New main setup APO?

[almoskosz]

Hello there, since I decided to become an astronomer, I wanted to get into observing, and after long research I bought a Skywatcher 200/1000 Newton on an EQ-5. It is a marvelous first telescope, beautiful and bright, BUT very heavy and big, which, since I never observe at home, only on a nearby field or even farther, is a big problem, and I got to a point where it's just not worth going out with and all it's doing now is collecting dust in a corner. Shame. I am thinking about switching, which, in my opinion is the best decision now. My desired telescope should be much easier to carry around or travel with, and smaller, but not much worse optically, as I mainly observe Deep sky. I am looking into buying an 80 or 100mm APO, but I'm really afraid of how it would be much fainter and I wouldn't be able to see those objects which I could with my 200mm Newton.

If anyone could give me some advice about what I should choose, or rather which APO, as I'm mainly considering those, or perhaps what aperture I should look for, I would be really thankful.

Thanks!

[dweller25]

You need aperture for deepsky ....but you want light weight .......

Perhaps a Celestron C6 SCT might be worth considering ?

[Putaendo Patrick]

Apos come in all flavours and sizes; some are just expensive others are very expensive! So some idea of budget would be useful. Are you thinking of a new mount as well or just the OTA? Remember too that many apos have a shorter focal length than 1000mm so any EPs that you have will change in magnification.

Another alternative might be a "skeleton" Dob, which would keep aperture and focal length but repackaged in a very compact and portable form. There are a couple of models about to be launched - don't know anything about them, but they sure look interesting! Here's a 10 inch due out shortly:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1046085-REG/explore_scientific_dob1045_00_10_truss_tube_dobsonian.html

[almoskosz]

I would keep my mount, and my budget is max. 1200 euros.

[Ricochet]

What in particular is it about the 200p that you find "heavy"? Are we talking about general handling of the OTA by itself? The act of lifting the OTA up onto the mount? Are you having to carry both the scope and mount/tripod in one go to your observing location?

Looking at the parts of what you have (assuming no motors) it appears that you have:

• OTA - 9kg
• EQ5 Head - 4kg
• Steel Tripod - 4kg
• Counterweights - 2 x 5kg (?)

So it seems to me that if you were to change to an Alt/Az mount that doesn't require counterweights you could also make things a lot easier for yourself there too. You could even just build a Dobsonian base for your existing 200p which would save a lot of weight. I don't know what the base to my 8" Dob weighs but carrying it is a one handed job.

Sticking with the idea of changing scopes to save weight it appears that a 100mm APO still weighs in the region of 6kg so you're saving 33% in OTA weight but you're losing 75% in light gathering area which if you're interested in DSO's sounds like you're setting yourself up for an expensive disappointment. You could instead step down to the Explorer 150p which weighs 5kg with a less dramatic, but still significant, light loss and is small enough to be mounted on an Az4 type mount.

[happy-kat]

Any telescope will show you more if you can be bothered to use it then the big one gathering dust how ever much bigger the light gathering is.

Do you walk to your near by field to observe?

Could you load your equipment on to a sack truck and wheel it there?

[MartinB]

+1 for an SCT