Swap Newtonian for refractor??

[Welrod50]

Hello all,

I wonder if I might have your thoughts on my present set-up and my potential plan to swap....

I have a SW Explorer 130 f900 at the mo. Great scope which I am enjoying using. However, it is taking up a lot of room and I am loathe to put it in the car and take it out places. I do not collimate, but do a simple 'star test' which so far, seems to be fine. I am also leaning towards astro photog and although only a minor bugbear, the inverted image is a little annoying. All in all, I am thinking about swapping to a refractor.

I would need something with similar light gathering capacity, smaller than my 130 and thus easier to transport without collimation worries, optically sharp and perhaps GOTO, although my 130 Newtonian is on a simple EQ mount and I do not find this a hardship.

My budget would be around £400 thereabouts with mount. Am I being foolish, or could I swap and still have the sharpness aswell as light gathering capacity to see some of the brighter DSO's too. I am rather liking the planetary and lunar observing at the minute, but would like to continue seeing M42, Beehive and the like.

What do you guys think??

Any suggestions on scope would also be helpful too.

Thanks and may the clear skies continue......

Scott

[Peter Drew]

With your suggested budget I think it's unlikely that you would be able to purchase a refractor and mount that would be an improvement on what you already have. Don't let collimation issues put you off taking your 130 out in a car, collimation is easy once you have some practice and is a skill every reflector owner should acquire.

[garethmob]

for visual on a scope like that collimation dosnt have to be "perfect" the other night i was with my mate and his new "white hole" as its been nicknamed a SW130 with a large dent in the side. collimation was so out we were using it to point the laser down the eyepeice and it was on the objects, but visually it seemed fine!

if you really want a frac for that budget you would be looking at a SW 102st or 80st but they do suffer pretty bad with bright objects showing a colour band around it. to help then you have to buy a fringe killer, or buy a ED scope like a second hand megrez 72 (around 250) or zs66 (around same) but only left with 200 for a mount so as peter said it might be good to keep the 130, perhaps buy both see which suits better and sell the other one on

[Qualia]

The Tal 100rs is a wonderful refractor (check out all the reviews of thing) and if you mounted this on an AZ4, well, you're just about within your 400 price range. Trouble is, it will probably still take up a fair but of room. Have you considered a dob?

[garethmob]

i really really like tal scopes, but one thing to remember, at F10 it makes it a fairly slow scope so DSO's start to be harder to see the usual suspecs like orion and beehive and palidies are ok but deeper ones will have to be forgotten

[jimmyjamjoejoe]

If the size is an issue, you are kinda stuffed, since any frac with similar aperture will have a similar focal length. The only real options are the startravel range, which suffer from CA and arent really suited to planetary/lunar, or a maksutov.

To be honest, i'd stick with what you have for now.

[sgazer]

yep, I too think it'll be a struggle to obtain a frac that will out perform the 130 and a mount in your budget and near impossible if you are considering goto and imaging. Collimation really is easy, particularly for visual and if you use a cheshire collimator or laser collimator. Also, I shipped my 150pds from UK to Oz and used it several times for imaging with out touching the collimation (probably should have checked it, but stars seemed fine) and I was still happy with the results. So chuck it in your car and don't worry about it!

[Moonshane]

the thing to remember is that visual astronomy relies heavily upon aperture. the more aperture you have, the more you will see. there are some subtle differences between different designs etc but in reality aperture is what matters. you have to weigh the maximum aperture you can use with what you can afford, carry, set up alone and store.

AP is a different thing altogether and has very different requirements to visual. as it happens, on a different mount (and maybe with a different focuser) your current scope would be better than many refractors for AP too as it has no false colour.

collimation is very easy, don't let it scare you or put you off. for the sake of buying a £25 Cheshire, and learning a basic skill, you'll save yourself £375.

[Welrod50]

Some good replies,thanks all. I did think of a dob and mak, but I just dont feel the love with dobs and maks seem to be against dso's. I guess my mind is set then. I will keep the newt and see how I go. I may yet go for a sw pro refractor with ED glass at some point but maybe nxt yr. Trouble is, i'm purchasing couple of new lenses for the cameras and I cant have everything.