My first scope

[mor aase]

Do I buy skymax 127 or celestron c5?

Whats in the boxes when I get them?

Do I need to buy some mor, like an particul eyepiece or barlow?

I really. Should liketo have a diagonal mirror. Are they expensive?

[mor aase]

Sorry for bad writing, im posting from a ipad ;(

[Arushin]

Do I buy skymax 127 or celestron c5?

Whats in the boxes when I get them?

Do I need to buy some mor, like an particul eyepiece or barlow?

I really. Should liketo have a diagonal mirror. Are they expensive?

I used to have a Skymax 127 so I can vouch for the fact that it's great for moon & Planets, but you won't be able to see anything other than the brightest DSO's. I managed to get a hint of the ring nebula once.

Diagonal might be included along with, I believe, a stock 10mm & 25mm eyepiece. No guarantees though as it depends on what the supplier ships at the time. You may, or may not, find a 2X Barlow useful but if I were you I would look at replacing the supplied eyepieces with better quality ones first.

I now have this scopes big brother and love it. A good choice. I can't comment on the Celestron, but I believe it is comparable and it also has a large number of fans.

Kind regards

[Capricorn]

The 127 is probably the best option, the C5 is set up as a spotting scope and will have an erecting prism in the path and that may introduce problems as the prism doing the image erection will not be great.

Being a long focal length it will give magnification for planets - but there isn't that many of them. For DSO's you will have to keep the magnification down in order not to make the images too dim to be of any use. Simply you will not need an eyepiece below 10mm for even the brighter DSO's. Additionally the field of view is narrow so getting all of the larger DSO's in could be a cause for thought.

Orion and Pleaides are both about 1 degree. that means 50x so a 30mm eyepiece, and that will mean they fill the eyepiece, nothing around them to frame either.

[glowjet]

Sorry to break your train of thought on the 127 and C5, but have you considered the 150 Dobsonian, more light gathering and a good all round basic scope which will not break the bank

John.

[mor aase]

The Dobsonian 250 is next years shopping.

I need a compact and ligth scope to start with, mainly for looking at Saturn rings;)

There is a big problem here in Norway, which might kill the astro interest of minr:

At a normal clear sky evening in wintertime its usually minuus 25 to minus 30 outside.

Perhaps i should keep my scope on my porch so itis temperated allways?

[crazyjedi]

Sorry to break your train of thought on the 127 and C5, but have you considered the 150 Dobsonian, more light gathering and a good all round basic scope which will not break the bank

John.

Or a 150 EQ??

No maybe the Dob would be quicker to set up in the sub-zero temperatures that you have. I don't mind the cold winter nights here - the air is always clearer and the atmospherics behave themselves more. Not sure I could cope with temperatures as low as that though Brrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

[mor aase]

A good evening for watching Saturn and DSO is like this where I live

A. Superclear skies, deeeeeeep black blackheaven, some Aurora and biliions of stars twinkling around me

B. There is 2-3 meters fluffy snow, so I am watching the sky not on foot, but pr skies

C. Temperature, tonight a modest 23 celsius minus.

It is just like this, from say 10th of Dec until April 5th, then it gets hotter, eventually 5 minus and no snow late in April

I guess i should choose my scope taking this in cons?