Words of wisdom greatly appreciated.

[cagneyspal]

I’ve been stargazing for about a year now and can find my way around the sky. I’ve been using 10x50 binoculars which have proved very useful, but now feel ready to invest in a telescope. Looking around there is quite a choice and quite a choice of advice out there as well.

So, I’ve worked out a set of criteria for my first telescope and was wondering if anybody had any words of wisdom.

Budget: £300-£350 possible a shade higher

Type: Open to suggestions. I would say portability and ease of use would be high on my list. I believe if I have a telescope that I can use, I will use it often. One that is overly complex will probably kill all enthusiasm. Having said that I am more than willing to spend time getting to know the instrument and learn how to use it. I often holiday in rural parts of Scotland and would wish to have a scope that I could easily take with me. I thought initially about a Dobsonian, but they don’t seem to be very portable and I think I would like to own one that I could easily transport. When not on holiday, I would tend to use it in the garden.

I would also like to dabble in astro imaging, although not straightaway.

In terms of my main interests I enjoy observing the moon, planets and pretty much anything up there and would like to see a little more than can be observed with my binoculars which are a pair of Pentax 10x50’s

Thanks in advance for any help or suggestions for me to consider.

[John]

Hi and welcome to the forum.

My 1st words of advice would be to change the font colour in your post if possible - black text on a dark grey background is difficult to read on many monitors

I'm sure you will then get some good suggestions on a scope to match your needs

[cagneyspal]

Thanks John not quite sure how that happened!

[sabana]

Magnolia. Hmmm Lovely.

[umadog]

Portability all depends on your requirements. One reason Dobsonians became so popular is because are very easy to put in a car and transport to a dark site. At larger apertures this becomes particularly true. Your best bet may be to leave astro-imaging aside for now since astro rigs do not fall into the simple and light category.

[cagneyspal]

Thanks for that. I am attracted to the dobsonian and Interested to hear they woould fit in the car. However I am not sure If I wanted to take it to the dark skies of Northern Scotland on Holiday; as I don't know if I could fit it in with everything else we would take, clothes food etc. (I have a dog we usually take with us.) The other issue I have is storage space in the house. I imagine a 6 or 8" reflector mounted on a Dobsonian takes up a fair amout of room?

Sorry for the magnolia edit earlier. I posted via my phone and Magnolia looked lke white on it!

Thanks for your advice.

[swamp thing]

Hi

The trouble with astronomy is unless the scope is of a reasonable size you will see diddly squat difference as opposed to your bins.

The very small RFT that make great travel scopes have somewhat limited targets.

They make great second scopes but as a main scope they are really limited.

If you can make room for a reasonable size scope and mount I urge you to do so.

Regards Steve

[cagneyspal]

Thanks Steve, that is helpful and I may need to re-think my criteria. Would I be right in thinking in looking for a 90mm for a refractor and 113m for a reflector as a minimum (hopefully my budget would allow for bigger)

Colin

[swamp thing]

Not to good with euro measurements I prefer proper British ones.

3" for a refractor and 4.5" for a reflector I would say is minimum for a main scope visually.

Obviously if your budget allows you to best this, that would be better.

I think anything under this will be a bit small to hold your interest for long.

Regards Steve

[damnut]

Hi Cagneyspal,

Your main budget would allow for an 200mm dob plus a couple of ep's. We visit the northern highlands each year (strathconon - 17 miles down a single lane track off a road!).

If you have a lot of gear then it is probably unreasonable to fit in a large dob. However the skies are so clear you would make excellent use of the binos. My travel scope is a 120mm short tube refractor on an az mount which is fairly bullet proof against snow, dog slobber, sand etc and sits happily in the boot or roofbox, and does not need collimating after the 450 mile trip up there!.

So I would concentrate on your main scope for home, then further down the line consider a smaller setup for travel. If you go second hand you may get both!!.

Cheers

[ollypenrice]

In terms of storage in the house, an 8 inch Dob is about as convenient as it gets becaue they sit on thr floor pointing vertically upwards and can have something draped over them like a decorative faric. In the car, well, again they are a good shape. Since you have taken the time to learn the sky you do sound like a Dobsonian type to me!

You can't dabble in DS imaging, it is all or nothing and madly expensive. You could do a bit of webcamming with a Dob, though, on solar system stuff.

Olly

[umadog]

Dobsonians don't take up too much space. You can fit other stuff into the mount if packing in a car. The tube isn't too large. Go for a 6" if you're worried about size, but you might find an 8" is ok. Get the dimensions from the internet and make a dummy tube. See if you can pack around it. If you have a hatchback it should be no trouble at all at have the base upright and to fill it with bags, etc. If you don't have a hatch, then the base will either need to be small enough to fit on its side in the boot, or it will need to fit in the back seat with the dog.

[damnut]

When we travel to Strathconon, its two people three dogs for two-usually three weeks. Even with a large hatchback & a 470L roof box there is no way a dob (even a truss dob) is travelling with us!! :-).

Cheers

[Cunhaval]

If you want something that will fit into a car when it's full of a lot of other stuff, then I suspect that reflectors (dob or otherwise), which would otherwise be my choice, will not be suitable.

Which leaves you with refractors, SCTs, or Maks. I can only really pass an informed opinion on Maks.

Within your budget, small enough to be portable (up to 127 size), depending on what mount you use. Easy to use and almost nil maintenance. Excellent at imaging, but not as good as a "fast" frac on single images (Maks tend to have high focal lengths). Outstanding at lunar and planetary work, less good at deep-sky (but still usable).

But, as Olly says, you really can't dabble in DS imaging, which will require massive and heavy mounts, though suitable scopes can be quite small.

I would think that a Mak would tick most of your boxes, but ideally you need to see and handle a few alternatives.

Good luck with your choice

[cagneyspal]

Thanks folks for your helpful contributions.

[Cjg]

Colin,

If you are able, visit your local astronomical society, see what people are using on a daily / weekly basis. I love the views through my 10" dob, but it just about fits across the back seat of my hatchback and is two trips to set up. My 102 frac is getting the use because it, the Goto mount and lens box can be carried in one trip from car to site, plus it all fits in the boot with bags of room to spare. Even that was bigger in the flesh than you'd think from the pics.

By looking through a few scopes, you'll be better able to judge what's right for you.

Good luck,

Chris