Portable Scope

[NoiseBoy]

Hi All,

First post here. Ive always been a space buff and decided its time i got my own scope. Im sure you are fed up of which scope? threads but i have a special requirement.

To cut a long story short i do have some outdoor space but im surrounded by houses so although light pollution isnt too bad i cant see a huge amount of sky. However there is an open headland a 5 minute walk from my house which should be perfect for sky watching.

Basically I need a scope that i can carry a short distance as i dont have a car (only a motorcycle). I reckon i could probably carry around 10-15kg comfortably but i expect you guys will have a better idea of what is possible to carry than i do. Its only about 500 yards tops.

Budget wise, im selling an audio mixer and whatever i make from that will go towards the scope (im asking for £400 so around that mark). I live in jersey so you can knock VAT off any prices. Im looking at the Celestron NexStar 130 SLT. But im happy to get a non-computerised scope and learn my way around the sky if you think that would be better.

Any thoughts appreciated and hopefully i can become a decent forum member in time!

-Paul

[John]

500 yards seems to me a long way to carry a scope so, as well as being portable, you want something that is going to still be in collimation (ie: the mirrors / lenses in proper alignment with each other) when you get to your observing site. That says refractor or maksutov to me.

The Skywatcher Skymax 127mm maksutovs are a good combination of portability / compactness and performance capability and might suit your needs. They come in a number of "flavours" as you can see here:

Maksutov

The only real difference between these variants is the mount with the SynScan and SupaTrak ones being lighter and less clumbersome than the EQ3-2 one.

Thats just my thoughts.

John

[Stardust]

I'd agree with the Skymax 127 for filling the portability/compactness/peformance part of the brief. Couple it with a nice pair of bins and I'm sure you'd have many a happy hour at the headland.

[NoiseBoy]

Thanks for the answers,

TBH i hadnt even considered the effect of motion whilst carrying it on the scope so im glad you mentioned that.

How do the skywatcher scopes compare quality wise to the Celestron and is the alignment etc. easy?

The larger Meade ETX series are maksutovs are they not? I expect you pay for the name somewhat with Meade though. If necessary i will wait a couple more months and stump up the extra money. I notice one of the sites is selling an ex-demo ETX125 for just over £500. Its alot of money for a first telescope though but id rather not buy cheap buy often.

Are computerised models definitely the way to go then?

[John]

I believe that many Celestron scopes are made by a company called Synta, who also make the Skywatcher scopes. Synta actually own the Celestron company now. So quality and use wise they are very similar indeed !.

Meade, Celestron and Skywatcher are pretty much on a par - Meade does not have reputation greater than the other two although the brand seems to be better known outside of astronomy circles for some reason.

The ETX's are refractors and maksutovs and have a good reputation optically but not so good mechanically - their mounts are rather prone to failures of one sort or another.

Personally I would not go for computerised (you pay a lot for the computerisation and proportionately less for the optics, which are the important bit IMHO) but many scopes have a degree of automation / computerisation these days so I'm probably being old fashioned !.

John

[NoiseBoy]

So if you were me and buying a non computerised scope for £3-400 what would you buy John?