SCT for second telescope?

[tman5005]

Hello everyone,

I am new to the astronomy "sport" and the forum. At this point, I think I know just enough to be dangerous. After reading the internet for some time got my first "serious" telescope some time ago, an Apertura AD8 (with the setting circles and leveling feet options for the curious). It was what seemed to be overwhelmingly recommended for a beginner such as myself: decent sized Dobson, but not too big to move around as otherwise you won't use it, etc.

Anyways, while it is an excellent telescope (at the least excellent beginner telescope), I am finding it somewhat unwieldy if I were to go on a trip. I brought it to a family members house and it took 3/4 of my car space, tube across the back seat, stand on the passenger seat. I have been reading about SCT telescopes, but nothing seems to directly answer the questions I have. So I have some here.

I will start with what I am looking for as it has also become obvious to me that there is no one size fits all score per se, but I am hoping maybe to find on that is maybe good at primary and sufficient for secondary usage

I am looking for something like the following:

- portable enough for a camping trip without taking up 3/4 of the car space.  Here camping means a vehicle and tent, not hiking miles into back country. No piece over roughly 20 pounds.

- still decent aperture - 8 inch or so, maybe 10. Rough measure would be "sees objects as good as the AD8".

- primary use is casual viewing of the night sky, whatever may be there. More visible is of course always better.

- secondary use would be light photography work maybe. Haven't really thought about it other than snap pictures of what is easy as I'm not personally really that interested but some other family members are into photography.

- land viewing would be nice as well if it is a feature. The telescope is then useful for 24 hours a day on a trip rather than just at night, and even that assumes a good clear night sky.

Based on these points it seems some kind of SCT would be the way to go. They seem to be more compact, so would get more use as a travel consideration. I read somewhere with the right eyepiece setup an SCT can be used for land viewing. I know not the greatest but is still capable of it.

My budget is not too high but I can be convinced if there is something actually worth the higher price.

Maybe something like a Nexstar 8SE, but I was also came across this one:

http://www.telescopes.com/telescopes/go-to-telescopes/celestronnexstarevolution925telescope.cfm

Seems like it is on sale at the moment, but maybe that site just has inflated prices. And it isn't quite clear which OTA that actually is. Is it a C9.25?

Some other considerations are:

- would be nice if the stand can be easily manually operated if the goto system fails for whatever reason, maybe just batteries are dead.

- 2 inch eyepiece compatible.

- vented rear like the edge HD models for quicker temperature equilibrium, but not necessary.

Anyways, so I am looking for suggestions or any advice.

[alan potts]

Personally I would not buy a one armed scope, the fork is better but again has it's own problems, things get a little tight when looking at the overhead.

I don't know how much an 8 inch Meade or Ceslestron weighs but my 12 inch Meade is about 28K with forks, 8 inch will of course be less but I am sure it will be more than 20 pounds. A point to remember is the focal length will be 2000mm so all magnifications are greater than on your scope now. I would not buy new as these lose money very fast, secondhand for me is the way if you want one and you live in the right place, there must be plenty on the market to choose from.

I know an 8 inch Meade runs on batteries for a good long time and takes 2 inch eyepieces, I feel Celestron will be the same.

I would not buy this scope again as I do not feel it was value for money, however secondhand they are under half price here.

Alan.

[tman5005]

I should have been a little more specific on the weight. I meant each single piece should be no more than 20 pounds. Two or three separate pieces, each at 20 pounds is fine. But, I don't want a just the scope itself being 60 pounds, plus a mount at whatever weight that would be, like the Celestron CPC models. One like that would never move from the closet for me. I'm not that dedicated.

Of course that doesn't change your other points.

[Traveller]

A C8 is a great general purpose visual scope and quiet portable. It is not recommended for astrophoto work unless you get the f6.3 reducer. This will do two things: 1. Reduce coma around the edges of the field (spherical aberration), and 2. Reduces exposure time by changing f ration from 10 to 6.3. Of course you can get scopes like electron edge HD, which has all round flat field but you have to dig a bit deeper into your pocket (plus you are still left with an f10 scope).

[baggywrinkle]

I have the Celestron SCT9.25 on the AVX mount and I would not call it portable, rather trasnportable. The OTA and mount without weights would be within your 20lb and the pair of weights would fit within that too. As stated above the F6.3 reducer is a must for any astrophotography work.

It does not take 2" ep's and if the power goes down on the AVX mount then you have to push it by hand which would not be easy.

The 9.25 tube is quite big and I think it would push the mount shown in your link to the limits, better an 8" SCT on that mount.

[tman5005]

Thanks for the info everyone.

Portable here means baggywrinke's "transportable". Right now with my AD8 I take the tube off, move the base, go back and get the tube, and place the tube on the base and can start viewing again. Or put it in the car or whatever. The tube is maybe 20 pounds and the base is maybe 25 pounds. So that is all manageable as far as that goes.

