Portable scope

[stuffedhaggis]

Hey guys

Currently have a 200p on a eq 5 mount . I looking for a nice portable scope to compliment my 200p . I roughly 300 to spend. Possibility of goto would be great . Light and easy setup as it will be taking camping

Any ideas

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[Capricorn]

The William Optics Zenithstar comes to mind but that is £370, FLO.

TS have a 70mm f/6 ED at 350 euro about £290 carbon fibre tube.

TS also do a 80 f/7 Astro Professional at 400 euro, around £330.

You would need a mount, I assume the idea is to use the EQ5 ??

Also a diagonal.

[stuffedhaggis]

Hopeing a mount woukd be included

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[zakkhogan]

costco have the celestron 102GT, 4" refractor, F10, AZ mount, Goto, under £200 i think,

[Joseki]

Skywatcher heritage 130P + 20 pound digital inclinometer + setting circle +smartphone (assumed to already own) with suitable astro app on? That's my plan for a campling scope anyway.

[jabberwocky]

I use a ST102 on a camera tripod, although it does suffer from CA. But as a grab and go its great.

[brantuk]

The SW AZ4 is great mount for grab and go and doubles up as a camera mount with included "L" dovetail bracket for rock steady silky smooth performance. About £120 to £130 s/h in near new condition. It's not goto - but a good knowledge of the sky or a suitable phone app for finding stuff is a great idea.

I would pop a 127 Mak on it - should be able to get a very good condition one s/h for circa £180 to £190 depending on negotiating skills. It will be nice and sharp on planets - and very useable for brighter dso's though the field is a little narrow - but we are talking compromise for lightweight and portable.

Altogether you'd have a very nice little rig for camping or grab and go - very little effort or room needed to pop in the car alongside the tent gear. Not suitable for back packing though. Hth

[stuffedhaggis]

Thanks for the advice

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[Stargazer_00]

I use an ST80 on a camera tripod, i Find it really good. a very versatile little scope. Use it for moon, open clusters, some globs. struggles a little on planets due to CA. Andromeda is nice in it, M81 M82 are about its limit in a light polluted town but im sure in a dark campsite in the middle of nowhere it will perform as well as a 6 inch reflector does in LP

Works a treat as a solar scope with appropriate filters. Takes about 2 minutes to setup, I use this more frequently than my dob these days because its so easy to set up and throw out in the garden I can go out even on nights with patchy cloud. Just spot through the gaps

[JamesM]

Could try the Skymax 102 SynScan AZ (admittedly £25 over the budget) giving you refractor like views without the false colour that is present with the shorter versions. There are a number of scopes that use the same mount but the Maksutov design (Cassegrain variant that uses a lens at the front) is both compact and is ideally suited to view planets, moon and globular clusters due to its narrow field of view and powers of magnification. Although this scope will accompany you during your camping sessions, the 'Mak' will provide you with a specialised scope for those objects whilst allowing the study of DSO's to observed with your existing 200P thereby owning two scopes that are designed to do different things. Another advantage is that this scope can be used terrestrially whilst your camping (my other half uses this type of scope for bird watching) and when you are back home observing with the 200P, you could always put a laser pointer on the above AZ Goto mount to help you locate some fainter DSO's that might be a little harder to find.

Clear skies

James

[stuffedhaggis]

Just orderd a 130p goto

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