Jump to content

Narrowband

goto scope - help me avoid a costly mistake please


Recommended Posts

Please can anyone suggest a telescope costing under £1000 ($1500), not less than 5", goto but quick to align/set up, copes with with light pollution in a fairly build up area.  I might be asking a lot here, but I live in hope.  Thanks very much  :smiley:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 26
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Skyliner 200P?

Hi there. Is a Go-To necessary? if you feel there is too much light pollution for you to see the Stars, will a Go-To make them  more visible, it may point to the right direction, if properly set-up, but will you see them? 

For more aperture minus the Go-To system, you can get a good Newtonian telescope on  a Dobsonian mount. Simple to set-up and observe with.

A 5" will work well from darker skies, as will any telescope, mine included. 

If you just want to observe visually, then for a simple set-up, no less than 6" on a Dobsonian is my suggestion. More aperture with  the right conditions helps. In fact more aperture will see fainter Stars, regardless of light pollution, but the more light you can collect, from a bigger mirror/objective, the more detail you will see. I personally don't need a Go-To. I like to use the freeware program called Stellarium, or a good book to first locate my targets, then go out and find them manually with the telescope.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

No Scope you buy will get rid of Light pollution, But Aperture will improve what you see.. You wouldn't go far wrong with Mr Spocks recommendation, have you been along to a local astronomy group?, i suggest you take a look there, There are guy's who are willing to help and let you take a look at the sort of views you can expect and as the 2oomm aperture newt is very popular chances are someone there will have one...You really need to take a look before buying.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

assuming you are strictly visual and go-to is top of your list (it is for me :) ), then I don't think you do much better than Mr Spocks suggestion. It's big enough to show you quite a bit and small enough to chuck in the back of the car (presuming once again) and take to darker skies.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What do you want to do with it all? You need to think long term.

How much do you know about the night sky at present?

The quicker the mount is to set up, i suspect the poor the stability and the poorer the tracking and goto... Do you know how to polar align an equatorial mount? If's not difficult and can be all set up in 10 minutes if you know what you are doing. Do yoy need an equatorial mount or would alt-az be ok? How would you power the mount? How would you power dew bands?

What scope have you really got your eye on?

Are you going to take it away from home?

Lots of information missing which will help people make useful suggestions.

James

Link to comment
Share on other sites

OK.. you may like this.. http://www.firstlightoptics.com/advanced-vx-goto/celestron-c8-sct-vx-goto.html

Type in your browser for reviews or look on this site for more ..

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/

These guy's are great to deal with, i've never had any complaints. they may also advise you once they know what your needs and requirements are there are a lot of things to take into consideration when buying a telescope and you DEFINITELY need to look through some at a local group, you may not see what you think you will see, I took my c11 (and that's a biggy) to my sisters and she was expecting views you see in astro mag's, so bear that in mind... Hope this helps

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It looks great but I don't think I'd be able to move it.  Any other ideas please

Problem is, as soon as you add a goto to any telescope, whether it be a dob like the link above, or a mount such as the HEQ5, it becomes heavy, requring a few trips back and forth to get all the stuff out. I set up in my garden most times, and to get all the equipment out, its maybe 5-6 trips from the garden to the house, and maybe 10mins set up time once im ready to align the telescope. (providing i dont mess it up)

Matt

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If a setup takes several trips you may be less likely to use it unless totally clear skies (rare).

Perhaps the planned storage location is not far from your observing spot.

Though for partially cloudy nights binoculars are a great backup.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ok, I'm more confused than ever but 32kg is not an option, I'm a 5'3" female and not a weightlifter.  The best place I can store the scope is in the house and I have 1 step to contend with to get outside so even a trolley isn't viable.  I think 90% of time I'd be using the scope from home.

Happy to make a couple of trips to move equipment.  I was thinking reasonably easy to setup having heard with some goto scopes once you've done the initial 2/3 star alignment you're still looking at another 30mins or so for the synscan to finalise.  Is this always the case with every goto?  Something a little quicker would be better for me.

