£1500 to spend on new scope

[Northernlight]

Hi All,

Firstly, Apologies if this is the wrong section, but after fighting a 8" GSO RC, i've decided that I've had enough and looking for a new scope for 80% imaging and 20% visual.  My budget is around £1500 and i dont really want to spend any more than this.

So with this in mind, ive thinking about the following 2 options, but i'm open to other idea's. Bother scopes will be pier mounted in my Obs, so cooling is not so much of an issue and weight should be ok as my mount is an EQ8.

 

Option A) -  Skywatcher 150 ED DS Pro doublet 

Pro's - Simple to use, i.e. should have no colimation issues, easier to balance. Great for Narrow band Imaging. Decent Focal Length.

Cons - Not the best for imaging Galaxies i'm sure a lot of this can be resolved in post-processing, Long, slower than a newt, smaller aperture than a newt.

 

Option B) - Skywatcher 10" Quattro (Inc Upgraded focuser & Coma Corrector & Cats eye triple kit collimation tools)

Pro's - Faster @ F4,  Larger aperture

Cons - Questionable build Quality, Collimaiton.

 

For simplicity i'm leaning towards the refractor, but not sure how this handles imaging galaxies. I've imaged with my 102mm doublet and the results didn't seem to bad for galaxies as i was able to sort colour balance between the RGB channels. For Narrowband it will be perfect especially when coupled with a reducer.

 

Any other idea's for Imaging scopes around the £1500 mark

 

Cheers,

Richard.

[WanderingEye]

Hello,

For a budget of £1500 what about the skywatcher espirit range 80mm and 100mm, superior scopes and highly regarded...there is a brand new 100mm on eBay ATM for £1300... was considering myself, but my budget will not play ball.. ☹️

[Starflyer]

Can I throw in the Orion Optics VX10?  I've loved the two I've owned.  There's some images on my Flickr page, link in my signature, taken with these scopes.

Upgrade the focuser and add auto focus for around your budget.

Edited October 24, 2019 by Starflyer

[Northernlight]

I'm looking for a larger aperture. I already have a 102mm Doublet

I think i'm leaning towards the 150ED DS PRO, purely from having an easy life and i can easily swap the camera between the 2 without needing to change reducer etc.

[Northernlight]

Hi StarFlyer,

I've heard to many stories about ablut poor Quality control on Orion Optics scopes in particular to the mechanics and even worse view on their customer service, so vowed never to buy one.

[johninderby]

Those stories about OO quality control are so out of date now. 

A lot of stories about how bad OO was were spread on SGL years ago by a disgruntled ex OO employee who had been sacked.

Edited October 24, 2019 by johninderby

[Dave Lloyd]

Maybe so but is it still the case they only sell replacement parts to the original buyer? 

[johninderby]

As far as I know they will sell parts to anyone. Warrantee Replacement items though I think are limited to the original owner. I’ve always found John at OO to be very helpful but I think they are an old fashined company in the way they deal with customers which some people aren’t used to. Asking not demanding gets results.
 

Edited October 24, 2019 by johninderby

[Stu]

1 hour ago, johninderby said:

but I think they are an old fashined company in the way they deal with customers which some people aren’t used to.

That is certainly one way of looking at it!

[johninderby]

6 minutes ago, Stu said:

That is certainly one way of looking at it!

 

[joe aguiar]

I have the SW evostar 6 inch f/8 iam not sure that's a good imaging scope.

Ok first I do only do visual,  so being a large apo equals more light so that's good,. but the ota is 22lbs that's without finder bracket and finderscope and any eps. once u add 2 inch ep 9x50 finder and bracket and maybe telrad your probally close to 25. Then add a camera imaging gear auto guilder  etc etc it easily be 30 lbs maybe even up to 35 lbs.

they say for imaging u should have 2 mounts bigger then visual. 

so that scope shows it on eq6 so u would need eq8 for it to be  solid for imaging

I have used it on the meade LXD85 and was ok for visual. the heq5 or eq6 would be more robust for visual but even the eq6 for imaging is already maxed at that weight.

Anyway for imaging I would say get something smaller up to 120mm max, then a larger scope if u want for visual

joejaguar

Edited October 24, 2019 by joe aguiar

[joe aguiar]

another thought u say u got a good 102 doublet use that with   avx or lxd85 or heq5 for imaging then sure if u want that big 6" for visual then go for it.

joejaguar

 

[Starflyer]

6 hours ago, Dave Lloyd said:

Maybe so but is it still the case they only sell replacement parts to the original buyer? 

I've never heard this one before. My two VX10's were both bought second hand (they're an absolute bargain if you can wait for one to come up on ABS) and I've bought bits and bobs from OO for them over the years.

I recently upgraded to a CT10 and I'm so happy with it.

