Newbie(ish) living in London, help!!!

[Apple15pie]

Hi Guys

I'm looking into buying my first telescope, but my budget is pretty low, and I live in horrible light polluted London

Sometimes I can get fairly clear skies here (i have seen Jupiter and sort of Saturn recently with my bins) but I also go to slightly less polluted skies in Suffolk.

Therefore I would like a relatively portable 'scope to fit in the back of the car with all the luggage to take to my mobile home in Suffolk, but also one that i could use in London

I have been looking at the Skywatcher Heritage 130p, but also contemplated the Skywatcher Explorer 130 or 130p (which are less portable).

As you can probably see i am stuck in a real rut thinking about this, so any help at all is welcome

Thanks

Dan

ps - if you know any good second hand places too that would help as i could then get a good scope for a good price

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

If portability is key, and you only want to do visual, I think the Heritage 130p seems the best choice out of those three. You might consider the even more compact 6" SCTs or Maks, but they are quite a bit more expensive.

http://www.astrobuysell.com/uk/ is a good place to hunt for secondhand scopes.

[DirkSteele]

Might I also suggest you come along to a Baker Street Irregular Astronomers meeting? We meet every month at the Hub in Regents Park and it is completely free. You will see a range of telescopes on display (most of them are very portable as we all transport them across London) and be free to look through them and ask plenty of questions. Next meeting is tonight and the weather forecast is looking quite promising currently.

http://www.bakerstreetastro.org.uk/

You will also be surprised just how much you can see even under the light polluted skies of London.

[Apple15pie]

Thanks for the helpful advice guys, ill be searching that astrobuysell site all day!!

Afraid I cant come to BSIA tonight, a bit late notice but i have signed up to the NEWSLETTER *WHOOP*

[damnut]

Hi Dan,

Any idea of budget??, the dob is a great scope but my wepon of choice for grab& go was an ST120 on an az3(just) then on to an az4, large enough apperture to give great dso view, small enough to go in roofbox, boot or back seat of the car and impervious to snow, rain sand or dog slobber. Also the optics stay in alignment better for transport.

Good luck with your choice.

[Apple15pie]

Erm, well its a tough one for budget (intended to be a birthday present for me from my parents), but I spose around £200 upper limit max!!! but i would prefer something around £150 (less if possible )

[Swampcreature]

Try contacting the dealers to see if they have any part ex or ex demo instruments going cheap or put a Wanted ad in Astronomy Now.

I dont know what your engineering skills are but I`ve built my own from mirrors I got cheap from instruments damaged in transit.

[damnut]

Hi Dan,

The 130p is available new for £139 and if you drop to the ST102 that is £195, both new. Keep an eye on Astro Buy & Sell and on the classifieds here once you have been member for a while and built up a number of posts.

[AndyWB]

One thing to consider with the Heritage 130 is some sort of shroud - I made one last night, actually. (Well, two shrouds if I'm honest.) It seemed worth doing as last time I was out I looked down the OTA and could see the sides of it clearly in the 'dark' - so I figured it might be a worthwhile investment of time to make one. Total cost - about 15 quid for neoprene and Velcro, I think, and that was enough for two.

(Flocking may come next)

I've enjoyed my scope so far, even from central Reading. I do get why more aperture is popular - but I can carry my scope in one hand and a folding chair in the other, and be good to go in 2 minutes.

[dick_dangerous]

I live in London - don't know where you are but out here in Zone 6 we get rather less light pollution and I live right next to Bushy Park so have an ideal viewing spot right on my doorstep. I use a little ST80 refractor, and am loving the views through it. Having said that I'm likely to upgrade it next year to a slightly bigger one, but the big advantage is that I can pick it up and carry it to the park without too much trouble. Fits in the back of a car for trips to darker areas too - saw a lot from Pembrokeshire.