I can find my way around the sky reasonably well but love the idea of a goto showing me that bit more.  Anyone have the celestron nexstar 6se or skyprodigy 6?  Thanks for helping.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't know where this extra 30 minutes comes from. Polar alignment takes under 5 minutes (if you mark the place where the three tripod legs go each time then polar alignment will take 60 seconds); star alignment takes another minute or two. Then it is done. Setting up the kit and balancing it takes longer than the alignment but again once you know what to do and if you mark the dovetail and where the counterweights go, then it can be done in a minute or two.

The HEQ5 would be easily manageable by you. You don't need anything which claims to do all the alignment for you, you will be able to do it all yourself easily.

Can you get to a star party or join a local astronomical society and go along and pick these things up and see how heavy they are. Your profile says you are in Nottingham, so am I. I can put you in touch with someone who has an HEQ5 you can go and lift. I have an AZEQ6 which you are welcome to come and lift. Are you in Nottingham Astronomical Society, if not you should come along.

James

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hello redeleven.

Just a heads up re the GOTO - there will be thousands of objects in the database but under light polluted skies most of them will just be smudges.

As you can find your way around the sky reasonably well I would suggest a 6/8" Dobsonian - depending on what you are comfortable to carry (the base can be carried separate to the OTA). They are both capable scopes, good all-rounders and cheap too :smiley:

If you need GOTO then the C8 mentioned above would be the lightest choice with the same capability as the 8" Dob but at higher cost......

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I thing the C8 is the way to go but again as i previously mentioned and it's very important... You need to look in All types of scope configuration to see what suits you. The other thing i like about the C8 (SCT aka Schmidt-Cassegrain) is that (again this is important) the Eyepiece (you look through) is always in the right orientation and comfortable to look through..  I have both the SCT and a newtonian and i find the newt eyepiece is quite often in the wrong place if you don't plan your nights viewing so to keep the eyepiece in the right place.. Trust me this is worth thinking about :smiley:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Okay, I bought my first scope and it was this..http://www.firstlightoptics.com/dobsonians/skywatcher-skyliner-200p-dobsonian.html

views were fantastic and not that heavy to be honest (if you split it), I then wanted more...more ye hear! and I wanted a GOTO so I got this...http://www.firstlightoptics.com/advanced-series-goto/celestron-c6-sgt-xlt-goto.html

but could I get the hang of polar alignment? could I heck! so I decided on this http://www.firstlightoptics.com/se-series/celestron-nexstar-6se.html which is not too glitzy or glammy, not heavy as long as you set tripod up first then OTA etc and very simple to use..alignment is a breeze too..but as im sure everyone on here will tell you..each to your own....prob better trying to see one or more of them in action. You will get million different answers on this subject. Keep us up to date with what you eventually choose

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi redeleven

I am relatively new and there are far mor experienced campaigners who have already provided advice, but from my experience i recently got a 5SE (xmas present) and I love it, excellent first scope, easy to move from house to garden, a few minutes to set-up, 5-10 minutes to get accurately aligned (there is no rush), and goto works well.

But, if budget permits i would definately get the 6" or 8". I will certainly add more aperature to my collection in the coming years.

Cheers

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I honestly think, given your initial criteria, the Celestron 6se would be a fantastic scope. It'll give you great views of the moon, planets, globular clusters, some nebulae, plantary nebula's and brighter galaxies. Under darker, clearer skies, it'll show you plenty of more elusive galaxies and deep sky objects. Provided you align it correctly (which is dead easy with the Celestron scopes), it'll point exactly wherever you want it to and allow you to view great things straight out of the box. It will also be extremely manageable to move and set up, whether you're 5,5" or 7'5".

Yes, there are a thousand other options, many of which provide more aperture or wider fields of view or potentially better optics (or all and none of the above but are personal preferences of other posters trying to assist), blah blah... But why complicate things? I started with a simple Celestron go-to and now have quite a few scopes. This is only because the original scope did such a great job in such a simple fashion that it peaked my interest to keep going in this hobby!

Best of luck.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please disregard my last post... I thought you were buying your first scope and not upgrading from a 5se. Don't get the 6se. It won't provide much more than you already have.

The advice you have been given above by others is spot-on!

Now, how does one put an embarrassed emoticon face on this thing?!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.