Fun and simple, amazing views.

[Lunuar Mike]

Hello and hope you are having great day ! I am in the market for a new /used scope. I was into astronomy many years ago and want to get back into it. I have a few factors that I must be honest about I live in a second floor apartment with 2 steep flights of stairs, as well as I have to go to a different site to look at stars in my car not due to light pollution but I cannot use it on my street (rough neighborhood). . I have owned 3-8 inch telescopes an Orion 8" Eqt reflector and a Meade and Celestron C8 Sct's, a 10 inch dob, 90mm mak, 11x80 binoculars . I feel a 6 inch SCT would be the biggest I would go in diameter. In all of the past the scopes I used  for 8 years was a C5 Sct . I have been thinking about   80-102 mm APO refractors never owned one and I wanna see what'll the hype is all about. My budget for the scope is around $600-1800.00 USD for the optical tube maybe an f5 or f8 scope , and I want a really good alt-az mount. I would like to get a solid alt az mount around $200-800.00. I know there's no perfect scope out there, I really want wide-ish,  fields of view but the scope and utilize 2 inch eyepieces, and  Barlow as well and give me contrasty close up views as well. The most important part is I plan to do extensive lunar study as well as lunar /planetary digital photography. I also love double and triple star systems, and open star clusters. When I had a 10 inch dob I saw the faint fussy things I never could seen smaller scopes.  I guess I am looking for a scope that is very portable, easy to use, simple and refined set up, but most of all I wanna have some fun under the stars and moon. I would go higher in price if the OTA would be a forever scope but my max is 2500.00 USD. this would be a scope  I would use and cherish for the rest of my life.  I have looked at Telvue, Orion, Celestron/Meade, William Optics, I really want a scope the is simple and fun to use and I can carry the whole operation in one/two trips to the car or back to my apartment. That would give me years of fun and usage. Thank you for your opinions, ideas and help . Thank you Mike. 

 

[Nik271]

If you are going to drive for your observing then there is more flexibility for your gear. Still should be light weight but there is no need to carry everything fully assembled, because you can assemble it quickly on site.  In that case why don't you opt for two portable scopes: One for for widefield, e.g. a 80mm APO, plus a 6 inch Mak or a Classical Casegrain or SCT for the lunar/planetary work. You could even mount them together on something like the SKytee 2. The 80mm Apos are not that expensive and the Cassegrains are cheap as chips, both will fit in your budget.

If you really prefer one scope I think a 4 inch APO at say F/7 is the one that ticks all the boxes.

 

Edited July 11, 2022 by Nik271

[Cosmic Geoff]

Some of your wants are contradictory.  "Extensive lunar study" does not seem compatible with having to continually nudge an manual alt-azimuth mount.

"Lunar/planetary digital photography" requires at least a driven mount (meaning equatorial), or alternatively an alt-azimuth or equatorial GoTo. You could try managing without, but you will probably find that it is no fun.

[Elp]

Apos generally give very sharp and contrasty views, to see more faint stuff though you really need the aperture which gets expensive quick. Understand your need for portability, it's one of the reasons I got a Z61 as my whole AP kit fits in one 50L bag which I can sling onto my back and carry it out in one trip. However when I got into the 5-6 inch telescope ownership I realised where I am, aperture really does make a big difference (though at the cost of being larger scopes).

Goto mounts are the way to go I feel but if you're after a manual, a very sturdy one I was looking at but didn't get due to the added costs of importing was the Stellarvue M002C, I also don't see a way to put a counterweight bar onto it but the reviews are very positive. Put it onto a Berlebach tripod like a uni and you'll be very stable.

[AstroMuni]

8 hours ago, Lunuar Mike said:

I have owned 3-8 inch telescopes an Orion 8" Eqt reflector and a Meade and Celestron C8 Sct's, a 10 inch dob, 90mm mak, 11x80 binoculars

As you have good experience having used this many scopes, which of these would you say would meet the needs of what you want now? Just go with your gut and get it (again if need be) 🙂