Opinions on two scopes for travel please.

[alan g]

Hi all.

As the header says, I would like to buy a decent but inexpensive scope to be used when I go on holiday either abroad or to my caravan here. I've narrowed it down to either the skywatcher startravel 80 refractor at £59 for the ota or the skywatcher skymax-90 mak at £116 for the ota. I already have a small but sturdy tabletop tripod that I could mount either of these scopes on.

If anyone on here has either of these scope I would appreciate hearing what you think of them.

Cheers.

[Stargazer_00]

Hi Alan.

Does the Heritage 130 not compact down small enough for you? Or are you worried about collimation etc at the other end?

The 130p has a larger aperture than both. I'd look for ways to travel with that to be honest.

Going abroad is perhaps a different issue though with flights and the baggers throwers it'd have to be carry on.

I used to own an ST80. I'd think of it like a pair of bins that you can increase the magnification of. Shows lovely wide field views for its aperture but doesn't do well much past 100x and has CA on bright objects. Has some potential for a day time scope if you are birding I guess, with the appropriate diagonal.

A 90 Mak has a much longer focal length and therefore small field of view. The smaller aperture will limit the usable magnification to about 130x-140x in my opinion with around 100x looking the best (limiting factor being exit pupil size). Would be a bit better for moon and planets. It can show 1.23 degrees of true field so should be able to frame most DSOs. Of the 2 scope this is probably the more versatile instrument for visual use.

[alan g]

Hi Stargazing00, thanks for the reply.

I do regularly take my 130p to our caravan here as it fits easily into the boot of the car but I don't fancy taking it on a plane as hand luggage and collimation is not an issue as it is very quick and easy to correct.

I was just wondering if the difference between the scopes justified the 90mm Mak being twice the price of the 80mm refractor.

[bomberbaz]

I have the ST80 Frac Alan. It comes well packaged in its own padded cases with EP's and a barlow. Basic diagonal and is nice nice and lightweight. Agree with the CA on brighter objects but also handy for wide field viewing. I also own a Skymax 102, unfortunately not the 90 but useful for comparison. It is also very lightweight and I have had it up to around 150 mag. However I have limited experience (make that time viewing) with either scope other than to say I like them both from what I have seen but for different reasons.

Views are generally better in the mak with a cleaner image and no signifiacant CA but you get a much wider FOV with the frac.(2.7 at mag 22 with a Celestron X-CEL 18mm EP) With the supplied 10+20mm epo plus barlow it gives some reasonable viewing options up to a 80* which I would say is not far off its max tbh.

So i guess it depends what you are viewing but if its going to be a bit of everythiing, then I also reckon the Mak is your best all round option.

HTH

EDIT. Only other point in favour of the frac is you wont have any worries about the collimation being knocked out when travelling.....

[Stargazer_00]

Hi Stargazing00, thanks for the reply.

I do regularly take my 130p to our caravan here as it fits easily into the boot of the car but I don't fancy taking it on a plane as hand luggage and collimation is not an issue as it is very quick and easy to correct.

I was just wondering if the difference between the scopes justified the 90mm Mak being twice the price of the 80mm refractor.

Sorry I missed the point about price differential. I'm not privvy to the cost per unit facts in terms of manufacturing but a Mak is a more complex design optically than an ST80 so I would expect that the majority of the additional cost is in the production and manufacture of the optics.

[bomberbaz]

One other thing to be aware of, (sorry I only just realised) if you buy the OTA only, the fitting might not be dovetail for the Frac and you may need to buy that separate I also needed tube rings plus said dovetail and this added almost another £50 to it. So check first that your connection and the fitting supplied are compatible.