8" quatro for 120ed?

[Astroblagger]

Hi

I have a sky watcher 120ed and have been toying with the idea of swapping it for a 8"quatro will a heq5 be for imaging I use a finder guider, what other accessories will I require for imaging? Is an f4 scope easy enough to collimate?

[nightfisher]

Cant really comment on the 8" quatro, but would think the HEQ would just about be okay, just stop and think, a huge amunt of people that get a 120 ED tend to keep them, and for a very good reason

[laser_jock99]

Go for the Quattro but keep the ED120 as well. The Quattro is a completely different beast to the rest of your scope collection.

[Martin Meredith]

I have the Quattro 8" CF and it is pretty light. Getting good collimation is greatly helped using an autocollimator, but is not difficult (so long as you immediately do the milk-bottle-washer trick on the secondary!). I don't use it for AP but for electronically-assisted observing so perhaps my tolerances are not the same, but even so I do like to get collimation spot on every session, and that usually takes no more than a few minutes (the scope is demounted between sessions).

Martin

[ollypenrice]

I'd put the HEQ5 on the 'distinctly marginal' side for an 8 inch Quattro. It's a tricky scope to get into perfect fettle anyway and if you're on the limit with the mount as well I guess I wonder how much fun you'll have.

Olly

[Astroblagger]

Good advice, I remember why I went down the refractor route now, lighter and no collimation. Think if I ever have a permanent set up may try a imaging reflector at some point though.

[Skyline]

Keep the 120ED, buy the Quattro if you have good collimation tools, something like CatsEye & Make sure everything is working properly mechanically.

Al.

[LMC]

I'd put the HEQ5 on the 'distinctly marginal' side for an 8 inch Quattro. It's a tricky scope to get into perfect fettle anyway and if you're on the limit with the mount as well I guess I wonder how much fun you'll have.

Olly

Have to agree. An EQ6 in whatever guise would be a sensible minimum. Not that the scope is particularly heavy or long, but a "6" will hold both it and the 120, without too much fuss. A CF tube, 8" newt sounded great to me, but in practice was too light to hold steady on my "5", even on the six I had to wrap the scope with a bicycle tire inner tube filled with lead shot

Granted where I live is much windier than "average" but I don't believe you'd regret going for a more robust mount.