Portable low-cost rucksack/all-in-one packages - maybe for novice AP use too

[rodhull]

Going to be camping in a hopefully dark coastal location for a few days in July and have been looking to get a small short-tube refractor + mount to take with me to try out some dark sky observing (simply no room in the car for the 200P dob along with the camping gear/baby car seat/travel-cot etc!)

I've been attracted by the fairly cheap packages that come in their own little bag with mount/tripod etc. included. The important thing is for it to be small, portable, and fast to setup/take down and more importantly cheap since it won't really be used that often.

I've been trying to decide between the Celestron Travel Scope 70 for £50 at Amazon and the SkyWatcher Startravel 80 (tabletop EQ1 version) from FLO at £100.

I understand that I won't be able to get any kind of high mag. out of these, so also not sure if a cheap Mak/spotting scope would be a better choice so I could get higher mags for planetary viewing. It's a bit of a minefield really seeing as I'm trying to get something on such a low budget.

I've also realised recently that also I'd maybe like to eventually get into a bit of AP at some point, so thought a cheap refractor like this would give me something to play with whilst learning the ropes before spending more on a better rig...fully understand that results would be mixed on such cheap gear, but I'd like to try all the same on cheap equipment to see if it's really my cup of tea since I've only got experience with strictly visual observing this far...

Which one of these two would be better considering I might want to try out a bit of AP with it too as an aside? I understand the tripod/mount with the Celestron will be utter bobbins, yet on the other hand, I have no experience with EQ mounts but this would be a necessity for AP I presume so the ST80 ticks that box but not sure if it would be easy as a grab/go or whether that particular package will allow me to attach it to a better tripod/mount in future?

Also, is the ST80 really worth twice as much as the Celestron TS 70?

Any advice greatly appreciated!

[DirkSteele]

I would suggest that a dark site will do nothing extra for planetary viewing that you cannot achieve from your usual observing location, so a smaller refractor would be the way to go, enabling the widefield views of star clouds and clusters of the Milky Way that can make dark site observing so rewarding. These kind of views just cannot be achieved with the narrower fields typical of Maks.

I am afraid I am unfamiliar with either of your refractor choices, so will leave that to other SGL members to opine on.

[rodhull]

Great advice. Sounds sensible...looks like a 'frac it is then Interested to hear any views on the AP angle...

[rowan46]

I wouldn't bother with using it for ap you haven't got the optics or the mount to get much on it. if you want to do photography you will be better off with a decent photo tripod and a camera and short lens then stacking wide field shots

[OneEyedSam]

... Or sometihng like a Polarie

[Schorhr]

Hi,

the EQ is horrible, even with a small scope that won't be much fun for astro photography :-)

Astro3 (Lidl-Mount) perhaps.

We have a 102/1300mm mak, great telescope that will show nice planets and fits into a backpack. Works on a stable camera tripod and the Astro3 EQ Mount!

Also if you want it portable and a bit of deepsky, consider the Heritage 130p. It will work as Dobson AND on a Astro3 Mount as well.

It shows much more then a 70mm or even the 102mm telescope, and probably the most (6kg) you want to carry (IF you have a large backpack or car) :-)

[rowan46]

I reckon a polarie or astrotrac would be great but I am guessing over the op's budget. I just figured if he had a dslr he may already have a tripod for it

[rodhull]

Thanks for all the replies guys. I don't have a tripod or DSLR even! This really is the complete beginning for me! That Polarie looks interesting but pricey...

So, between the two scopes I mentioned, which does anyone think has the greater potential in the long run but will also give me an immediate "quick win" for a travel scope bearing in mind I have no tripod/mount already (just my 8" Dob)?

[rowan46]

I think the st80 will have the better potential in the long run I doubt you will ever make an imaging rig out of it but at least you can use it as a guidescope. and with some modifications use the mount to mount a camera on for wide field http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/137080-auto-guided-eq1-mount/page__hl__%20guided%20%20eq1

[Schorhr]

€20/20gbp firstscope clone dobsonian 76/300, one or two UWA eyepieces or Plössl, and 3.2 or 2.5mm Planetary Eyepiece :-)

Small enough for EQ1, too.

[rodhull]

In case anyone is interested, I went for the ST80 (Tabletop version) in the end. It came with the small tabletop EQ1 mount plus a correct image 90deg. diagonal and a surprisingly good (to my eyes at least) RDF - all in a lovely little padded bag that I could fit the two included eyepieces + barlow, headtorch and even my copy of PSA without any problems.

Took it up to the N. Norfolk coast where we were camping and were lucky enough to have one tremendously clear and dark night with excellent seeing - not used to such dark skies from my usual light-polluted location - from midnight onwards I could just about see the Milky Way with the naked eye and making out some of the constellations was even sometimes tricky due to the sheer number of stars!

The scope performed excellently - had cracking views of the moon, Andromeda, and a few globs all at low mag. - the widefield views when just panning about were lovely. High mag. wasn't really doable with the included eyepieces + barlow since I could only get up to x80 (the barlow is a VERY plasticky affair) which dimmed the image considerably, should have really taken my Baader Q-Turret x2.25 one...worked nicely on the moon however - nice crisp views.

However, it's not all good news - I really don't think the tabletop EQ mount is suited for grab/go visual use - I didn't find I needed to be able to track anything so despite roughly polar aligning, that aspect never really came in handy - I didn't have a problem with stability of the mount/legs when rested directly on the ground, and the slow-mo controls are nice to have (not used to such a thing previously only using a Dob). However, because of the EQ, I was getting into some quite contorted positions trying to look through the RDF to line things up (thankfully I could rotate the diagonal/eyepiece to a more comfortable position). Still glad I got it though if nothing else to learn/play about with an equatorial mount...

Whilst walking about down the coast during the day, I realised I could have really benefitted from a lightweight travel photo tripod that I could have screwed the ST80 onto and just slung over my shoulder (the OTA is so light) to enjoy some terrestrial views out to sea/down the coastline.

Has anyone used those very light/small tripods for this purpose with a scope like this? It would be great to find one that would fit into the bag the ST80 came in (having removed the tabletop EQ1) so I could keep everything together all in one bag (would need to fold down to <40cm in length).

Seen this on Amazon which looks promising: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cullmann-Nanomax-200T-Cb5-1Tripod-Ball/dp/B0045HINX0/ref=sr_1_cc_2?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1374496224 and according to the website can take up to 2kg in weight...

For terrestrial use, I suppose stability at max. extension wouldn't be as crucial as for astronomical use - would be happy to have it folded more or less right down and kneel/lie on the ground (which I didn't mind at all doing with the tabletop EQ1)...

Any ideas? Again since this would be very occasional, I wouldn't want to spend really any more than £40 so am not expecting miracles...