starts AGAIN!!!

[nicnac]

All my research into scopes has been collated and shredded and orders cancelled as my brain is now cheese.

now i start again albeit with better footing

i have increased my scope and mount budget to about £1200 ish and narrowed my choices to refractors and/or MAKs.

Chuck in your two pennies worth people !!

[alfi]

hi

put some money on the mount, get a eq6, its worth it.

this will give you a good platform for future scopes.

if you will be doing imaging, the way to go would be a ed, like the skywatcher or celestron ed`s.

what are your intended uses?

for widefield low mag imaging, the 80mm ed is a good scope, for planetary and smaller dso a larger one would do better, like the 100mm or 120mm ed`s.

the mak will be good on planetary and small, high mag dso, but not so good on widefield.

alfi

[Doc]

Most important question are you a imaging or a visual girl.

[tinvek]

have to agree with both of the previous, get a quality mount whilst your budget will allow it. you can always upgrade the OTA (telescope) in the future but an EQ6 is future proof (only provision is setting up / moving the thing depending on your circumstances ). your choice of OTA depends a lot on what you want to do with it

p.s. don't forget to allow for silly hats, make up and red wine in the budget

[TheThing]

I'd go for a Mak. If you're just visual, a Mak will give you everything that you need, in a compact and portable package. If you are visual than an EQ6 might be a bit of overkill, so you could spend less on the mount and more on the OTA. SW 180 pro maybe?

In the meantime, here's some music until someone comes along to suggest a dob....

Dum-de-da-de-dum-de-dum...

[alfingido]

I have to concur with the mounts, but only get the EQ6 if you can handle it. A big heavy mount that you get fed up with moving around will soon consign your stargazing to the back burner!

I wanted a refractor and bought an ED80 DS Pro ( Skywatcher) and mounted it on an EQ5 goto. The mount was sturdy and accurate ( and quiet), the scope was superb and can be used for visual and for imaging. You can carry the whole lot outside in one go, and if you mark where the legs go ( after aligning the mount properly), you can be set up and be observing in minutes.

The ED80 will allow you to see great detail on Planets, the Moon and DSO's and is a great widefield scope. You can split doubles with ease, in fact its a great scope.

Then, I decided I wanted a bigger refractor. I had already bought an HEQ5 Pro and went ahead and got a SW ED100 DS pro. Its all a little heavier now. I have to split the OTA and mount to carry it all outside, set up takes a little longer too, but the benefits are larger images of what I want to view.

I can also mount my SW 200P on my HEQ5 and it handles this with ease. So now I can set up the mount, then choose which OTA to fit on it.

I can see the downside of an EQ6 though. Its a lot heavier and bigger overall. Its more expensive. It wont really benefit me with the equipment I have now.

But, benefit of an EQ6? Its sturdier and will handle more equipment and heavier OTA's. Its futureproof and for its price performs brilliantly. You will have to spend an awfull lot more to get a better mount.

So, would I rather have got an EQ6 instead of my HEQ5?

Yes, but, I would probably loose the "grab and go" aspect of my hobby!

If I had a budget of £1200, I would get an HEQ5 pro and a Skywatcher ED80 DS pro. ( or similar)

Allan

[skye at night]

Allow me to take the stress of deciding away from you!

Give me your £1200 and I will spend it wisely for you....

I am thinking St80 on Alt-Az mount....

Maybe a star atlas and red torch if there's anything left after that..

Here to Help..

Steve

[nicnac]

great views so far guys.

just one thing to note tho, i am the other nicnac (a married bloke) less of the "girl" if you dont mind

[Doc]

great views so far guys.

just one thing to note tho, i am the other nicnac (a married bloke) less of the "girl" if you dont mind

I thought you were Lulu's mate. Oh well I stand corrected.

[arad85]

What do you want to do though Imaging, visual or a combination of both If imaging, do you think it is planetary or DSOs that will interest you most

[alfingido]

great views so far guys.

just one thing to note tho, i am the other nicnac (a married bloke) less of the "girl" if you dont mind

Oh well, get the EQ6 then.......

