Finally telescopically committed (SW Equinox 80ED)

[ulfp]

TL;DR: The following describes my journey to get my refractor. It's a bit long-winded, but describes my experience. Hopefully some of you can recognize some of the symptoms.

--

So I finally pulled the "procrastination plug" and clicked buy (from FLO, natch). It was easy--I just thought about what I wanted, went to the website, and committed.

Yeah right. I've never spent so much time agonizing over what to get. Even settling on the type of telescope has been an exercise, fun, but arduous.

I've plumbed the depths of SGL, Cloudynights, and astronomyforum. I've gobbled up books like Nightwatch, Grab 'n Go Astronomy, Turn Left at Orion, etc. And haunted sites like FLO, teleskop-express, 365astronomy and the like. I've bought back issues of Sky & Telescope, Sky at Night, and Astronomy to read equipment reviews.

The result? I want a dobsonian mount, 12" or better. Perhaps that's too big, perhaps a newt on an eq mount. No, wait, maybe the Explore Scientific Mak-Newt Comet Hunter. Or, maybe that'll be too big as well? Why not just get a straight Mak (90 or 127mm)? But what about the field of view if I want to look deeper? Huh, I need to get smaller f-ratios, to get a wider field of view, don't I?Hmm... what about.... what about... what about... <lather, rinse, repeat> until I was going blue in my face.

So, I grabbed myself by the scruff of the neck, sat myself down, looked myself in the eye (quite a feat) and took three steps back. What are *my* first principles?

1. I have a demanding job

2. I have a two-year-old daughter and a newborn son

3. I live in a medium sized city in (Aarhus, Denmark), which means light-pollution is atrocious (I have, however, convinced my neighbor to turn of one of his security lights, yay!).

4. I'm 20 minutes away from acceptably darkish skies.

With that in mind, what do I need?

1. A scope that can be set up in minutes. Ideally, just lifted out of the sitting-room (or kitchen) and brought outside, and ready to use within 15-30 minutes after cooling to ambient.

2. That can be transported easily, without fuss.

3. That can be taken with me when I travel, whether by land or air (the latter is not non-negotiable, but is a factor).

4. That can form the nucleus of whatever else may take my fancy.

5. That can help me learn the heavens.

6. AP sounds interesting, but probably not for the next year or so.

I started out this process certain that the one thing I *didn't* want was a refractor. And yet, for me, that was where the arrow was pointing. So I decided to look at a few, and generally talking to people.

And investigating refractors. Ay Caramba! Here we go again. Should it be an achromat (no), an apo, a semi-apo (what on earth is that, anyway (sales-talk)?). What kind of aperture? 152mm? 120? 102? Surely not an 80mm? BTW, I wish that pictures of telescopes on websites would have something to include scale. How big is it anyway?

Again, having read around, and tried the field of view calculator on the Sky at Night website (which is absolutely brilliant), I came to the conclusion that 80mm would do me just fine for a looong time to come.

So, it only remained to sort out the apo mess. FPL53? 51? Triplet or Doublet? I ended up in some weird corners on the Internet, even going so far as to do a preliminary analysis of who's who in refractor manufacturing, or, more specifically, who owns who. Realizing that it wouldn't make much sense buying a Tak or similar, it seems like most makes boil down to 2-3 assembly lines in China and Taiwan.

I decided that weight was a factor, so I went for a doublet. I'm not experienced enough to appreciate a Tak triplet (yet), and while I would prefer FPL53, I wasn't adamant about it. At that point I'd boiled it down to a few, and the Equinox came out on top.

In the midst of this entire process, I also agonized over mounts. While I'm sure that I'll get an eq mount at some point, for what I need now an alt-az would do the job nicely. I quickly narrowed it down to a choice between a Vixen Porta II and AZ4. I chose the AZ4 because I wanted the stainless steel legs. I know that it's probably overkill for this scope (and a bit against the grain re the 'grab and go' thought, but the stability and use with future scopes came into play as well.

A dielectric diagonal and right-angled 9x50 finder rounded out the package.

And at the end of the day I chose FLO since they gave me the best combination of features and price. I had no idea that shipping internationally was new, so I was a bit surprised to see that that was a 'new feature' of their service.

I hope that this can give some input to those in the same situation as myself. 

So now I'm just waiting for DHL to arrive.

[damnut]

hi Ulfp,

Great write up, the az4 is a great mount, the right angled finder will save your back. And nice choice of scope. Congrats.

[xtreemchaos]

hi mate thats a cool story,i think we all go through a bit of that.good luck with your new scope..clear skys..charl..

[spaceman_spiff]

Great post, this is very useful for those torn between different scopes.

"I wish that pictures of telescopes on websites would have something to include scale" - I agree completely, just include a ruler! I have to imagine the size of the scope by looking at the size of the finder scope.

[Paul73]

How very very familiar!!

Great read. Looking forward to reading about your adventures with your new toy.

I ended up in the same place in my quest for a second scope. I'm taking pot luck in the second hand market as I have invested a small fortune in eyepieces in the last year. So who knows what I will end up with....

Paul

[Astro Imp]

A very enjoyable read.

Good luck with your new toy and enjoy your exploration of the skies.

