good offers at flo

[tony]

hmmmmmm. decisions, decisions, decisions. :?

there's this

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/proddetail.php?prod=C80edr&cat=25

or there's this

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/proddetail.php?prod=c6sxlt&cat=25

:scratch: :scratch: :scratch: :scratch:

not sure which to go for really.

and i moan at the wife when she takes forever to decide on which shoes to buy, lol. :mrgreen:

[John]

It all depends what you are interested in doing with the scope. Both the mounts are the same but the scopes are very different but both excellent in their ways. If it was my 1st scope I'd go for the C6 because it's got decent aperture and will show a wide range of objects well. For imaging though I think the C80 would be a better choice (though I'm not an imager myself) but you would need to add motor drives to the mount.

John

[philsail1]

Yes, it would be the C6 for me too! John.

(What about motors for tracking!).

BTW - I've owned the CG5 mount, and it's a good one. Reasonably light, yet very steady. I bought a set of motors for mine (from FLO). Easy to fit, and tracked very well. Very quiet.

Regards,

philsail1

[adamsp123]

I love refractors and actually have the C80ED, it is a very nice scope, but of the 2 I woud go for the C6 - the extra aperture wins

[tony]

thanks. i'd like to be able to use the scope for imaging and obviously motors would need to be added at some point. just undecided on which scope to go for at the moment. :?

[adamsp123]

I suspect the C80ED would be better for imaging, it is as I said before a cracking little scope

[RichieJarvis]

Dont forget you can fit a hyperstar to a C6! That makes it trump the ED80 for me

[adamsp123]

Dont forget you can fit a hyperstar to a C6! That makes it trump the ED80 for me

Right then, back to the C6!! :salute:

pete

[tony]

Dont forget you can fit a hyperstar to a C6! That makes it trump the ED80 for me

A WHAT? :?

[RichieJarvis]

One of these: http://starizona.com/acb/hyperstar/whatis.aspx

Imagine shooting at f/2

Nice wide field, quick, guiding not so important......

[tony]

One of these: http://starizona.com/acb/hyperstar/whatis.aspx

Imagine shooting at f/2

Nice wide field, quick, guiding not so important......

ah right, i see.

basically cuts your imaging time in half then.

[adamsp123]

ah right, i see.

basically cuts your imaging time in half then.

And the rest! F10 to F2 that is more than one stop

pete

[RichieJarvis]

Heres a chart showing equivilent exposure times:

Focal Ratio	Equal Exposure Times	Equal Exposure Times
f/10	15.4 minutes	30.9 minutes
f/6.3	6.1 minutes	12.3 minutes
f/5	3.9 minutes	7.7 minutes
f/3.3	1.7 minutes	3.4 minutes
f/1.8	30 seconds	60 seconds

I wish I had the funds

[AJSullivan]

Not an expert but just read up on that cool little gadget. It does not say for 6" though unless I just couldnt see it.

Alex

[philf]

true - but it is for a Schmidt-Cassegrain which the C80 isn't but the C6 is !

[RichieJarvis]

On the whatis page:

Cameras Compatible with 6" HyperStar Lens

Astrovid Stellacam

Mallincam

Starfish Cameras (11mm or smaller sensors)

Starlight Xpress Cameras (11mm or smaller sensors)

That means it works with the C6, i thought? I've yet to find a price though

Theres also this: http://starizona.com/acb/hyperstar/hyperstar6/hyperstar6.htm

Richie

[philf]

yup

I was just saying the question was which scope to buy - the c6 or the c80 hence the recommendation for the c6 as it takes this bit of kit

[RichieJarvis]

Ah - found a price from Green Witch: http://www.green-witch.com/acatalog/Hyperstar.html

Pricey, but look at the images!

I think I would need to convert to a OSC though, the filter wheel would block half the aperature!

Cheers,

Richie

[tony]

just a bit pricey. :shock:

[John]

I'd still go for the C6. If you want a wider field of view you can get an F6.3 focal reducer for the price of a good eyepiece which work very nicely visually and photographically.

Also if you find you enjoy visual as well you will soon exhaust the potential of 80mm of aperture wheras 150mm is enough to last many a lifetime.

John

[tony]

i've been very tempted to go for one of those altaz goto's (nexstar se6 or slt 130 or similar) as they're easier to set-up. got to hump everything up over load of steps to my garden before i set-up which takes ages and is a real pain in the *beep*!

perhaps i should of mentioned at the mo i have an old 8" newt (remember the helios scopes) on an eq5 mount, and i make 4 trips up and back before i set-up, and more often than not by the time i have set-up the clouds begin to roll in :x .

so thats probably the main reason i'm tempted by the altaz goto's, i can carry the whole thing up in one trip. but then again on the other hand the two deals i mentioned in my first post at flo are exceptionally good deals which is why its even more frustrating making a decision. :?

[Jarndyce]

i've been very tempted to go for one of those altaz goto's (nexstar se6 or slt 130 or similar) as they're easier to set-up. got to hump everything up over load of steps to my garden before i set-up which takes ages and is a real pain in the *beep*!

Hi Tony

For this same reason, I think I'm going to end up getting the SE6 rather than the C6 on the manual mount - even though the C6 is such great value, and a lot cheaper than the SE.

From my point of view, if I use it more, it's a better telescope for me.

[ianmwatson]

Setting up an equatorial doesn't take that long. You don't have to do a really accurate polar alignment for regular gazing. Just set the latitude (this can then be locked and left alone until you move or in several million years when plate tectonics has taken its toll) to whatever you're at and line up visually with polaris. There's no need to use a polar scope or star drift, it will still allow you to track for quite a long time with just the RA slow-mo. The poor old GEM is a misunderstood beast.

I can have my scope (a C6-S) in less than 5 minutes from removing the tube assembly from its box.