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Hello from Tring

wormix

By wormix
in Welcome

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wormix

wormix

Posted
Posted

Evening all,

Just thought I would pop in to introduce myself. I have been lurking around for a while now, reading and learning as well as taking advantage of the classifieds. 

I started out with a TAL1 in 2008 which I had to sell on and I have always regretted. A few years later I bought a Celestron C90 as a spotting scope for birdwatching but also to point at the sky when conditions suit on infrequent occasion.

For many nights this winter the skies in Tring have been astoundingly clear and it has encouraged me to get out more often and I soon began to note the limitations of my C90. I always wondered how it compared to my TAL and wanted to do a side by side comparison. Out of chance I was browsing gumtree and found one locally for £20 which I snapped up straight away. 

One of the problems with the TAL is the size / weight which arnt too compatible with my house so I was also considering upgrading my Mak to a 127mm.  I have always lusted after the ETX range after using a friends ETX90 spotter so recently purchased a 125 OTA (I prefer to star hop vs goto). That is now mounted in an EQ3 which I also purchased recently to upgrade my flimsy Bresser EQ2. 

So I finally got a chance to set all my scopes up together and compare them on Monday - unfortunately the seeing was horrific, but I could still get a good flavour for each scope.  Looking at the Orion Nebula was a good test, with my C90 struggling to resolve the Trapezium, whilst it was sparklingly clear in the ETX.  The TAL did pick it out, but not in as much detail, but certainly reinforced my opinion that you really can't get a better 114mm scope for the money, taking into account how robust the mount and scope are as well as the fantastic optical quality.  

Next up was the Pleiades which looked great in all of the scopes but the TAL wins out of all 3 purely on its larger FOV, although both the TAL and ETX where crisper than the C90.

Last up was Rigel, with only the ETX resolving the double, although the seeing quality was quickly decreasing so I called it a night.

I found it a really interesting exercise and if I had the space I would certainly be keeping the TAL as a supplementary 'scope,  unfortunately space is at a premium at the moment so I shall be gifting that 'scope to my brother and be using the ETX from now on as you really can't beat the compact nature. 

Below is my 'scope park for the evening - my wife was a little bemused by it all  

IMG_7224.JPG

 

Cheers

Gareth 

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glowjet

glowjet

Posted
Posted

Hi Gareth and welcome to SGL, enjoyed reading your comparison test with the Meade 125 ETX, a scope I almost invested in many years ago. Tring brings back fond memories of my fishing days in the reservoirs on the Rothschild estate, enjoy the forum :) 

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