Hello and scope advice

[redemba]

Hello everyone,

I've enjoyed reading the various discussions about which scope is best.

I currently do most of my observing with binoculars and a 60mm refractor from indoors (not ideal I know - I can hear the laughter from here! - but getting safely outdoors isn't an option until the weekends unfortunately).

I would appreciate your views on which scope would be a good upgrade that would improve my views of the planets to show a little more detail such as the bands on Jupiter etc:

1) Skywatcher Capricorn 70mm

2) Skymax 90

3) Skywatcher Startravel 80mm

I mostly look at the moon, planets and some of the brighter clusters and haven't ambitions to see deep sky even when outdoors as I live in the city.

Any opinons or advice on this would be much appreciated especially with the view as to whether a refractor or Mak would perform equally well or badly depending on your opinion from within indoors.

Many thanks

[onesmallstep]

Hi and welcome to SGL

Given your observing interests the 'best' scope would be the Skymax-90. It has the largest aperture of the scopes you mention and the optical setup is suited to planetary and lunar viewing.

Suggested accessories would be a moon filter, colour filters (for planetary viewing), a dew shield and a Barlow lens. If you get the EQ1 mount as part of the bundle you may want to consider an upgrade to something more substantial at a later date.

HTH!

[John]

If you have to view from indoors (far from ideal as you know) I reckon a longer focal length refractor would be least affected by the very much less-than-ideal viewing conditions. Therefore I'd suggest a Skywatcher Evostar 90 on the alt-az mount:

First Light Optics - Skywatcher Evostar 90 (AZ3)

[redemba]

Many thanks for your help. That's much appreciated.