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Equipment Regrets?

Coco

By Coco
in The Astro Lounge

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Coco

Coco

Posted
Posted

Mines buying the CPC800 GPS and not a Skywatcher EQ6 PRO Synscan & Celestron C8 XLT CF Optical Tube. Finding a quality wedge is becoming a pain. Yeh I know it sounds like a moan but I got all excited and giddy. :mrgreen:

.

Guy

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Psychobilly

Psychobilly

Posted
Posted

The Celestron one is pants...even if you can get hold of it and then you have to buy the upgrade kit to make it anywhere near useful...

Decent ones cost money...there are several very nice ones on the market although very few of them make it across the pond and with the collapse of the pound :(

I made the same mistake...

Although thinking about it then there is one small benefit once you are on a wedge...

You can image through the meridian as you dont have to watch the scope gymnastics...

You could almost buy an EQ6 for the price of a decent and truly useful wedge

Billy...

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centroid

centroid

Posted
Posted

I paid £500 for my Meade Superwedge, and the engineering quality was appalling.

Its ok now, after I carried out my own engineering upgrades to it. However, after paying £500, I really shouldn't have needed to do that.

There are some good UK built wedges available, but they are still 'silly money', albeit the engineerng is a LOT better than Meade or Celestron's offerings.

Dave

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Psychobilly

Psychobilly

Posted
Posted

The Celestron one is pants...even if you can get hold of it and then you have to buy the upgrade kit to make it anywhere near useful...

the upgrade makes it LESS pants, but its still pants!

A bit of a thong then :(

Fine adjustment is supposed to be a bit os an art with it isnt it...

Billy...

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JohnC

JohnC

Posted
Posted

Selling all my kit (Weather frustrations etc etc) only to go camping 3 months later and see the darkest, clearest sky. Regaining all the kit is PAINFUL! :(

Still....loving the LX200 now. onward and upward.

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Tim

Tim

Posted
Posted

c9.25 maybe, as it isnt the bestest tool in the world for taking sharp images.

If I knew then what I know now, I probably would have gotten a fast astrograph I think. I'll still use the c9.25 for lunar and planetary perhaps, but they dont really float my boat. There's much more of a thrill I find in pointing the camera at something you cant see, and then pulling a huge nebula cloud out of it!

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John

John

Posted
Posted

Regrets, - I've had a few:

- Selling an ED100, Blue Tube - superb scope :(

- Selling a mint Celestar C8 - best views of Saturn I've ever had :)

- Cleaning (carefully I thought) a nice TAL 25mm plossl - and taking the coating off the eye lens :crybaby:

- Buying a Baader Laser Collimator that only works intermittantly, even with fresh batteries :grin:

- Not having been to a star party - yet :grin:

John

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proflight2000

proflight2000

Posted
Posted

Well the baader, pfft is my reply to that, the nasty little laser housing inside was hopeless when mine went down the pan. The switch inside is just tacky to say the least. Your problem will lay in that the screw down is not now touching the correct area of the laser, needless to say, I wont be rushing to buy another one when a lightbulb on a bit of string will suffice. :(

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John

John

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Well the baader, pfft is my reply to that, the nasty little laser housing inside was hopeless when mine went down the pan. The switch inside is just tacky to say the least. Your problem will lay in that the screw down is not now touching the correct area of the laser, needless to say, I wont be rushing to buy another one when a lightbulb on a bit of string will suffice. :(

Yep that's the problem - I ought to say though that it was 2nd hand otherwise it would have been returned straightaway.

I've had to remove the laser unit (not recommended with the Baader units I know but it was useless otherwise) and it's a bit better now - they don't lend them selves to easy laser collimation though so it's not as accurate as it should be I think. Luckily my simple cheshire does the job pretty well.

John

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centroid

centroid

Posted
Posted

Spending £90 on a set of 'Buck's Gears' for my old 10" LX200GPS, to try and improve the PEC.

It made abosolutely no difference, and there was nothing wrong with the existing gears.

I should add, that the small modification, to improve the mesh of the gears, did make a significant improvement, but this bit, would have only cost £30.

Dave

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Meerkat

Meerkat

Posted
Posted

Selling my first ever scope which was a Celestron C8 Computerised, (the one with digital setting circles), a great push-to scope, and it was on a wedge :crybaby:

I think I only got about £400 for it, would like it back for the same money!

Steve

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steppenwolf

steppenwolf

Posted
Posted

My first telescope - I bought a Meade DS-2114ATS GoTo Altazimuth Reflector. It did GoTo (anywhere it fancied at the time), the 'relay' lens built in to correct the non-parabolic mirror made mincemeat out of the contrast and the tripod was just a joke - and I was going to image with this! I had it for less than a month.

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kniclander

kniclander

Posted
Posted

good thread!

I get the impression that there are more regrets for thing sold than things bought...

I slightly regret buying a 10" dob cos in my LP'd skies i'm not convinced I see dsos any better than in my 20x100 binos - I wish I'd bought a long focus frac instead and i also regret not buying the Tal100R that was on sale here a little while ago.

and i regret getting a job in London not HAWAII :(

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DanDare

DanDare

Posted
Posted
also regret not buying the Tal100R that was on sale here a little while ag

I don't think you're on you're own on that one :(

Just regret not starting off with a bit more aperture, but funny enough I don't really regret buying the ETX105, I've had it for nearly 5 years now and not had many problems with it, just minor niggles. The trackings not brilliant but the tripod allows for eq mounting and the whole set-up is quite portable.

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