Startravel 102 or Skymax 102 as a travel scope

[jabberwocky]

im going camping in southern africa in october and i obviously want to take a scope with me to take advantage of the dark southern skies. my initial thought was an St80 but with the 102 not being all that larger why not go for that instead?

however, with it having such a short focal length getting enough magnification wont be easy. im only planning on taking my WO 7.5-22.5 zoom so that almost completely rules out the st102

so my pother thought was the skymax 102, same aperture, compact tube so it will fit in my hand luggage but higher mags will be easy due to the much longer focal length.

my question is how suitable is the skymax as a jack of all trades travel scope?

[fredster]

For sweeping the skies you won't need high power, just low to medium-low. The Startravel is perfect for that job. Nice widefield and chromatic abberation is not a problem at low powers on starfields. But the Skymax will be restricted, long focal length coupled with a 22.5mm eyepiece with a 40deg afov means only a true max field of 0.69deg.

There are sometimes some nicely priced Apo's on UK Buy'n'sell. Things like the Megrez 72 or ED80. They sometimes come up for the same price as a new Startravel 102. They have a nice widefield but can also be pushed quite hard with the magnification. So really are a Jack of all trades.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I used just my bins in South Africa and Australia. Many sights are way better with wide-field. I have a little 80mm F/6 APO which I hope to take down-under next time I go. Really excellent for wide field, and great on planets as well. Mine weighs in at 2.5 kg (OTA). Add the 31mm Nagler and a zoom EP (e.g. the TS HR Planetary) and you just top 4 kg, which is fine for carry-on luggage. The mount can go in the hold.

[DirkSteele]

I have just purchased a APM TMB 105mm Apo refractor with a F6.2 focal ratio. My personal preference was to be able to sweep up large star fields under the dark skies abroad so the shorter focal length was a plus for me, though I am including 3 eyepieces in my travel set up (3-6mm Nagler Zoom, 10mm Delos, and 35mm Panoptic) which gives me a magnifcation range of 19x to 216x with fields of view of 3.4^o to 0.48^o. Thus giving myself the option for some higher power work, without having to take an entire case of eyepieces. Perhaps you could consider an extra higher power EP for your travel set up?

[JamesF]

I'd add my vote for the refractor. I've taken my 127 Mak on holiday in the past, but that's mainly because it's far more compact than my ST120. With smaller apertures the difference isn't quite so pronounced though and I'd then be tempted to go for the 'frac.

James

[fredster]

I'd add my vote for the refractor. I've taken my 127 Mak on holiday in the past, but that's mainly because it's far more compact than my ST120. With smaller apertures the difference isn't quite so pronounced though and I'd then be tempted to go for the 'frac.

James

That is the main problem with the ST120, its not quite compact enough to hide away in the holiday luggage without the wife spotting it. Must really add an ST80 to my arsenal.

[Peter Drew]

I would go for the refractor for its low power wide field potential, I presume that this trip would be a rare event and a chance to see DSO's that are not seen from the UK. Your 200P will give you better views of the planets, if well placed, when you are home.

[r3i]

Had an ST102 for a while a couple of years ago - it made a nice travel scope, and good wide field views.

[fredster]

Plus with the Startravel being relatively cheap you are not going to be sweating about losing it or damaging it. Or at least not as much as you would with an expensive Apo.