Heafty

[Nigel]

right then so i been lookin at scopes and they've come along long long long long long long way in design (provided it works i wants a decent lookin thingy doo-hicky) and power so ive narrowed it down to a £1000 max budget and being scouse these shiney things are lookin dam good so which one, well if i can do deep field then i'll be very happy. am i right in thinkin planatary bodies should be a sinch to look at with maybe a 12inch meade light bridge?

(adds new words to memory) so i reallywant to avoid refractor type scopes

the meade range does look pretty awesome im getting quite partial to

[philsail1]

Hello and welcome to Stargazers Lounge Nigel!

If this is your first telescope, you are going for the big one straight off!

Have you considered the "Skywatcher" range? (if you click on the First Light Optics logo at the top of SGL you will be able to see the range they are offering.

Before rushing in, I would think carefully about such things as:-

Do you have a suitable place to set your scope up and view (no excessive light pollution near where you live).

Have you somewhere to store a large scope?

Will you have to carry your scope far before setting it up?

Do you think you may want to take photos through your scope in the future?

There are aspects of owning and using a scope which I haven't thought of here, but I'm sure you will soon receive plenty of help from other members of SGL.

Best wishes,

philsail1

[Doc]

Hello Nigel and welcome to SGL.

I agree with Phil here as these scopes are pretty large and are best left assembled so to minimise collimation issues. So nakke sure you have enough room to store.

I have the Meade 16" Lightbridge and it's a great scope optically. Where Meade falls down is in it's build quality. But saying that I like mine and you can pimp these with lots of accesories.

Whatever you choose make sure you include some sort of collimation device as these truss dobs need regular collimation to bring the best out in them.

[scotastro]

The moon and planets are big and bright objects so a smallish scope like a Skywatcher Skymax 127 will show them very well. To look at fainter objects like galaxies and nebula you get a better view the larger the aperture.

A 12inch scope would give very good views of anything you may ever want to look at assuming you don't have terrible light pollution. But as others have said it's a big heavy scope.

Mike

[Nigel]

hey thanks for the greets all

[Nigel]

If this is your first telescope, you are going for the big one straight off!

Have you considered the "Skywatcher" range? (if you click on the First Light Optics logo at the top of SGL you will be able to see the range they are offering.

will take a look see

Before rushing in, I would think carefully about such things as:-

(im not really rushing in im begrudging payin up2 the 1k mark but see what u mean)

Do you have a suitable place to set your scope up and view (no excessive light pollution near where you live).

back garden theres a street lamp well ally way lamp which is gona get a lick of paint or i can step out onto the flat roof of my kitchen from the back bedroom =)

Have you somewhere to store a large scope?

yup

Will you have to carry your scope far before setting it up?

nope but im happy to buy a golf buggy

Do you think you may want to take photos through your scope in the future?

would be neat but im sure i'll work on a collection of scopes (well i hope so)

philsail1

[Nigel]

thanks scotastro and doc, so given the meade is a self assemble job theres gona be alot more lining up to do between mirrors, hmm precision drilling is optional then hehe, ideally what i wanted to do was now and again get a charted flight out to north end of scotland on the odd weekend, will look at solid tubes then =)

thx all

keep comments comming

[John]

Hi Nigel - welcome to SGL

Sounds like you are looking for something airline portable then - or have I got that wrong ?

John

[Nigel]

well not major airlines, i hate long drives so figure a cessna should be ok given most of the seats fold anythin under 1.5m and a HxW 2ft should be good, portability aint a biggy for me (and ive just realised ive posted golf buggy and not caddy) will add a biggish basket and a few velcro straps =)

well thats the idea anyway