Which one?

[Davie]

Here goes,

I have bought a HEQ5 pro second hand so I'm now looking to make up my mind on which scope to buy.

I posted a while ago about getting a scope that the kids could easy get a look through and that I could also try my hand at AP so a good refractor is what I'm after. I think I might try and get a Ikharos/Starwave 102 past the wife but for an extra hundred (yes this could get out of hand) you get the 110. As this will be used for both visual and AP is it worth spending the extra £100 on the 110 or is there much difference in the real world so to speak?

Thanks in advance

Davie

[Davie]

Nobody have any experience of whether a 110 offers much more over a 100ish refractor?

I did fancy another reflector, the 250pds was my original thought but with a EQ6 but now I have the lighter HEQ5 on its way I'd have downsized this to a 200PDS. Problem being the position of the eye piece/finder scope can be awkward, the height for the kids and the fact that our garden can get quite windy sometimes even though its fenced in.

the other point being that the 200PDS is £3-400 cheaper which could buy me a lot of extra odds and sods.

[Moonshane]

more aperture will always always be better generally for visual use. the 110 would give you about 1.16x more area (light gathering) than the 102mm. your existing 130mm reflector would give 1.63x more than the 102 and a 200mm would give 3.8x more.

for imaging, aperture is irrelevant so perhaps a good option would be the smaller frac for imaging (mainly) and mount the 130mm on the better mount when you want a bit more aperture with little cost.

alternatively if you get the smaller frac you could afford a 200mm dob which would provide a better base for the kids and for you maybe, especially if you bought some rings and a dovetail to enable mounting this on the bigger mount for visual when the kids are in bed? you could also make turning the OTA easier http://www.astro-baby.com/articles/rotating%20rings/Rotating%20Rings%20Project.htm

there's 'no one scope fits all for imaging and visual wows' as far as I know.

I am visual only and have three different scopes!

[Davie]

Thanks for the reply

I do fancy the refractor but the only thing is that it's twice the price which would get me some nice goodies to go with a 200pds.

Thanks for the link if i get the 200pds I'll give that mod a go.

[Moonshane]

I think it's really down to whether or not you'll be likely to be more an imager than a visual observer. if the former than the frac makes sense but for me anyway, a 100mm frac would not be my first choice as a visual scope. it will certainly give nice views of what you can see but the lack of aperture will soon leave you wanting more.

[Davie]

To be honest I think at the minute I spend my time doing maybe 50/50 between visual and AP. Seeing some of the pictures taken with a 200 makes me think I should maybe just get a 200PDS and buy some goodies to go with it.

That's also more likely to pass the scrutiny of the boss

[Gina]

That was one of the scopes I had in mind when upgrading from a cheap Newt, but since my overriding interest is AP, I took the AP brigade's advice and bought a refractor with which I'm very satisfied. But for visual as well I think the 200PDS would be an excellent choice. Many people here have them and are very satisfied. For imaging, you can easily attach a DSLR body for prime focus, for full size moon and DSO and a modified webcam for planets.