Decision time...

[Groucho Ben]

So, I live on a boat.

It's a great way to live your life if the cash is short and you don't mind being a bit ... compact ... in your living arrangements! Anyway, my amazing girlfriend bought me a Celestron 130 astromaster; what a great present!

and I've had some good nights with it, but it just doesn't fit onboard! It's buried deep in the bowels of my boat, and take out/set up/cool down/repack leaves me with disntcintly little time to, you know, observe... So I'm in the market for a new scope and would like your august advice. having lurked about SGL for weeks, I think I see three options, but please throw anymore at me as you see fit. Like Socrates, I would be the first to admit that I know zip!

130p Heritage

+ compact, cheap as hell, portable, good reviews here

- frequent collimation due to flextube thingy, and I've recently read some bad press on the not-so-parabolic mirror

Skymax 127 Mak

+ awesome noob-friendly planet views

- bit bulky still? Need a decent mount, like the AZ4? Limited DSO for when I realise there's more to the universe than the solar system?

Skymax 80ED

+ Pretty shiny mmm, great compact size, fairly upgrade free?, future-proof (AP, second scope, grab and go, etc)?

- expense may result in my destitution, mainly deep field?

Please help me decide! Otherwise I will be stuck at the cross roads of indecision till my beard turns grey.

Thanks in advance, and thanks for all the help regular posters have already provided me with, as I've lurked in the shadows...

[Qualia]

Great photos, Groucho It must be amazing living on a river boat. We don't have many canals in Spain and certainly not the kind you'd want to live on, but I can imagine "there is nothing--absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats." (Wind in the Willows).

Anyway, I guess you've just about opened a can of worms here: a compact, grab n go. My god, you know what you've just gone and let yourself in for ? You're going to get the Newtonian crowd saying one thing and the Galilean crowd quite the opposite and then you're gonna get those swizzy-dizzy Mak fellas bleating them all down! Hope you've got a decent 6 pack of Gillettes on ya, otherwise that proverbial gray beard is not gonna stop growing

But enough of this nonsense. May I suggest a little look at either the Skywatcher's Achromat Star Travels, perhaps the 102mm (which will require no cool down time, no collimation, just set up and go), or Skywatcher's Mak 102mm (which may need a little more work, but will give, I imagine, excellent views and with no CA)?

Anyway, good luck with whatever you decide on

[swamp thing]

Lovely looking boat.

Buddy of mine lives on a narrow type one. Very nice way of living it is too.

Do you have a car? If so could the scope not live in the boot?

[nightfisher]

one word, skyliner 150p..........or is that 2 words

[Groucho Ben]

Thanks swampthing, she's a great boat to take out down the river, and gives a lot more living space than narrow boats too. BTW I'm a cyclist, so I doubt I'll find a scope that fits in my panniers

The 102 Mak could be the thing for me... I notice there's a pretty big drop off in weight between the 127 and the 102, which would make things a bit easier. I just fear I'll get upgradeitis too soon if I go 102mm tho... I'll go and take a look at the size of them in store soon.

I suspect the Startravel might be a bit too long for me to store easily tbh. Shame, I really like the look of the TAL100r too...

Skyliner 150p!!! Very interesting option, I really like the look of that, thanks Nightfisher! I'll scurry off to fret over the reviews of it now...

[nightfisher]

why cant i see pics of your boat

[Groucho Ben]

That's odd, nightfisher... They're hosted on the same sight as the rest of the pics on my original post. Maybe too big?

[boabsta]

Why not just make a dob mount for your current scope?

Other than that I vote mak. Ive got the 127 and its not that big or heavy realy. Mine lives in a tesco bag for life and once you get used to setting it up it realy does only take a couple of minutes. The visuals through it are stunning and you can get some dso's.

But yet again i'm thinking you can do all this with your current scope. The more you use it the easier it is to use and set up/break down times will get faster. As for cooling down time, just take the scope outside first when setting up or even earlier before dusk if you know your going to be using it.

So after all that my vote is now to keep what you got and maybe get some new eyepieces for it instead.

[Groucho Ben]

Boabsta, that's a very good idea, and I like a bit of DIY, thankyou. Of course, I don't want to do it, which means it's probably what I should do! I guess the big advantage of the 130p heritage is the flextube - it probably sounds silly but that size difference is huge when living onboard. So I think, on reflection (honk!), it's a straight old fashioned fight between a small mak 102, a heritage and a SW ed80.

It's me birthday in a couple of weeks, so I think I'll take advantage of it to ask for donations for a ed80. I have a few eyepieces and have just ordered a tal barlow, so i don't think the extras would cost too much, just the diagonal I think...

The big reason is, I live really near some great darksky sites along the north norfolk coast, and would love a kit that clocks in under 9kg, and is portable enough for the train. But of course the Heritage fits that bill too. I am excrutiatingly stuck in the middle...

Given that I have an itch to scratch, what would you plump for? SW ed80, heritage or mak 102? My thinking is, if I go ed or mak, I can get the other in a year or so and have two :icescream:really nice portable scopes that cover wide and planetary. A man can dream, can't he?

[boabsta]

1 of my freinds had 1 of these http://www.wexphotographic.com/buy-meade-etx80-backpack-package/p1523015 and I can vouch for the quality. The backpack is free and it all packs down nicely for storage.

Just another little spanner in the decision process

[Groucho Ben]

Thank you all for your advice, I really appreciate it. Also nice to just natter with some people in the know.

I'm pretty set on either a new SW 80ed, but there's a ZS80ii that's on astro buy and sell at the moment, which I think it fits the bill very nicely, if I can haggle the price down a little bit...

http://www.astrobuys....php?view=57192

Really, I want to be able to take my scope out to North Norfolk campsites like Waxham, Stiffkey, Kelling or Deepdale for a night of gazing at a darksky , at the drop of a hat, and the Zenithstar seems to be a perfect match, a little bit more portable than the SW ed80.

Anyway, this morning I received what I think will prove to be my best piece of stargazing equipment ever. It only cost me £13, is lightweight and portable, and looks very user-friendly .... Turn Left at Orion is just pure dead great!

[Alan_B]

Opticstar showroom is only a couple of minutes walk from the Bridgewater canal - dont know how long it would take to get there at 4 mph though

Canals at bottom right

[Groucho Ben]

Hi, thanks for the heads up on opticstar - I was actually looking at their Opticstar AR90S Gold - Dual Speed as an option, but it seemed to represent an unknown quality, being as there's not one review of the scope that I can find. Looks very compact and nice, though!

In the end I've gone and bought myself a secondhand ed80, with an Az4 mount, which arrives tomorrow. I am dead excited about getting first light with it, the scope is in peachy condition.

Thanks again to every one here for their ideas and suggestions!

[ollypenrice]

I like your avatar but I must warn you that I wouldn't care to observe with any telescope that would accept me at the eyepiece...

Refractors are simple and robust. They are also great terrestrial scopes and would help you spot incoming Tsunamis, angry whales, pirates and customs officers, not to mention the birds and other wildlife that you are well placed to enjoy. Also small scopes do widefield really well if they have a short focal length. A small, long FL scope seems to me to shoot itself in that particular foot.

A boat and a bicyle? Great ideas...

Olly

[Groucho Ben]

I myself am considered by many to be simple and robust, Olly, so it looks like a good match...

When I tire of my life of pirating and retire to become a landlover, I will no doubt stretch the capacity of my suburban garage with a whopping great dob

But until that day, it looks like an ed80 will be my weapon of choice...