The problem is nothing on it is collapsible, so while it is great for what it is, it takes a lot of space in the car. The tube goes across the back seat and the base goes in the front passenger seat. That leaves no room for any passengers. You can't collapse the base stand unless you unscrewed everything, and it is some kind of pressboard or plywood, so the more you take screws out and put them back in, the more the screwholes lose the threading. So, it's great for staying in town and just going to a family member's house for the evening, but isn't exactly trip friendly with passengers and other stuff in the car. 

Anyways, as for the mount, it is the one it is sold with in that link, so I guess I thought it would work decently with it assuming just the OTA and standard euepieces, and nothing large like a giant camera hanging off the back of it. As I said it is not really me that is interested in photography, but other family members who are into photography in general, and so a quick point and shoot at whatever is what I was talking about. Not hours long exposures.

For the 2 inch eyepieces, I was under the impression a 2 inch diagonal would allow use of a 2 inch eyepiece, something like this:

http://www.telescopes.com/telescope-accessories/diagonals-and-prisms/celestron2inchdiagonalwithxltcoatingsforscttelescopes.cfm

JerseyBoy posting here seems to have one:

http://www.cloudynights.com/topic/471668-first-telescope-nexstar-evolution-925/page-3

And finally, what about land viewing? Are SCT's usable for that use case?

AS I said, I thought I read somewhere with a certain setup you could do it, but read other conflicting information. 

Thanks again for everyone's answers so far.

[swag72]

Hi and welcome to SGL - Glad that you found us and hope that you enjoy your time here - Looks like an 8" SCT is a good all round compromise.

Look forward to seeing you around

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I have taken the C8 on its German EQ mount (Vixen GP, similar to EQ5) on camping trips (even when we had a little Peugeot 106). You could also mount it on a Giro mount or an Ercole.  Very compact, OTA weighs in at 4.7kg, the Ercole mount (without tripod) 3.8kg. This scope will show the same as the 8" Dob, except it has a narrower FOV (but I still reach 1.33 deg with the LVW42mm).

[kalasinman]

To save weight and car space, why not a collapsing Dobsonian?  http://www.optcorp.com/sw-s11700-8inch-dobsonian-telescope.html

[tman5005]

Does the base stand collapse? Otherwise it is still pretty chunky to move around. I don't think the Dobson base would fit in a car trunk (I guess boot since this is a UK site), whereas a tripod can collapse and an SCT tube isn't quite so large and has a goto system anyways.

But I also was looking for a terrestrial viewing capable scope and thought an SCT could do this, which got me thinking about one and why I asked the questions in the original post.

[rob0971]

To use 2" eyepieces on a celestron sct, you just need to fit a 2" visual back or 2" sct diagonal in place of the supplied 1 1/4" item. Meade acts are most likely the same, but as I don't own one, I can't be sure.

C8 sounds about right for you.

[Owmuchonomy]

Welcome to SGL. I am fortunate to have a 12" Flextube Dob and a Cel 9.25 SCT on a GEM and tripod. For going out in the car or camping I would choose the Dob every time. Yes the 9.25 SCT Is a smaller OTA but it's a lot more trouble to set it up properly. The Dob can be up and running in a fraction of the time, the base fits on its side in the boot of my VW Golf and the OTA collapses down and lies on the back seat.

[YKSE]

My C8 with EQ-3 mount, all accessaries including observation chair fit in Focus boot, and with spare space.

C8 is my biggest scope at present, I've had plan to get a bigger dob in case the 8" will reach the its limit in a few years, but a quick check seems tthat I was way too pessimistic, this C8 will most likely get me a couple of thousand NGC's in the coming years, that, thanks to the great portability of C8.

I'm not sure the setup time is that crucial in observing, mostly of time, you can start observing at least one hour after sunset. Some enjoy star-hopping, othes like the convenience of go-to mount. Nothing wrong with either way.

[LukeSkywatcher]

Not sure if its worth mentioning, but i will anyway.

The Skywatcher Heritage 130P is a great scope in any location. Its a mini Dob and can be set up in about 3-4 mins (from box to observing). Its compact,extremely light (the whole thing can be carried with one hand). It is ideal for camping vacations. It certainly wont take up 75% of the inside of your car. The views with it are in my opinion great. I think its something worth considering. I see that you are in the USA, and as such the main brands of scopes you can buy there are Celestron and Meade. Celestron do a very similar model as the Skywatcher but right now i am not finding any links online for the Celestron version.

Failing that, the Celestron 8SE is a fantastic scope. Its comes in 3/4 parts:

1/Tripod 

2/ Mount

3/OTA (scope)

4/Power pack (optional)

The heaviest part is the tripod, which isnt even that heavy. The other parts...............a kid could carry. 

If i was going on a driving vacation/camping..............i'd probably still take the 8SE with me. 

[baggywrinkle]

I started with a 6SE and found it excellent for visual and with care I could get decent 20 second exposures without trails even though it is an AZ mount.

It was easily transportable, I used to regularly take it into the Perth Hills when I lived in WA.

The 8SE would be even better as a light grabber. But it still cannot be pushed around when power goes down. But it could be mmounted on something like the Vixen Porta mount quite easily.