Telescope dilemma. Help!!!

[Jon Sales]

We've just been to a public observation evening and I'd thought I'd made up my mind in which scope to buy.

But coming away from there i'm more confused than ever:(

What I want us a scope that will be small enough to travel with the OTA as hand luggage, the mount can go in the main case, I'd like it to have GoTo on it and my girlfriend likes looking at the moon and planets, but I'd also like to discover DSO's and Nebulae.

Budget of £400 max.

Any ideas on a good general observing telescope?

Not bothered about AP apart from the odd moon photo.

[John]

Thats a challenging set of criteria !

I would have thought something like a 127mm maksutov-cassegrain or a 125mm schmidt-cassegrain might fit the bill as they are about as compact as 5" scopes can be. Smaller aperture that that will start to limit the deep sky views IMHO.

[JamesM]

Agree with John that deep sky objects to do them justice would, in my opinion, require an aperture of 8" or more to do them justice as it is at this size that you begin to see some detail and structure. That's why a lot of astronomers have more than one scope if you want to look at different types of objects. The Maks are great performers on the planets and the moon and are very popular scopes.

James

[richbyers]

yeah that is tough, my small dob scope is a good all rounder but with your budget you can do better.......also a dob isnt what you want as you want tracking....also you want portable....and also good for dsos .sorry i dont think youll find a scope that fits all of those....whats most important to you?

rich

[glowjet]

I am afraid you have just come to the abrupt stop most others have run into when starting out, there is no one scope that will cover all aspects, sound advise already given on this so you will have to make a decision on what your major preference is to look at along with portability. The Maks do perform well and from very dark sites should give some rewarding views of the major DSO, this may well be the solution you are looking for

John.

[ollypenrice]

To put the 'deep' into 'deep sky ' you need aperture, which isn't portable. If you want 'go to' it will eat more than half your budget.

Maks and SCTs do offer good planetary and lunar views with their long focal lengths but what I think is a shame is they they don't do what small telescopes do best, which is give lovely widefield vistas not available in larger scopes.

Something is going to have to give in your set of criteria, I'm afraid.

Olly

[knobby]

Off the wall whacky idea ...

Sumerion suitcase dob.

No goto but does the rest and looks awesome.!

not sure about price, bit vague but have a look, might be interesting

[ollypenrice]

The Sumerian would be about five times over budget before you added the optics, which are not included...

Shame!

Olly

[knobby]

The Sumerian would be about five times over budget before you added the optics, which are not included...

Shame!

Olly

Oops, yep they start at 800 euros! Ouch

[AWR]

My suggestion:

1) Bin the GOTO idea (It takes most of your money and then you have to transport power supply too)

2) Vixen Porta II or Vixen mini Porta

3) A 4" Mak

Andrew

[Jon Sales]

Thanks for the info guys.

Gonna stick with the goto idea as we'll be taking it round the world with us to Kenya and Cyprus so I'll want to sky tour and show the kids in the orphanage in Kenya the night sky.

Been looking at the Skywatcher 127 Synscan goto mak, they quote 4.5kg including mount in weight so this looks a possibility.

Not sure if my phone will work abroad with the Astro software I have otherwise I'd probably go with a Vixen Porta II mount and a 4-5" mak.

Any further suggestions? Lol

[AWR]

Stellarium on a laptop or netbook?

(And don't forget the power supply - batteries won't last one night!)

Andrew

PS - remember you'll still need too align the GOTO every time. (I'll stop with the anti GOTO now:))

[Jon Sales]

I have Stellarium on both my NetBook and laptop. My NetBook is very light but don't want to spend all night trying to find stuff with it as much as I'd love to.

I'll have to do my sums and see what I can work out because I used a Skywatcher 120 short tube frac last night and the views were brilliant plus it's short enough to go as cabin luggage.

Would it be to heavy for the Vixen mount tho?

[AWR]

I'm really liking my Vixen mount! I bought it for the Lunt in particular but I sold my EQ3-2 and use it for my 127 too. The Vixen is SO much better. I wouldn't have thought that the SW 120 would cause it any problems.

Andrew

[Jon Sales]

Thanks Andrew.

And it looks small enough to fit into a case easily for travelling with.

Upside of it is my NetBook battery lasts for about 8 hours