C5 spotting scope

[Choulais]

Hello,

I am looking at the C5 spotting scope as a grab & go scope. It is sold with a 45° erecting diagonal. Do you know if my WO (dielectic) diagonal will fit on it?

Cheers

Choulais

[iancandler]

yes and i have one for sale (scope) if your interested

[John]

Hello,

I am looking at the C5 spotting scope as a grab & go scope. It is sold with a 45° erecting diagonal. Do you know if my WO (dielectic) diagonal will fit on it?

Cheers

Choulais

If it's a 1.25 inch diagonal then it will fit fine. I don't think the C5 can handle 2 inch diagonals.

John

[palefire]

I've got a C5 and it can handle a 2" SCT diagonal fine (got one fitted to mine). If you wanted to fit a normal diagonal you'd need a 2" visual back.

[John]

I've got a C5 and it can handle a 2" SCT diagonal fine (got one fitted to mine). If you wanted to fit a normal diagonal you'd need a 2" visual back.

That's interesting - when I had mine I was told that using 2 inch eyepieces would be pointless because of the size of the aperture at the back of the scope, ie: I would experience some light loss due to vignetting. Maybe I was misinformed

John

[palefire]

Heyup John,

I haven't investigated it extensively yet but I've been playing around with different options to maximise the view.

Primarily I bought the 2" diagonal 'cos the smaller amici diagonal wasn't that great and had trouble holding the Hyperion zoom eyepiece that I tend to use in it.

Peter Wise is flogging off his 2" 30mm 80 degree eyepieces for 40 quid incl. postage at the minute (they're basically the same as the highly rated moonfish EP) so I've picked one of those up as an experiment. Only had a quick play, but I've not seen any vignetting with it.

A while ago I also picked up a 6.3 focal reducer (to use with a TV 32mm plossl). Didn't see any vignetting with that combo either.

When I get the chance I'll have a go at marrying up the FR with the 2" eyepiece. I'm almost certain that this combination will push it past what the scope can practically manage.

Be interesting to see how badly it breaks down though. . .

[John]

Peter Wise is flogging off his 2" 30mm 80 degree eyepieces for 40 quid incl. postage at the minute (they're basically the same as the highly rated moonfish EP) so I've picked one of those up as an experiment. Only had a quick play, but I've not seen any vignetting with it.

Those work nicely in medium-long focal length scopes

I have the orginal Japanese Widescan III 30mm 2 inch eyepiece which has an 84 degree field of view and that works very well - the Moonfish and clones were based on the Widescan design I believe.

I do like the C5 design though, lovely little scopes which perform remarkably well when they are in good collimation - mine was a Nexstar 5 with the GOTO system - wish I still had it in many ways.

John

[palefire]

I've been really pleased with mine (an old C5 spotting scope mounted on an SLT mount).

I'd been looking to buy a SkyMax127 on a supatrak mount, but was a little reticent as my gut feeling was that if you HAD to plug in the mount you might as well get one with GoTo.

Was about to take the plunge when Ade ashford bunged up the system I bought on astrobuysell.

Suits my needs perfectly. Quick to set up, easy to use, very portable and with enough aperture to start to investigate DSOs.

Has provided Spectacular views of the moon & saturn. Haven't given it a whirl on Jupiter yet, but will try it from dark skys in the next couple of weeks.

The 2" 30mm clone did give a great view and was comfier than the plossl to use.

[Mark at Beaufort]

I have a Nexstar 5 and have a 2" SCT diagonal which works fine. The biggest problem with using 2" EPs with the Nexstar 5 or 5i is balancing - if you obtain a C5 and have a mounting rail/ or rings fitted this will resolve any balancing problems so 2" EPs will be okay.

You may be interested that in the Nexstar user guide book by Michael Swanson the maximum True FOV for the C5/Nexstar5/5i is - 1.25" EP = 1.4 degrees , 2" EP = 1.75degrees and with the f6.3 reducer and a 1.25" eyepiece is 2.2 degrees. Hope this helps.

However, I would say that this 5" SCT is a brilliant portable scope with good views of planets and DSOs.

Mark

[Choulais]

Thanks for answers!

For iancandler: I am currently still hesitating with a Mak127 but I keep in mind your is for sale

[iancandler]

Thats fine.. and for the record I used a 2" sct fit diagonal along with 6.3 focal reducer and sct fit filters on mine without issue