PLEASE HELP A NEWBIE DECIDE BETWEEN 80mm REFRACTOR VS 127mm REFLECTOR!

[Stu]

10 minutes ago, Zeta Reticulan said:

Well, some people thought I was crazy putting a 600 quid MoonLite on a 170 quid OTA. But it's probably the best rich field scope I own. 

Not only that, but it fits into this bag! lol

I’d love to know which salesman got you to pay £600 for a Moonlite! 😱

[Zeta Reticulan]

26 minutes ago, Stu said:

I’d love to know which salesman got you to pay £600 for a Moonlite! 😱

No one did. It wasn't 600 quid. My mistake. I can't remember what I paid for either of the MoonLites now, 360 quid each I think. I've had two strokes, my brain isn't what it was. I was probably thinking of both units. It's great shame I had to return one of them due to it being faulty.

It never sat correctly in the OTA anyway. There were other problems with it. I think it must have been dropped in transit or something. They're not making them at the moment either apparently. They probably will be £600 by the time I get around to buying another.

[Stu]

8 hours ago, Zeta Reticulan said:

No one did. It wasn't 600 quid. My mistake. I can't remember what I paid for either of the MoonLites now, 360 quid each I think. I've had two strokes, my brain isn't what it was. I was probably thinking of both units. It's great shame I had to return one of them due to it being faulty.

It never sat correctly in the OTA anyway. There were other problems with it. I think it must have been dropped in transit or something. They're not making them at the moment either apparently. They probably will be £600 by the time I get around to buying another.

Very sorry to hear about your health problems and, of course, I was only trying to highlight what seemed like a very expensive focuser, not make you feel bad! My apologies.

That is a shame, the green focusers look great on those two scopes. I’ve had a couple of Moonlites on previous refractors and they have both been excellent. Nice long travel, rotatable and two finder shoes, what’s not to like?

As you say, they will be becoming pretty hard to find used these days now they are no longer made new. Not sure if Moonlite will restart production of the manual focusers when (if?) things return to a more normal situation. Hope so.

[Zeta Reticulan]

1 hour ago, Stu said:

Very sorry to hear about your health problems and, of course, I was only trying to highlight what seemed like a very expensive focuser, not make you feel bad! My apologies.

That is a shame, the green focusers look great on those two scopes. I’ve had a couple of Moonlites on previous refractors and they have both been excellent. Nice long travel, rotatable and two finder shoes, what’s not to like?

As you say, they will be becoming pretty hard to find used these days now they are no longer made new. Not sure if Moonlite will restart production of the manual focusers when (if?) things return to a more normal situation. Hope so.

They did make a great pair.

[SthBohemia]

On 13/07/2022 at 04:52, SkyblockCEO said:

don't have a big budget

^^ That seems to be the criteria- Thus...

How about something as pictured below? I picked it up 18 months ago while grocery shopping at LIDL, PRICE Kc 899 on super special (approx 30 quid UK). Probably LIDL purchased 1000 @ 10 quid a pop... (makes one wonder a bit eh??)

The scope is not 2 bad actually, not Astro Physics quality but then again....