a suitable alt/az. There are simple type mounts WO eazi mount or something but thay cost close to £250.

If you want real transportability then look at an 80mm of some sort or even better a 70mm. The WO Megrez 72 is very portable, decent quality but again costs £380 if I remember. Have a look at Telescope Service as they have a couple of 70mm scopes and probably a bit less in cost. The WO megrez 72 comes in a carry pack so even easier transport.

Quick check, TS 70mm (ED) scopes are at around £330-350 - only hve one offering.

You could check the achro offerings.