Advice on a Sky Watcher 70mm computerised SynScan AZ GOTO telescope

[Ants]

I am thinking of getting one of these scopes, does anyone use one and how good they are?

[Kai]

What do you want to be able to look at ?

Also what are your sky conditions like ?

[Ants]

What do you want to be able to look at ?

Also what are your sky conditions like ?

I want to look at stars, planets, the moon and galaxies. I have read that you can do this with the telescope.

I would use it in my back garden which is quite dark but there is street light polution around mainly from the main roads and motorway.

[Capricorn]

Assuming it is a refractor you will get some CA on the moon, Jupiter and perhaps Saturn.

Being pedantic you can look at anything with the scope, what you will see is another matter. I like the wording.

Being 70mm the aperture isn't large, equally I have a 70mm, and the magnification will produce a reasonable image at 70x and will I suspect be getting to it's limit of a decent image at 100x.

70x is OK for Jupiter and the moon, but low for Saturn (rings may well be blurred into Saturn) and way too low for Mars.

Galaxies, well Andromeda is OK, that is seen with 8x binoculars, but no detail, just fuzzy. What the next most obvious galaxy is I do not know so cannot guess at how well it will be seen.

Clusters on a wide view will be reasonable.

Stars are stars, they are pin points of light, you will see more of them and they will be brighter, they will never have a size.

It will be reasonable on double stars, get a list of "coloured double stars" from the web.

[DOBBY]

Hi Ants... at F10... this 'scope is more suited as 'capricorn' says... to the moon...planets..& double stars... it's not really suited to wide-views.

comparing an F10 to say an F5 'scope...is like looking down a kitchen towel tube & then a loo-roll tube... wider view in the shorter one

[Ants]

Assuming it is a refractor you will get some CA on the moon, Jupiter and perhaps Saturn.

Being pedantic you can look at anything with the scope, what you will see is another matter. I like the wording.

Being 70mm the aperture isn't large, equally I have a 70mm, and the magnification will produce a reasonable image at 70x and will I suspect be getting to it's limit of a decent image at 100x.

70x is OK for Jupiter and the moon, but low for Saturn (rings may well be blurred into Saturn) and way too low for Mars.

Galaxies, well Andromeda is OK, that is seen with 8x binoculars, but no detail, just fuzzy. What the next most obvious galaxy is I do not know so cannot guess at how well it will be seen.

Clusters on a wide view will be reasonable.

Stars are stars, they are pin points of light, you will see more of them and they will be brighter, they will never have a size.

It will be reasonable on double stars, get a list of "coloured double stars" from the web.

Would 80mm or higher be better ?

[Ants]

Hi Ants... at F10... this 'scope is more suited as 'capricorn' says... to the moon...planets..& double stars... it's not really suited to wide-views.

comparing an F10 to say an F5 'scope...is like looking down a kitchen towel tube & then a loo-roll tube... wider view in the shorter one

Sorry not sure what you mean by F10 and F5?

[John]

Would 80mm or higher be better ?

Yes - try to get as much aperture as you can afford. Aperture is the diameter of the main lens or mirror of the scope. The larger it is, the more light it collects and the better it will show both the moon and planets and deep sky objects.

In my view it would be better to spend the £'s on aperture rather than the GOTO mount. The mount will point a 70mm scope at lots of things but the views of many might dissapoint.

[Ants]

Yes - try to get as much aperture as you can afford. Aperture is the diameter of the main lens or mirror of the scope. The larger it is, the more light it collects and the better it will show both the moon and planets and deep sky objects.

In my view it would be better to spend the £'s on aperture rather than the GOTO mount. The mount will point a 70mm scope at lots of things but the views of many might dissapoint.

I do have a scope called a celestron C102 HD, its a good scope, ive seen jupiter with it aswell as other things. Its just that I am looking for a computerised one so that I can save time searching and let it do it for me.

[John]

I do have a scope called a celestron C102 HD, its a good scope, ive seen jupiter with it aswell as other things. Its just that I am looking for a computerised one so that I can save time searching and let it do it for me.

Well it's your call but I think you will find a 70mm aperture a bit of a let down after the 102mm. Seems a backwards step to me

[Ants]

Well it's your call but I think you will find a 70mm aperture a bit of a let down after the 102mm. Seems a backwards step to me

Thanks for your help, I have found this on ebay, can you advise if this is a good scope?

Celestron Nexstar 102GT Computerised Telescope

Some of the many standard features of the NexStar include: Incredible 4°/second slew speed. Fully enclosed motors and optical encoders for position location. Computerized Hand Controller with over 40,000 object database. Storage for programmable user defined objects; Many other high performance features! Optical Design : Refractor Aperture : 102 mm (4.02 in) Focal Length : 1000 mm (39.37 in) Focal Ratio : 9.8 Optical Coatings : Fully Coated with Multi Coatings Highest Useful Magnification : 241 x Lowest Useful Magnification : 15 x Resolution (Rayleigh) : 1.37 arcsec Resolution (Dawes) : 1.14 arcsec Light Gathering Power : 212 x Eyepiece 1 : 25 mm (0.98 in) Magnification 1 : 40 x Eyepiece 2 : 20 mm (0.79 in) Magnification 2 : 50 x Eyepiece 3 : 12.5 mm (0.49 in) Magnification 3 : 80 x Optical Tube Length : 35 in (889 mm) Power Requirements : 12 V DC Nominal Batteries : 8 AA Alkaline Power Supply : 12 VDC-750 mA (Tip positive) Motor Drive : DC Servo motors with encoders, both axes Motor Resolution : 0.26 arc seconds Slew Speeds : Nine slew speeds: 4? /sec, 2? /sec,1?/sec, .5 /sec, 32x, 16x, 8x, 4x, 2x Computer Hand Control : Double line, 16 character Liquid Crystal Display 19 fiber optic backlit LED buttons Fork Arm : Cast aluminum Software Precision : 16 bit, 20 arc sec. calculations Communication Ports : RS-232 communication port on Hand Control Tracking Rates : Sidereal, Solar and Lunar Tracking Modes : Alt-Az, EQ North and EQ South Alignment Procedures : SkyAlign, Auto Two-Star, Two-Star, One-Star, Solar System Align Database : 25 user defined programmable object. Enhanced information on over 100 objects. Total Object Database 40,000 Objects