Help - Astronomy setup ideas

[poltabs]

Hi guys and girls

I have been into astronomy for many years now, and managed to get what I thought was the perfect setup for imaging - EQ6 Pro Syncscan with upgrades coupled with a Megrez 90.

Just as I bought all this I was in a car accident injuring my neck so have been unable to use it. Since then I have now injured my shoulder which has in turn affected the neck again so it looks like its time to give up on the astro-imaging dreams and sell the whole setup before its even been used. :-(

So with the whole imaging system up for sale I would like to buy a new system that is portable, easy to manhandle, but with good light capturing ability and Goto. I wont be imaging its just for visual use only.

So can people please suggest some setups for me, was thinking along the lines of an ETX-125 but notice they arent made any more, so I would really appreciate feedback and ideas.

Many thanks

Kevin

[rowan46]

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/maksutov/skywatcher-skymax-127-synscan-az-goto.html

it really depends on your budget and how portable you need it to be the nexstar 6se may be worth looking at 

[ronin]

Keep the Megrex 90 and buy an I-Optron cube.

Should be a damn good goto arrangement, and all you would need to purchase is the Cube mount.

If you do this, tell me what it is like as I have the Meg 90 and have been thinking of the i-Optron mount for exactly the same setup.

[poltabs]

Thanks for the replies, the key thing for me is portability, with a neck and shoulder injury I need to be able to move the setup easily.

Just looked into the cube - interesting option but was reading one guys review and he mentions that stability is a key problem, with it taking a few seconds for the scope to damp down after being touched, so not sure its upto the task of holding a Megrez 90.

Cheers

Kevin

[rowan46]

I think the smallest lightest goto mount is the skywatcher allview which will take an st80 at a push. the ioptron smarteq pro will take a c6 ota but neither are hugely steady at the top of their weigh limit. The problem is that steady goto mounts are not very portable. Some of the pushto's are more portable but expensive. I have my alt az set up with homemade setting circles which most of the time work pretty well

[Clockwork_Orange]

Are you going to be using this at home? do you have a flat and level path from a shed - storage area? where you could keep the mount? if so keep the EQ6 and put it on one of these

http://www.harrisontelescopes.co.uk/acatalog/ScopeBuggy.html

Just a thought, might be a way of getting round the problem

regards

John

[hobsey]

My father in law had a work related accident in the 80s and had a bad back since.

He had the Celestron Nexstar 127 SLT which I now own due to him unable to look through the finder scope to align the stars for the go-to system.

He now owns a celestron skyprodigy which saves you looking through the finder scope to align it and scans the sky itself and maps everything out.

Might be worth a look.