New small scope

[skysculptor]

Hi everyone,

Will soon be in the market for a new small scope , primarily for visual , I'm looking for something easy to set up as I have limited time to observe, I currently have a star adventurer that I use for a bit of wide field with my 550d plus lenses and an st80 for visual! I'm thinking my options are a small mak to use on the star adventurer , c90? Or perhaps better a Pds 130 the star adventurer can take 5kg for visual or perhaps a heritage mak 90 as this I believe can be made to work as a goto with a Bluetooth adaptor and a computer? I guess I want the most adaptable for different viewing , dso,s planets, clusters etc . But I do realise there are limitations, what I don't wan is a Dob as I jus don't have the space for one. Your opinions most welcome!

[Piero]

I don't have much experience with telescopes, but one that you didn't mention and came into my mind is a Celestron C6. The weight is less than 5kg and would be more powerful in terms of aperture than the telescopes you mentioned.

If you don't have much time, you should also consider whether cooling time can be a problem for you.

Cheers,

Piero

[skysculptor]

Thanks I'll goggle the c6 I jus thought that kind of scope would be to heavy?

[Charic]

You discount the Dob on size? Yes the OTA is bigger, but I reckon my Skyliner 8" fully setup, takes up less floor space than a C6, and probably less space than many other tripod mounted scopes! The Dob will in general be much quicker to setup, mine is setup all the time, and apart from any cooling that might be required, I can put ghe Dob outside and use it straight away. Its the reason I moved from an EQ system?

The reason to discount the Dob is its limitation for astrophotography, unless you have a GoTo tracking Dob.

[happy-kat]

Don't forget to factor in weight of ota plus eyepiece/diagonal.

The 127mm mak ota would be lighter and perhaps equally perhaps not too big for your existing mount.

Might be the influencing factor is could you mount the c6 on the star adventurer mount, ota at roughly 4.5 kilo on a google but add eye piece, finder and diagonal. Could it be balanced/would it fit?

Mak/sct need time to cool down which doesn't fit in with the limited time perhaps you mention.

Might be related blue tooth post here.

http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/239925-skywatcher-heritage-virtuoso-controlled-via-bluetooth/?fromsearch=1

[skysculptor]

looked at the c6 , nice ota but I do agree It would be to much with accessories fitted! Guess the c5 might work? Star adventurer is a bit limited hence looking at small scopes! I want to keep things compact thanks for the input so far all.