Anyone ever mounted a 200p/pds on an AZ4?

[russ]

2 hours ago, Alan White said:

Jon, at one point I had an AZ4 with a 150p that worked well.

However I did feel this was the limit for the mount.

I would agree. AZ4 and 150P is a nice pairing. I prefer that to a dob. Everything at a nicer to use height and easier to shift about. We love our AZ4.

[russ]

2 hours ago, Ships and Stars said:

I didn't realise the 150/152s were that size! Bazooka territory!

What a beast of a scope. I just can't see the AZ4 being happy about carrying that lump.

[John]

12 minutes ago, parallaxerr said:

Well blow me. A significant Skywatcher price hike just landed and they're even more expensive now, £537 for an ST150 at FLO. Too rich for me 😥

It's much better to buy these and the F/8 achromats on the used market. They depreciate a lot from the new price.

[parallaxerr]

6 minutes ago, John said:

It's much better to buy these and the F/8 achromats on the used market. They depreciate a lot from the new price.

I've been trying my darndest for weeks to find a used one at a reasonable price, or one for sale at all for that matter. I think this price hike just put a nail in the coffin of the whole idea tbh as it will obviously bump the used prices up.

Edited August 14, 2019 by parallaxerr

[russ]

2 minutes ago, parallaxerr said:

I've been trying my darndest for weeks to find a used one at a reasonable price, or one dor sale at all for that matter. I think this price hike just put a nail in the coffin of the whole idea tbh as it will obviously bump the used prices up.

In the same boat. Trying to find a cheap (sub £200) little Apo. A 60, 66, 70, 72 or something. Been nothing except one Saturday morning which i missed. A Revelation 80ED for £110......darn it.

[John]

Thats a fair point - the used market usually has a number of item X for sale, when you are not looking for one, but when you are looking, nothing to be seen for ages ........

[Rob Sellent]

4 hours ago, parallaxerr said:

all I want is a light bucket that will sit on an AZ4, simples right?

Personally, I wouldn't feel comfortable mounting much more than a 4" f8 frac, 6" f5 Newt or 6" f10 Mak/SCT on an AZ4. Much more than this and dampening down wobbles would start annoying me.

1 hour ago, parallaxerr said:

I've been trying my darndest for weeks to find a used one at a reasonable price, or one for sale at all for that matter.

I'd give myself longer than this if my heart were set on a given something. I've been looking for a decent 4" apo on the secondhand market for ages. One would turn up but then it would be collection only, or another would rear its head but I knew it wouldn't be the 'keeper' I'd set my heart on finding, other times I just got a bad feeling about the seller and so on. With a little patience and a bit of luck, I'm sure something will crop up .

[parallaxerr]

Yes, I must exercise more patience. It's just typical that there are normally several on the market but now I'm looking, it's slim pickings!

[Alan White]

13 hours ago, parallaxerr said:

Yes, I must exercise more patience. It's just typical that there are normally several on the market but now I'm looking, it's slim pickings!

You wait until you buy one Jon,

Loads will come up for sale the very next day!

[parallaxerr]

8 hours ago, Alan White said:

You wait until you buy one Jon,

Loads will come up for sale the very next day!

Haha, I know. FLO have price matched a new one at a very tempting price......but I must resist.

[Carbon Brush]

Apologies if I am missing something here skimming through the posts.

Why not think about another mount for the bigger (probably newt) scope?

If you are using the big scope (whatever it turns out to be) to look at (not image) DSOs, then you have some options.
Is goto essential? Some sort of motorised tracking enough? Encoders on only on a dob mount? Even a push basic dob.

What I'm thinking is for example, you can pick up (used) a SW200P, then a suitable mount like an EQ5, or similarly weight rated AZ or similar.
This splits the hit on the wallet into two chunks and you could well end up with a good package for less than you expected.

I have been very happy with high power contrast on the 8" newts I have owned (OO & SW).
There is room for contrast improvement on the basic newt scopes by a bit of flocking.
An older newt may have a basic focusser, but they are easy enough to swap.
A Mak Newt with small mirror will give refractor like contrast. But they are heavier than basic newt.

Hope this helps, David.