[Stub Mandrel]

Congratulations! I spent a similar long time agonising - I eventually decided on a scope - and then the exact model came up on the 'bay cheap, well looked-after and only about ten miles away!

[happy-kat]

A great read and such a logical approach to end up with what will work best for you and you didn't get caught up in aperture fever.

[Davesellars]

Great choice!  I have a SW 80mm ED and this at the moment gets much more use as I also have a new born and a 2 year old...  Tiredness and lack of time as well as very short nights at the moment my 8" SCT won't probably get a look in until September for a longer session...  The 80mm is quite capable though at DSOs and even planetary views and because of the quality of the optics the magnification can be pushed although the lowest EP I use is a 5mm giving 120x.

Personally I don't think this scope needs any real cool-down time to be honest unless you're going to be really pushing the magnification on Jupiter for example.

Very best of luck and clear dark skies on arrival!

[ulfp]

hi Ulfp,

Great write up, the az4 is a great mount, the right angled finder will save your back. And nice choice of scope. Congrats.

Thanks. Yeah, the contortions I've been going through with the RDF on the Heritage convinced me that life was too short for back-pains.

[ulfp]

Great post, this is very useful for those torn between different scopes.

"I wish that pictures of telescopes on websites would have something to include scale" - I agree completely, just include a ruler! I have to imagine the size of the scope by looking at the size of the finder scope.

Exactly! I've been looking at scopes where I thought everything looked fine, only to discover that that little eyepiece on the scope wasn't a plossl, but one of the big Naglers, which meant the scope was 1.5m long!

Actually, I've seen some skywatcher charts that show telescopes in profile, with a person included. However, that's just to differentiate between types. It'd be great if they just included *some* form of scale. I think the ruler would be an excellent idea.

[ulfp]

Congratulations! I spent a similar long time agonising - I eventually decided on a scope - and then the exact model came up on the 'bay cheap, well looked-after and only about ten miles away!

I tried that approach, but the used market in Denmark is pretty thin. I also haunted astroboot and the other sites, but most of the interesting stuff was pickup only, so....

[ulfp]

Great choice!  I have a SW 80mm ED and this at the moment gets much more use as I also have a new born and a 2 year old...  Tiredness and lack of time as well as very short nights at the moment my 8" SCT won't probably get a look in until September for a longer session...  The 80mm is quite capable though at DSOs and even planetary views and because of the quality of the optics the magnification can be pushed although the lowest EP I use is a 5mm giving 120x.

Personally I don't think this scope needs any real cool-down time to be honest unless you're going to be really pushing the magnification on Jupiter for example.

Very best of luck and clear dark skies on arrival!

Ah, you know exactly what I'm going through 

Re the cool-down time, true, but some of the scopes I was looking at had really horrendous cool-down times. If we're at -10C and the house is 22C, I shudder to think how long it would take a Mak-Newt to cool down. The Equinox, OTOH, should be able to do it much faster.

Heh, clear dark skies..... it's been terrible for the past week, so with my luck we're in for an early winter 

[ulfp]

A great read and such a logical approach to end up with what will work best for you and you didn't get caught up in aperture fever.

Oh, but I did! I was looking at veritable light-buckets. It wasn't until I caught myself avidly reading ATM threads I began to come to my senses.

Also, I think that it wasn't until I'd really played around with my binoculars and the Heritage 130p (but especially the binocs) that I began to appreciate the levels of abstraction you actually see in the sky, how fractal it really is. No matter how much light-gathering I get there's always something *just* out of reach, so why not stick with what's immediately apparent. 

I also didn't understand how big some of the asterisms and other structures are, and that I'd need a wider field than many telescopes offer if I wanted to enjoy them. So, no matter the technology used, I figured out that I wanted a rich-field scope.

But... for a second there I almost bought a 12" truss dob. I may get one next year, but for now I'll stick to the 'surface'. It's about the same reason why I didn't go for a GoTo setup. I spend much of my life with technology, so I'd like an analogue hobby, so to speak. And also to really learn how to get around. It's been fun with the binoculars and the Heritage, so I'm not worried there.

[glowjet]

That is a very familiar story Ulfp and a good read.

My only difference was the slightly larger refractor, ED 100 and an EQ5 mount, which I did not want, but came part of the special deal that was being offered at the time, quite some years ago now. A serendipity moment and being a member of SGL, allowed me to part with the unused EQ5 and obtain the mount of my choice, a s/h Losmandy GM8, which allows you, to all intents and purposes, observe any part of the sky without losing the tracking facility, just point and go, a most excellent star hopping set up.

Hope you enjoy your new scope and many clear skies

[JG777]

I love the Equinox 80 for its portability and ease of use. It is fast becoming my most used scope due to lack of time for similar reasons as you. I use mine on a Berlebach UNI18 and Altair Sabre, usually now with one EP the Baader Hyperion zoom. Highly portable and stable set up and takes minutes to get going. The big scopes are nice but there is something very liberating about being set up in 3 or 4 minutes. The only faff with the Equinox 80 is the retractable dew shield that will fall back down into place if pointing upright but I recently cured this with a home brew solution. ( Actually after a few pints of homebrew as well :-)  )

Enjoy the kit, its a good match and will serve you well.

[Ju Piter]

The AZ4 is the mount i have been looking at to put my heritage 130p on.i would love to hear if you try your 130p on it and what you think