[lulu57]

3 minutes ago, Starflyer said:

I recently upgraded to a CT10 and I'm so happy with it.

That maybe so, Ian, but I think you'd be even happier if you sold all your astro-tackle and spent the money on leather boots and jackets.

Go on, you know I'm right! 😉🤪

[Northernlight]

Lulu, so i'm not sure if you are referring to Ian's Biking Attire or a Kinky fetish, but getting back to the topic at hand........  Joe why do not think the 150Ed would make a good imaging scope ? what were your thoughts on this ? Why do you think it would be a poor choice ?

My mount is an EQ8, so will be more than enough to handle the weigh.

[Dave Lloyd]

12 hours ago, Starflyer said:

I've never heard this one before. My two VX10's were both bought second hand (they're an absolute bargain if you can wait for one to come up on ABS) and I've bought bits and bobs from OO for them over the years.

I recently upgraded to a CT10 and I'm so happy with it.

In that case my apologies to OO. 

[lulu57]

2 hours ago, Northernlight said:

Lulu, so i'm not sure if you are referring to Ian's Biking Attire or a Kinky fetish, but getting back to the topic at hand........

Neither...the purchase of smart leather attire is an activity intrinsically couched in an aura of deep inner happiness! 😉

As for me getting off topic...as Ian knows from long experience, it's a skill I've honed over many years. I'm very good indeed at it. 

Don't worry - I'll stop crashing your thread now! (...or will I??!) 🤪

[Northernlight]

By all means crash away with your leather clad insights- just include some astro stuff in their too as i've got an important mission to spend some money that's burning a hole in my pocket.

 

[johninderby]

Or go a bit over the top like this. 😁

[joe aguiar]

3 hours ago, Northernlight said:

Lulu, so i'm not sure if you are referring to Ian's Biking Attire or a Kinky fetish, but getting back to the topic at hand........  Joe why do not think the 150Ed would make a good imaging scope ? what were your thoughts on this ? Why do you think it would be a poor choice ?

My mount is an EQ8, so will be more than enough to handle the weigh.

my first one I thought explains it. I have the 6'inch evostar ed its big heavy and its a long arm. I did say you will probally need a eq8 if you wanna do imaging with it. since now u say u have a eq8 you are set in that part.

the other issue is being f8 is abit too long normally people do f5 to f6 for imaging so you may need a focal reducer. Also for imaging you don't really need a huge apo refractor the camera does most of the work. A lot people also say a doublet is not best for imaging since the camera is much more sensitive and picks up false colour even in double 53 scope so triplets are better. Everyone is positive that the SW evostar cant be 53 glass but 51 glass since its low cost (even tho skywatcher wont tell anyone) for $3500 tax in it cant be 53 has to be 51.  So colour in evostar 6" would be even worse in pics.

many people use 73mm to 102 triplet  apo for imaging and doing so u can have a much smaller mount too instead of a HUGE imaging setup.

last if u want view visually dso even the 6" evostar is abit small for dso. for a refractor 6" is big BUT for depp sky stuff I would do 10 to 12" scope

just my thoughts

joejaguar

Edited October 25, 2019 by joe aguiar

[Northernlight]

Ahh back to the drawing board.

Maybe if I extend my budget, the TS 130mm triplet for €1899 euros (£1640) might be one option or a 10" newt of some description.

Looking at newts the Orion optics 10" VX  comes in at £819 and the Skywatcher  10" Quattro is £549  and when I phoned OrionOptics today to ask what the extra £270 gets me over the Quattro, the guy was quite Arsey with me stating that " it's just better". Not helpful at all.

So their customer service still appears to be poor.

So by the time I spend about £270 on a baader steel track diamond focuser & base plate, £50 on a secondary heater,  £230 on a com corrector  and £319 on the cats eye collimation kit I'm not far off the cost of the 130mm triplet.

Vx 10" (£819 + £270 + £230 + £319 + £50)= £1688

Quattro 10" (£549 + £270 + £230 + £319 + £50) = £1418

Who would think spending money could be so difficult, and no lulu you cant have it for leather goods 😂

 

Edited October 25, 2019 by Northernlight

[jetstream]

54 minutes ago, Northernlight said:

the guy was quite Arsey with me stating that " it's just better". Not helpful at all.

So their customer service still appears to be poor.

Honesty

[Northernlight]

Read a few more recent views and looks like the  more recent reviews of newer models of the VX10 seem to have better build quality and QC, so think this with the 1/10pv optics could make a good all round scope.

[John]

55 minutes ago, jetstream said:

Honesty

Yes, but OO service attitude could be much better from my personal experience, alas

I wish I could say different because I love my OO 12 inch dob.

[Northernlight]

My only concern about buying the VX10 would be the customer service if I had a problem with the scope.