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If you had £200 to spend on a refractor...

Whippy

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Whippy

Whippy

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...what would you buy? OTA only. I hoping this is only a curiosity question as I'm hoping to salvage something out the wreckage of the TAL I bought. I'm not really thinking about second hand (once bitten, twice shy an' all that). I'm guessing a new TAL 100RS or probably something skywatcher related. It wouldn't be used as a guide scope, just for visual. Any suggestions?

Tony..

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Black Shuck

Black Shuck

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I can recommend the Skywatcher ST120Evostar 120 (edit 26.6.07 :oops:) - managed to pick up one in astro buy and sell for £85 (newish one with the adjustable objective). Needed rings and dovetail but quick call to FLO and all sorted.

Nice planetary/lunar scope with very little CA ("well corrected" is how Steve describes it - I seem to recall). They seem to be held in high regard by SGL members and i've certainly got no complaints!!

HTH

Bill£ :wink:

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Greg

Greg

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The ST120 and the ED80 are both crackers..

I have both of them and if you can get a well corrected 120 then that would do for me...

If not then the ED80 (My most used scope!)

Greg

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Cloudwatcher

Cloudwatcher

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I thought it had to be a new rather than secondhand purchase (once bitten twice shy). If that is the case then the best offer I could find is the new SW Evostar 80 Auto at £189 including the motorised tracking mount.

Looks quite good and is light weight even with the mount I imagine. Could be a bargain at less than two hundred notes for a second or holiday/grab and go scope!

CW

PS This is not an ED glass job.....But at that price what more could you ask for ....Brass knobs maybe.

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GordonCopestake

GordonCopestake

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Synta made ED80. Many people resell them, Skywatcher being the most common in the UK. Orion in the US also resell them as do Celestron (although celestron use a different tube with the same optics). Vixen also resell the ED80 and a handful of others.

They are pretty much all identical so it depends on which colour scheme you prefer and which one comes up for sale when you are looking.

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Cloudgazer

Cloudgazer

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ED80 seems to be a generic term for a refractor. Which one in particular are you all talking about?

SkyWatcher Evostar ED80..

Scott

Not new at £200 we ain't! Unless someone knows different? In which case I'm up for one. :wink:

CW

Was answering the question.. Not making a suggestion.

I've never owned or used a refractor so can't personally recommend any.

Scott

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Whippy

Whippy

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I thought it had to be a new rather than secondhand purchase (once bitten twice shy). If that is the case then the best offer I could find is the new SW Evostar 80 Auto at £189 including the motorised tracking mount.

Looks quite good and is light weight even with the mount I imagine. Could be a bargain at less than two hundred notes for a second or holiday/grab and go scope!

CW

PS This is not an ED glass job.....But at that price what more could you ask for ....Brass knobs maybe.

Don't the mount though, so it opens up the choices a bit :wink:. Good shout though!

Tony..

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Whippy

Whippy

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Tony, the Startravel 80T (Tube Assembley) is listed at £139 by OVL.

I know you are only toying with ideas but if you do 'firm up' :wink: let me know as I'm intrested in the mount rather than the scope.

Cheers

CW

Oooo Matron! If it happens, I'll let you know mate.

Tony..

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Cloudwatcher

Cloudwatcher

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Was answering the question.. Not making a suggestion.

I've never owned or used a refractor so can't personally recommend any.

Scott

Sorry Scott,I did know what you were doing and used your answer to the previous post as a short cut for my own answer to the point regarding the cost of ED80's being over Tony's budget. No offence intended I assure you. :wink:

CW

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John

John

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I'm hoping to salvage something out the wreckage of the TAL I bought. I'm not really thinking about second hand (once bitten, twice shy an' all that).

Whats the story with the TAL Tony ? - of have I missed another thread on this :wink:

John

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DeejayP999

DeejayP999

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I'll vote for the Orion/Skywatcher ED80!

Not new at £200 we ain't! Unless someone knows different? In which case I'm up for one. :cool:

CW

Eat your hearts out - I got mine for £200 new! It was part of a group buy, though... :wink:

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Cloudwatcher

Cloudwatcher

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I'll vote for the Orion/Skywatcher ED80!

Not new at £200 we ain't! Unless someone knows different? In which case I'm up for one. :cool:

CW

Eat your hearts out - I got mine for £200 new! It was part of a group buy, though... :wink:

Curses! Foiled again.. :x..but tell me,how many in the group and which part of the scope do you get to keep? :?

CW

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Whippy

Whippy

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Whats the story with the TAL Tony ? - of have I missed another thread on this :wink:

John

Well John, What's basically happened is that the seller completely botched the 'tube in a tube' job. The inside tube wasn't fixed properly and so that was sliding about up and down the TAL tube and has marked the inner lens (the outer one does have a 1.5mm chip on it which I never noticed at first). The Synta focuser wasn't fixed properly either and pretty much fell off the back. After a bit of discussion with SteelRat, I decided to take 4" off both tubes to get it to focus and then fix it all together properly. Done that and it works but at mags above about x120(ish, haven't worked out the focal length yet!) the image goes to pieces, which it shouldn't do. So the plan is to give the lenses a damm good clean (they're pretty grubby) and somehow try to collimate it a bit better as it's not quite right. If I'm not getting any joy out of it (which I'm not too hopeful), then it's plan B which is to put the TAL away and keep it for the kids (bit young yet) and get something preferably new, hence this thread. I did email the seller first about the diagonal issue first and then again about how bad this scope is, and I never got one reply. Safe to say I'll never deal with this guy again.

Tony..

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