Starter planetary set-up advice.

[Adam J]

I am an imager and shockingly have only ever attached an eyepiece to my 130PDS scope a few times and to be honest (for myself) at least I don't see this changing I would just rather be imaging. 

However, in her teens my wife owned an old Russian made 4 inch F9 Newtonian.  It is in poor condition now and needs its mirrors re-coating /  the focuser was trash even when new. Its not worth fixing it up. Having said this, when she looks through my 130PDS at F5 she notes that the image it provides of Jupiter is not as good as she recalls from her old scope. I am assuming that this is likely to be down to the fast f-ratio meaning its an ass to get it up to a decent magnification?

Anyhow, despite not being interested myself I would like to give her a better viewing experience. I think that she is mainly interested in Planets but it would be nice to see some globs / doubles / planetary nebula without much difficulty.

I dont have a huge budget....

I was looking at a Skymax 127 with diagonal, and Orion 4000 series 8-24 zoom eyepiece (to make her life as easy as possible). I see that will give me around 188x mag. Cost about 350 to 400 pounds, ill mount it on my HEQ5 pro in my obsy. 

Will this give me what I am looking for? Is there a better solution for my cash? (bearing in mind that ease of use is important for my wife).  

  

 

 

[Ricochet]

Given how often cloud cover gets in the way are you sure you want to be in a situation where you and your wife are fighting over a single mount for two vastly different scopes and purposes? For £400 you could get a 6-8" dob as an all in one scope and mount solution. The 6" f8 would be quite similar to the scope of your wife's youth too. As far as ease of use goes they are as easy as it can get with a manual mount but if you want goto then you're going to have to look elsewhere. Your original choice of the Skymax 127 is available on the Synscan alt az goto mount just within your budget which would give you a second mount to have spare for those times when your 130pds is already using the EQ5. 

As far as the lower quality image from the 130pds, it could be influenced by the f ratio. The shorter f ratio and imaging design of the 130pds mean it will have a proportionally larger secondary which will result in a drop in contrast. In addition the steeper light cone makes focusing more difficult and is more taxing on eyepieces. If you're not interested in observing them I'm guessing the eyepieces you have are not of the best quality, possibly only the standard ones Synta bundle with their scopes. Of course the other issues could be that young eyes are better than older eyes or that memories are not always as accurate as we like to believe. 

With regards to eyepieces I would be more inclined to use fixed eyepieces instead of a zoom as they tend to be better optically. 

[Dave In Vermont]

For planetary viewing, that is as close to a perfect choice as I could ever imagine! Those 127's are, without a doubt, the most popular Maksutov of our times. And the GoTo mount will be of great help. Your better-half should do back-flips when she see's Jupiter and/or Saturn through this. And our Moon will be stupendous and endlessly magnificent - like I found out the first time I saw the Moon through a Maksutov! Wow! And for smaller (in size) DSO's - it's also ideal for seeing these in high-definition.

Even you, and your predilection for imaging, may find yourself drawn into the 'oohs! & ahhs!' coming from a very pleased Mrs!

Enjoy!

Dave

[ronin]

Try one of the Bresser achro's at 102mm. Saturn is good at 120x and Jupiter needs less, Mars will need something bigger then either a Bresser refractor or the Mak so to an extent that is out of consideration in regards detail.

The 102 would allow for a wider field then the Mak so may be "easier".

The 102/600 is a convenient size but may struggle at 120x - 5mm eyepiece. Apologies I always start to think "5" if eyepiece focal length or scope f number is getting to the "chancy" area of a result. Equally the 102/1000 may be a bit long.

Just thinking that planets in a Mak are OK but there is a lot more then the planets and the Bresser 102 may be a better all round option for things like Pleiades, M13, M42, double cluster and others that are bigger then a planet.

Suppose no-one is selling a Tal 100RS? They are good.

[Pondus]

On ‎11‎.‎08‎.‎2017 at 13:53, Adam J said:

I am an imager and shockingly have only ever attached an eyepiece to my 130PDS scope a few times and to be honest (for myself) at least I don't see this changing I would just rather be imaging. 

However, in her teens my wife owned an old Russian made 4 inch F9 Newtonian.  It is in poor condition now and needs its mirrors re-coating /  the focuser was trash even when new. Its not worth fixing it up. Having said this, when she looks through my 130PDS at F5 she notes that the image it provides of Jupiter is not as good as she recalls from her old scope. I am assuming that this is likely to be down to the fast f-ratio meaning its an ass to get it up to a decent magnification?

Anyhow, despite not being interested myself I would like to give her a better viewing experience. I think that she is mainly interested in Planets but it would be nice to see some globs / doubles / planetary nebula without much difficulty.

I dont have a huge budget....

I was looking at a Skymax 127 with diagonal, and Orion 4000 series 8-24 zoom eyepiece (to make her life as easy as possible). I see that will give me around 188x mag. Cost about 350 to 400 pounds, ill mount it on my HEQ5 pro in my obsy. 

Will this give me what I am looking for? Is there a better solution for my cash? (bearing in mind that ease of use is important for my wife).  

 

For Visual use 'Fast' f-ratio doesnt mean anything when it comes to achieving a decent magnification, or good planetary views (e.g skywatcher 12" has a focal ratio of 4.9),

but  focal lengths can be too short. With low orbiting planets,  combined With not so good seeing, planetary views wont be good in any telescope.

Just keep in mind that Jupiter and Saturn will be quite low over Your horizon the NeXT few years, and that good planetary views will be rarer (but not impossible though).

 

Rune