Short fat newt/small dob with a 2" eye piece

[Okeydokey]

I was rather taken with the idea of buying some bins to get started... then a friend gave me some, so I thought the money I have saved I would put towards a scope once I thought I knew what I was looking for.

When my brother heard, he is now bringing over his son's refractor with a box full of eye pieces... no disrespect but that was not what I was looking for, but not having to pay anything who can complain.

So the money I saved on my first bins and first scope I thought I would put towards something I really wanted, hence short fat newtonian with a 2" eye piece... however any ideas if this is achievable on a tight budget?

I am a spectacle wearer if that has any bearing on whats available in the eye piece department, haven't actually found anyone yet supplying 2" eye pieces yet

[rowan46]

where do you intend to view from, how easy is it to get there and what's your budget?

[Moonshane]

one thing to bear in mind with short (fast) dobs is that the faster they are the more faults show up in eyepieces or if the eyepieces have few faults, coma will show itself. this is not a problem in itself but often means that to get the best from a fast newtonian (faster (lower f number) than say f5) you need to buy good quality eyepieces. this can mean e.g. good quality plossls but these will be 1.25" generally.

2" eyepieces of good quality and with a long focal length (e.g. 30mm) are likely to cost more than the scope.

I have a 12" f4 dobsonian and it's a superb scope but possibly bigger than many would want.

I'd recommend perhaps a 8" f6 skywatcher or a 10" f5 skywatcher dob. these will satisfy what you seem to need as they are very good for visual astronomy but not for imaging. they are quite large though so do try and see one before you buy. any retailer of eyepieces/telescopes will sell 2" eyepieces.

[ronin]

What do you mean by a short fat dob ?

If fast then you could need better eyepieces and a coma corrector, then throw in they are more critical of collimation and they cost more to produce.

For what sounds like a first scope you are making life difficult for yourself, and costly, which is the exact opposite of what I would suggest anyone doing.

[Okeydokey]

So my brother's son's scope has just turned up... Helios refractor D=120mm F=1000mm Helios, it comes with 2 x Barlow a job lot of plossl 20mm being the one currently fitted. If I stick with this, is there any room to make it more deep-space friendly? The mount is a huge equatorial alluminium affair with sliding counter weights so plenty substantial enough.

It has a 1.25" diagonal fitted.

I was wondering if I went to a 2" eye piece would that give me any wider field of view advantage, or what else could I try?

[John]

A 2" eyepiece of, say, 40 mm in focal length and having a 70 degree apparent field of view would enable the scope to show 2.8 true degrees of sky which is a really nice wide amount of space 

For comparison, a 40mm eyepiece in the smaller 1.25" fitting can only show 1.7 degrees of sky - quite a difference. 

You will need to fit a 2" diagonal of course but you can still use the smaller 1.25" eyepieces in that with an adapter that is usually provided with the diagonal.