Beginners setup check

[Kobayashi Maru]

Hi all.

very new to astronomy .

I currently have a 130p heritage collapsable dob and am planning my future purchase’s. I’m on a fairly tight budget.

Im looking at a combination of small refractor EAA for DSO and a Mak for planetary. There is a 127mak on a az Gti mount available for a pretty good price. The mount could then do double duty with a small refractor for EAA. Probably a Evoguide 50ed or an Evolux 62ed. The entire setup is much cheaper than the usual celestron SCT range and I figure if I get bad cases of aperture fever I can used the refractor as a guidescope later.

I don’t have a huge budget and the second hand market is small here (NZ).

Any obvious pitfalls with that approach? Thoughts appreciated.

 

 

[Cosmic Geoff]

I use a 102mm f5 Startravel for EAA and find that it works fairly well for giving enhanced views with a FOV of about half a degree. 

I bought a 50mm finder/guider with the idea of using it for plate-solve & re-sync alongside my visual telescopes, but I found it just didn't work unless aimed at a dense starfield like the Pleiades.

A 127mm Mak should work for planetary (including imaging).

[Kobayashi Maru]

9 hours ago, Cosmic Geoff said:

I use a 102mm f5 Startravel for EAA and find that it works fairly well for giving enhanced views with a FOV of about half a degree. 

I bought a 50mm finder/guider with the idea of using it for plate-solve & re-sync alongside my visual telescopes, but I found it just didn't work unless aimed at a dense starfield like the Pleiades.

A 127mm Mak should work for planetary (including imaging).

I was considering the star travel 102 or 120. Here they come this the az3 mount which doesn’t seem to have a good reputation and can’t be used for EAA. How do you find the chromatic aberration? 

[Cosmic Geoff]

3 hours ago, Kobayashi Maru said:

I was considering the star travel 102 or 120. Here they come this the az3 mount which doesn’t seem to have a good reputation and can’t be used for EAA. How do you find the chromatic aberration? 

Here the Startravel 102 or 120 can be bought as an OTA.  Apparently the AZ3 mount is one to avoid.

The chromatic aberration is more visible in some circumstances than others - obvious when viewing the edge of the Moon,  not noticeable on images of galaxies.  Overall it is not enough of an issue to make me yearn for an ED or APO telescope.