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Equipment advice for retirement present

jambouk

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jambouk

jambouk

Posted
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A friend is arranging a retirement present for someone; they have a budget of about £1200!

The retiring guy is new to telescope astronomy but has hinted he would like to image planets and the moon as well as some deep space objects.

I think he needs a reasonable equatorial mount and a GOTO system.

The decision needs to be made quite quickly, as the retirement date is fast approaching.

He lives in a dark area, and hopefully will only need to move the scope from the shed to the garden, and not have to drive it to distant sites on a regular basis.

I've found just these two systems online, but do you guys have any other ideas? They want to present him with something on the day, so there isn't time to invite the retiring guy to an event to see which sort of system he likes. I suspect this will be the telescope for life, so needs to tick as many boxes as possible this time around.

http://www.astroshop...ab_bar_1_select

http://www.astroshop...gt-goto/p,17682

Many thanks for any help or advice.

Regards

James

(Nottingham, but currently in Pwllheli, North Wales with very cloudy skies)

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VigdisVZ

VigdisVZ

Posted
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The SW Explorer on the NEQ6 is extremely competent. Ticks all the boxes for me. I have roughly the same setup, but a cheaper scope on top. He can easily add computer control and guidance with the NEQ6 that is a very rugged and well liked mount, and the 250PDS is a good scope for photography.

The Celestron alternative seems to have a flimsier mount, and with imaging the mount is magnitudes more important than the scope.

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JamesF

JamesF

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It's a very big scope to be lifting on and off the mount though, and not exactly light either. There may be a lot of sense in going for a slightly smaller OTA -- perhaps the 200 rather than the 250.

James

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VigdisVZ

VigdisVZ

Posted
Posted

It's a heavy scope, and a heavy mount, some would say a bit too heavy, but sturdiness and aperture is seldom light-weight.

You could also get him the NEQ6 (that he will potentially never have to upgrade) and a smaller cheaper scope, to start imaging with, then when he knows if he wants to go deep or wide he can purchase the right OTA.

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haitch

haitch

Posted
Posted

The EQ6 and the newt on top is quite a substantial arrnagement especially for someone at retirement age. I'm not saying that eveyone at retirement age is phsically frail but there is the issue of the longevity of the equipment.

Had you thought of an ED refractor on top of a HEQ5 pro?

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glowjet

glowjet

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If your retiring gentleman is interested in the dark side, then the mount will be the most important piece of kit, if you consider the NEQ6 PRO synscan you are in the region of just short of £1000 or for less the NEQ6 Syntrek which will have auto tracking and slewing but no goto. On top of this comes the scope and one of the most popular is the SkyWatcher 200P a very respectable visual and imaging tool at just £319. If you drop down to something in the order of a 100ED refractor then such as the HEQ5 PRO Synscan, which has already been mentioned, would be very nice, but way over your budget, as the 100ED will be £650 on its own and the mount £760, however the popular ED80 is worth consideration, there are three SkyWatcher ones from the basic at just under £350 to the top of the range at £520, this sort of set up is also being widely used for AP :)

John.

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Spikey

Spikey

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I've (as have many others) used a HEQ5 mount http://www.firstlightoptics.com/skywatcher-mounts/skywatcher-heq5-pro-synscan.html and a Skywatcher ED80 scope http://www.firstlightoptics.com/pro-series/skywatcher-evostar-80ed-ds-pro-outfit.html

to succesfully image and observe with. The mount is lighter & more manageable than the NEQ6 and is an excellent match for the ED80, which itself is a very capable imaging and observing scope. These two together also come in at roundabout your budget.

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Ags

Ags

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You mentioned both planetary and DSO imaging. There are few scopes that do both. I wonder whether the 150pds on a HEQ5 Pro might be a) not too heavy, b] just big enough for a bit of planetary imaging, c) good for DSO imaging (long enough to do some galaxies, wide enough to do many nebulae), and d) a good scope for visual observation too. It would leave enough money over to throw in a DMK or a coma corrector.

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Matt Scunthorpe

Matt Scunthorpe

Posted
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As one or two others have touched on, if he is retiring can assume he is 60-65. Is he feeling the effects of age, as a big scope is heavy, and a big mount is even heavier. Size can be decieving, ive attached a picture of my scope, which is the 200p (8 inch), its been mentioned a few times in the above posts, and it is a very good starter scope, on an EQ5, and an NEQ6 is a beast compared to the EQ5.

I +1 for the refractor option as photography is an interest.

post-21702-0-01199000-1352276615_thumb.j

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CSM

CSM

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Well here's a thought. If he is new to astronomy he has a lot of learning to do. And once you get into it your ideas of what you can do, or will be interested in may well change. Might it not be a better idea to present him with a cheque to be used for astronomical purposes and let him fun of deciding? Lot of money to spend on something that might not be suitable.

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ollypenrice

ollypenrice

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Posted

Yes, buying someone a telescope is a little bit like buying them a dog...

The key thing is balancing planetary and DS imaging plus visual. The only scope that will do all three is a Newt. A small refractor would be best for DS imaging, a Catadioptric for planatary and probably a Newt for visual on this budget. If you could identify the priorities then at least you could choose the right breed of dog...

Olly

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Matt Scunthorpe

Matt Scunthorpe

Posted
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Well here's a thought. If he is new to astronomy he has a lot of learning to do. And once you get into it your ideas of what you can do, or will be interested in may well change. Might it not be a better idea to present him with a cheque to be used for astronomical purposes and let him fun of deciding? Lot of money to spend on something that might not be suitable.

I agree with this, its possible if he's interested in Astronomy, he might already have a scope type in mind, and they'res also the possibility if you buy him a scope, of him thinking 'why the heck have they bought me this, im not standing outside in the freezing cold all night'

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