DD

[GeorgeB]

I'm not too far from you DD. I occasionally set myself up in Richmond Park and can attest that the sky isn't too bad as you are away from immediate streetlighting and have a reasonable 360^O horizon. I recently spent a year or so living in Kentish Town which is about as urban as it gets and still had an enjoyable time planetary observing and hunting the brighter DSO's.

[Imd]

Dan,

I have both the heritage and the ST102. I bought the heritage first and I do like how portable it is and how its easliy stored too. If you buy the heritage I think you could sell it on easliy aftewards if you get the bug. I used the the hertitage for looking at the bigger planets and also clusters. I used a webcam for taking photos and used Registax to process them. I would recommend a Barlow and a sherter focal length eye piece, although with higher magnification your object will quickley move outside of your view. The problem is with this scope for me is that you cannot connect a DSLR and I don't like the red dot finder because unless an object is quite bright its harder to find.

The ST102 is more complexed as you need to get your head around using a equatorial mount. However I think this kind of mount can give your more options for learning practical astronomy. You can connect an SLR camera (an adapter is required) or a webcam, it comes with a finder which magnifies the view and this can be upgraded if required. Its more robust than the heritage as it should not be as sensitive to collmination errors. ST102 However I should not let collmination deter you its all part of the learning fun. Also if you treat a small reflector carefully you probably would not need to collminate very often. You should find that you are more comfortable on the whole when viewing via the ST102. I tended to have to move around a table and lean over when using the heritage. There is something called chromatic abberation with the ST102 which you will not get with the Heritage and this gives a violet fringe around very bright objects.

On the whole both will give an opportunity to learn and enjoy astronomy and either will serve as a grab 'n' go scope if you wish to get somthing bigger later.

At the moment, for me, the ST102 is the winner because of the DSLR and because I also have a motorised and heavier mount.

After buying the scope consider that you will probably want to buy a barlow lens soon after.

I hope you enjoy whatever choice you make.

I have attached a pic of the moon taken with the heritage 130P, x2 barlow and a webcam, to give you an idea. (I was and still am a newbie myself, so please don't laugh at me anyone)

Regards

Ian

[Schorhr]

I have the Heritage 130p too, and it's the biggest you can carry in a (large) backpack.

Take that, light pollution! :-)

But with a cardboard tube you can easily use it on a balcony or even under direct street light, IF you have to. Planets and brighter DSOs are visible from within a city too.

At the edge of my city here, surely not as bright as london, frankfurt or such, it's well possible to observe from a filed nearby. The 130p is even more portable then my 10" sumerian, if I just want to grab it and go out observing for 30-60minutes.

If you settle for the h130p, make sure to check if it will provide sharp images at 200x or even a little up. Some reported it's mirror is more spherical then parabolic.

Also the incuded eyepieces are not rubbish, but not good either.

For the 130mm telescope with 650mm focal length, buy a 20mm and 6mm UWA or Planetary eyepieces.

66/58 degree apparent view of field, nice wide angle, good eye relieve, even with glasses usable!

They cost 30€/28€ to 45€/40gbp.

Plus a 15€ achromatic Barlow (x2 magnification) or another 1-2 eyepieces. You'll rarely need more then 3-4 magnifications and from within a city neither super-high magnifications nor a very low magnification eyepiece with the maximum usefull exit pupil of 7mm will make much sense (due to light polution).

This setup will give you:

32x, 65x, 108x, 216x

So overall a good beginner's setup for deepsky, planets and everything inbetween.

[Imd]

it comes with a finder which magnifies the view and this can be upgraded if required.

Correction - I bought mine 2nd hand and it came with a finderscope but I have just noticed that it appears to be sold new with a red dot finder. However its easily upgradeable for about £40

Regards

Ian

[Schorhr]

Best would be to leave the RDF or upgrade to telrad/quickfinder/clone AND a smeller €13/12gbp 6x30 finder scope for the few occasions the light pollution won't allow finding things with the telrad.