Family Telescope/Camping

[Richard Hather]

I’ve recently sold my telescope and through conversations with the wife realised that I want a telescope for the family and one we can bring camping.

It would have to be small something like the one below but I want one with a bit more quality.

Price and size I’m open to any suggestions just something which is family friendly and can fit into a car filled with camping gear.

https://www.harrisontelescopes.co.uk/acatalog/celestron-travel-scope-70-telescope.html

Richard

[Stu]

How about a Heritage 130P? Very compact but equally very capable scope. It comes on a mini dob mount but has a dovetail on it so can be mounted to a normal tripod mount such as an AZ4 to put it at a more useable height.

[Richard Hather]

Thank you stu I will have a look at both 👍

[dweller25]

Yes, another vote for the heritage....

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/heritage/skywatcher-heritage-130p-flextube.html

 

[Marvin Jenkins]

Heritage all the way, do it.

[Trikeflyer]

Like all things it depends on what you want to budget for the scope etc and how much time you envisage spending at the eyepiece with the family and possibly on your own. In other words how much you are going to use it.  The 130p fits the bill for sure and it is transportable. Without knowing much about you and your family I think I might  recommend some other options. I think you shouldn’t immediately dismiss getting an alt az goto set up. Why? Well for ease of finding stuff. What I mean is, when you are sharing the eyepiece, you may want to spend more time with each observer looking at objects rather than you finding them whilst others are getting bored. Now if all you are going to do is the obvious easy to find stuff like the moon, planets and brighter easy to find messiers etc then my suggestion may well be misplaced, also if you are going to spend time teaching the family to find stuff on their own and then to track manually once theyve found them fair enough that might be part of the experience for you. If not, then with a couple of justifications, I’m going to make a different recommendation.

1. Goto and tracking might help when stargazing as a family, especially when swapping between observers - that way, when you switch observers, you won’t have the get the new observer to relocate or recentre the object in question, especially if they are inexperienced, this may cause a few possible challenges. 

2. Finding the right balance between portability and utility. Consider 6 inch sct or possibly an 80mm frac - achromatic might be ok, especially with a filter to reduce colour fringing on the brighter objects. Again this may or may not be a real issue in the early days. 

So just to give an alternative (more expensive) suggestion I suggest the following - most of which are available used if you want to save a bit

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/startravel/skywatcher-startravel-102-synscan-az-goto.html

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/slt-series/celestron-nexstar-6-slt.html

skywatcher star discovery mount which I use for travel with an 80mm Ed frac - very compact and very capable.

you could also consider a 5 inch Mak with goto for slightly less £ than the sct but of course there is the slightly restricted field of view provided by a mak.

The suggestion of the  heritage is a good. I just think like all things there are upsides and downsides with anything you pick.

Hope you get a scope, your family will really enjoy it, I’m sure.

Steve 

 

 

 

 

[Richard Hather]

Thanks for the help everyone, I do have knowledge of the night sky as I’ve previously owned a 12” Dob and knowledge of the goto system my scope before that was a nexstar 6se.

But I think because of my needs which are primarily observing with my kids then I think main targets will always be planetary/lunar and brighter dso and double stars.

On top of this it has to be small enough for us to fit in our car.

The heritage scope certainly fits the bill and I will probably go with this scope.

Concerning eps which are best to use with this scope because of the weight I’m not sure which type to go with I usually limit myself to 3-4 30/20/9/6 to offer full range of mag.

[dweller25]

Thats a good range of eyepieces 👍

[Nyctimene]

Another vote for the Skywatcher Heritage 130 P Flextube. It fits nicely into the boot of my Seat Mii (= VW Up), still leaving enough room for eyepiece case, maps, a small folding stool and some luggage.  It's my  grab-and-drive set at the moment.

With an ES 26mm 62 degrees LER, I get a field (TFoV) of 2,5 degrees. Add a 24-8 Seben/Celestron zoom, and a shorty Baader Barlow 2,25x (giving 183x magnification), and you're prepared for all astronomical targets. Cheap enough, so any damage/loss will not harm too much.

Added a picture of it in the boot/trunk of the tiny Mii:

and another one, with folding stool, PSA, 7x50 binos, eyepiece case (re-, upcycled physician's case). Still enough space for other things.

Stephan

Edited September 19, 2019 by Nyctimene

[Stu]

Nice setup Stefan!

I do think the scope could use more than a 6mm eyepiece given the short 650mm focal length. I've split quite tight doubles with mine (Pi Aquilae at 1.4" for example), the scope should be able to take high powers as Stefan indicates.

[Nyctimene]

5 minutes ago, Stu said:

the scope should be able to take high powers

It does, indeed. With a Skywatcher UWA 6 mmf and the 2.25x Barlow, I get a 244x magnification - still usable for tight doubles (I can confirm Stu's Pi Aquilae split with it repeatedly), and Lunar.

Stephan

[Richard Hather]

3 hours ago, Nyctimene said:

Another vote for the Skywatcher Heritage 130 PDS Flextube. It fits nicely into the boot of my Seat Mii (= VW Up), still leaving enough room for eyepiece case, maps, a small folding stool and some luggage.  It's my  grab-and-drive set at the moment.

With an ES 26mm 62 degrees LER, I get a field (TFoV) of 2,5 degrees. Add a 24-8 Seben/Celestron zoom, and a shorty Baader Barlow 2,25x (giving 183x magnification), and you're prepared for all astronomical targets. Cheap enough, so any damage/loss will not harm too much.

Added a picture of it in the boot/trunk of the tiny Mii:

and another one, with folding stool, PSA, 7x50 binos, eyepiece case (re-, upcycled physician's case). Still enough space for other things.

Stephan

That you Stephan that is the definition of grab and go minimalist setup exactly what I want, I’ve been a fan of ES eps for a long time and will be purchasing some more of these maybe 82 FOF.

[Richard Hather]

These are what I used on my 12” Dob, in thinking these will be a bit heavy for this telescope 😬They are the ES 100 9mm 14mm and 30mm 82 and they are pretty heavy.

I will probably sell them if they can’t be used and purchase other more suited eps maybe a few ES 82s 🤷‍♂️

[Nyctimene]

Definitely too big and heavy- moreover, 2" barrels, that won't fit the 11/4" Heritage focuser.

I'm quite pleased with the 26mmf/62° ES LER eyepiece when working together with the Heritage. It's somewhat of an Erfle type; very good colour correction, very sharp on axis, slightly deteriorating at 85% of the AFoV. No kidney beaning; calm, relaxed viewing. If you are interested, here a review:

https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/579467-26mm-es62-observations/

Stephan