Imminent windfall offers modest astro acquisition potential....advice?

[Mandopicker101]

Hello

A modest windfall is coming my way (£100-£150-ish) and I'm considering making some buys from Astroboot.

Currently I'm looking at a couple of OTAs that offer upgrades in terms of optics and aperture, specifically a Skywatcher 130p and the flextube 130p. I read good things about SW's 130p and the EQ1 mount/tripod I have is stable enough. There's some larger OTAs, but they're right at the top of my budget and as I have a flight of stairs to negotiate with the scope and mount, I'm looking for a bit of a balance here (until I can persuade my wife we need that massive Dobbo in the garden...).

However the responsible part of my brain wonders whether I ought to hoard the cash for something really stellar and only buy some better EPs to use with my current scope (a 4.5-inch 'Aspen' Newt).

Any thoughts?

[swamp thing]

HI 

I cannot seem to find any details on your "Aspen" scope online. Without really being familiar with the scope its difficult to know what to suggest. Normally I would say, I wouldn't bother upgrading from a 4.5" to a 5" as the difference would be very tough to notice. However if the Aspen newt is a howler it might be a different proposition altogether.

The massive dob you speak of is always the way to go though

[Mandopicker101]

As far as I can deduce, the Aspen range was the house brand of the late Photo Optix stores, so ultimately it's a rebadged effort. The supplied EPs pretty duff and it's no parabolic mirror in there but it's OK. I note the optics are 'hard-coated' according to the user guide. Tripod and mount are OK and it seems in reasonable collimation.

Using the Wayback Machine to peruse their website c. 2006, the 4.5-inch Newt cost approx £150, so a starter scope for sure. Beyond that I dunno...although someone observed similarities between the Aspen scopes and some of the Orion models. Maybe it did come from a Synta factory... 

Better EPs and Barlow are on the cards for sure.