Wanting a more portable scope

[Gartmeister]

Hi there I've had a celestron astro master 130eq for 2 years now but am finding it a bit of a pain to lug around.

I'm considering trying out a more portable scope to improve on my basic knowledge and perhaps try a bit of astro photography too. I've been torn between a refractor or this model.

Sky-Watcher Skymax-102 (EQ-2) Maksutov-Cassegrain Telescope

Anyone have any advice or alternatives to suggest? I'm not too keen to go down the Go-To route as I think I'd get annoyed at running out of power and I'm also trying to work out where everything is the old fashioned way.

still very much a newbie so all advice gratefully received

[rowan46]

wide field astrophotography is fine with a camera and tripod but if you start adding scopes into the mix it quickly statrts becoming expensive. The 102 will be fine on a sturdy photo tripod and adding a camera will get you the moon. Add a webcam and a laptop and you will get jupiter and saturn and thats it for imaging with that setup. visually you will see the moon well jupiter saturn mars and a few deep space objects even more from a dark site. A short achro refactor gives you the same views and imaging targets but with wide eyepices will make them easier to track. All the mounts that are capable of allowing imaging with a scope and being portable are quite expensive. I forgot to mention that scopes that are very portable and suitable for imaging are also fairly expensive what sort of budget are you looking at ?

[Gartmeister]

Thanks don't have a massive budget about £450.

I have a Nikon d5000 dslr and my friend who I stargaze with thinks I should try and attach that to my celestron130eq as a starter. I'm not as technically minded as him, as I said total newbie

[Andymac79]

A nice smallish refractor on a good quality ball head tripod sounds like what you need for visual stuff, trouble is thats fairly useless for DSO imaging, then you need heavier EQ stuff, planetary maybe do-able.

A nice quality 80mm APO on, say, a Red Snapper tripod and head maybe nice as a very mobile set giving great views.

[rowan46]

A nice smallish refractor on a good quality ball head tripod sounds like what you need for visual stuff, trouble is thats fairly useless for DSO imaging, then you need heavier EQ stuff, planetary maybe do-able.

A nice quality 80mm APO on, say, a Red Snapper tripod and head maybe nice as a very mobile set giving great views.

I liked that idea so much it's the sort of setup that I use that way should I ever have the resources for imaging I just then need to fund a mount.

this is the sort of scope I might get with your money

http://www.teleskop-...ord-Auszug.html

not as good at anything optically but put it on a photo mount and you have a very portable grab and go with nearly no false colour unlike the startravel it takes great moon pics

[usher4566]

Nice looks very portable ime using a wo66 at min is great when u can just grab a scope and dart out .

[Andymac79]

I liked that idea so much it's the sort of setup that I use that way should I ever have the resources for imaging I just then need to fund a mount.

this is the sort of scope I might get with your money

http://www.teleskop-...ord-Auszug.html

not as good at anything optically but put it on a photo mount and you have a very portable grab and go with nearly no false colour unlike the startravel it takes great moon pics

F6, carbon tube, small travel dimensions. looks great that. Someone else will be able to comment on the optics im sure.