What is your most used scope and where in the world are you ?

[spaceboy]

OK so this may be one of those topics lost in translation but here goes.

Recently I favour my refractors over my Newtonians despite the newts being considerably larger in aperture and so "show more". While I have a peeve for those fiery little stars in my newts there are those odd nights when they clean up in to tight points of light. Having an obsy set up cool down isn't really an issue so I put it down to the terrible skies over head. I can't say the mirrors are an issue either as like I say on those odd nights they really seem to shine. Now I am aware that larger scopes and particularly those prone to inner turbulence like newts struggle to offer up steady views with the regularity of those with smaller sealed tube designs like refractors.

I'm guessing this isn't going to come up with any scientific result as there are various other reasons one might have a most used scope like portability etc but I was just interested to see if there is a trend in the UK and maybe other countries troubled by weather cells and jet streams to favour seal tube designs or smaller scopes over say more settled and drier countries which don't sit under nightmare weather systems. I know light pollution can also play a part in scope choice so if you could also rate your skies for an average night from 1 - 10. 1 being terrible and really only showing the brighter stars in constellations, 5 being skies that allow you to navigate easily and show a hint of the milky way, 10 being the milky way lights the ground it's that bright.

For me

4.75" refractor, Birmingham UK, LP skies on average a 4

 

 

[Alien 13]

My 90mm Mak is superb for Lunar views and imaging and surprisingly usable for general viewing, it also has little or no cool down time.

Alan

[nightfisher]

It was my TAL100 but now it will be my ED80, a while back i bought the little TS80 F7.5 and that fast became my most used scope, hence the decision to get the ED80, i am in Queensbury and over 1000ft above sea level so we get lots of fog and cloud and mist and rain and snow plus other combinations plus strong wind so a more grab and go scope is more usable than a big frac

[wookie1965]

At the moment my 200p in Merseyside but getting a Frac very soon may make this my goto scope.

[L8-Nite]

Our 89mm Mak.  I'm presently located in South Wales. I would rate the skies here a 2 of maybe a 3, and base this on my experience of living elsewhere in the world.

[Timebandit]

Hello. For me it's got to be the SW equinox 120ed apo. Just an absolute cracking scope. This is mounted on a stainless steel leg AZ 4 mount.

The SW equinox has got reasonable aperture and with its Ed apo quality the views it produces are so clean and crisp. Put a great Ortho or wide angle eyepieces in it and it performs every time. Such an easy scope to set up and then get first class sharp well defined images through. This scope is just a great bang for buck when compared to the Taks. I have never regretted the purchase of this scope and it gets used an great deal and is even better now I have gone from Cyclops to the world of binoviewers. Just even more of a great scope with the Binoviewers in it. Sky's I would say usually around the 5 mark. ☺

 

[scarp15]

I live in Newcastle Upon Tyne and do not that often go observing from here, therefore I hope that this counts. The equipment and place I most often use / frequent when I go out stargazing - second home perhaps, is as follows,

Scope: Orion Optics UK VX14 dobsonian

Location: 55' 13 N / 286M above sea level in Northumberland

SQM reading range: 21.20 - 21.55  

 

 

 

 

[spaceboy]

I was hoping we might also get some replies from members from around the world but I guess with time differences they are either at work or already out under there ideal skies.

[A McEwan]

I live in North Scotland and I would say the average for clear nights would rate 6-8. But getting the clear sky in the first place is the challenge!

Scope-wise, I don;t want to pin a particular model, but for me, I travel 4 miles by car to a perfect (almost) dark sky site and I get the most enjoyment out of a 4-5" refractor on either an alt-az (AZ-4 or SkyTee 2) or Vixen GP equatorial mounted on a Berlebach Uni 18 tripod.

I have used larger scopes (6" refractors up to 12" Dobs) but didn't seem to get the same enjoyment-per-session ratio as with the mid-aperture refractors.

Ant

 

[martinh40]

I live in a village with no street lighting just outside Selby. It's rated 1-2 nanowatts, so seeing is pretty good here.

I'm using (my only scope now) Celestron 9.25 SCT.

 

[Moonshane]

Mine is my 120ed Skywatcher refractor at the current time.  Partly as I use it for white light solar and partly as I use it on a driven eq5 so double star and planetary tracking is useful.

Give it a month and it may be of my other scopes!

I am near light polluted Manchester,  England. Although in truth many of my objects are unaffected by LG.

 

[AstroSylv1]

With my 4" refractor, from the North East of France...

[DaveS]

Probably my Megrez 90, which I bought when I re-started this hobby back on '09. Currently it's sitting on a DDM60 Pro with AFR IV and Trius 694 hanging off the end.

Next most used is my 130P-DS. My 180 Mak hasn't been used since I moved here, though when I get around to re-setting my HEQ5 I hope that will change.

May be on the look out for a 130-140mm f/7 Apo triplet for imaging at some point.

Oh yes, my skies usually run about 3, but can reach 4 on a good night or drop to 1 if there's a load of clag in the air.

[beka]

15 hours ago, spaceboy said:

I was hoping we might also get some replies from members from around the world but I guess with time differences they are either at work or already out under there ideal skies.

I am in Ethiopia at an altitude of 2400 meters. LP would be about 6 on your scale. I have a CPC 1100 and NexStar SLT 102 refractor. I use the CPC almost exclusively. Seeing is good - am able to go up to 400X on the CPC and have split 1 arcsec doubles. Only problem is that I am not doing as much observing as I would like because it seems to be getting more difficult lugging out the scope!

[spaceboy]

Well I have to admit this thread was always going to be a shot in the dark given all the variables. I'm surprised not to see more light buckets from around the world but I guess maybe portability is always going to be the deciding factor, even if you have the best skies an astronomer could wish for ?? But then again there is a saying you don't know what you have until you loose it. I'd bet there are people who think nothing of having the milkyway lighting up the sky and while they might appreciate a clear night think nothing of getting a scope to explore it.