Allan

[nicnac]

visual to start, then on to imaging.

To be honest with you i think i am going to get the ED80/100 DS PRO and the MAK 150/180 then i have a "slow" and a "fast", best of both worlds so to speak. Not a rich man so one will be bought on whichever mount then the OTA of the next at a later date.

im still going to hold off until more views/reviews come in then i have a good basis on which to choose

[philj]

Get yourself down to a club or starparty then lhave a chat with folks who use them and get a look through some scopes and poke about with different mounts. That will give you an idea of what will suit your requirements present and future. If you are a newcomer to the hobby / technology I would not advocate buying until you have at least tried to find out what suits you.

[skybadger]

I hope you don't intend to buy new. You could get a 12" dob for that new or a 12" Newt for 450 or so s/h plus a Vixen SP with 4" refractor for another 450, including drives.

I want my old one back now.

Mike

[lulu57]

I thought you were Lulu's mate. Oh well I stand corrected.

Confusing, eh, Doc?

My friend Nicky is actually on this site and her username is My Mate Nicnac(!).

Apologies to Nicnac-the-bloke...this may not be the last time people mistake your identity!

[alfingido]

Or, you could get a refractor with goto or motorised mount, and a large dob. You get to learn the sky by starhopping with the dob, and you can get a huge aperture quite cheaply.

So, you have a good widefield scope and a good DSO scope, and later, you can image with the ED and whilst thats doing its thing look through the dob, searching for your next target...

Allan

[nicnac]

was going to get 250px flex but when actually viewed i found it to be too big for my situation so i began looking at MAKs and refractors.

After spending much of the day ploughing through cyberspace for anything and everything i could find, i have decided on a couple of refractors on EQ5

[Doug]

A EQ6 in the USA is around $1399 that would be your hole budget or was the second hand ?

[nicnac]

thats only about £800 here mate

[nicnac]

the wife has just seen the specs and more importantly the price of the ED DS PROs, she dosnt look impressed

think i might have to get the Evostar 150 and the StarTravel 150 with one mount (EQ5/6)

I think that works out cheaper than devorce

Still good scopes tho

[adamsp123]

the wife has just seen the specs and more importantly the price of the ED DS PROs, she dosnt look impressed

think i might have to get the Evostar 150 and the StarTravel 150 with one mount (EQ5/6)

I think that works out cheaper than devorce

Still good scopes tho

Tote up the value of your wifes shoes and cosmetics then......... on second thoughts not a good idea.

For imaging start with the mount and work up, I would avoid the Maks only because of comments I have heard regarding cool down times.

EQ6 plus 200mm Newt??? Good visual and imaging set up with coma corrector.

BTW which nicnac am I talking to?

[Ant]

I've had a HEQ5 Pro, with Skymax 127 and ED80 side by side... works well...

Skymax for high power solar system stuff, ED80 for nice low power rich fields...

Then you can image through the ED80 and guide through the Skymax127 (with a FR).

I would have gone for an EQ6 if i could have afforded it, but they are quite a bit bigger and heavier...

ant

[oceanheadted]

You're in a really difficult situation, especially with so much money to burn!

Have you seen and evostar 150 in the flesh? it's a bit of a beast, the photos on the websites don't do these instruments justice. I'd council you against going for two refractors which do a roughly similar job, both of which aren't very portable and will have a fairly long cool down time. There's a lot of thermal mass in all that glass. Unless you have somewhere you can leave your telescope set up all the time, it will be a bit of a drag to set up a scope like that, especially with an eq6 mount.

Hang on to your cash, buy one scope and then see what you think you might want after a few months, your views on what's important might have changed after that time. Don't be tempted by too big telescopes if you are new to this game, they might just end up as a dead weight around your neck. it's really a pleasure to have something you can drag out of the garage and be up and looking at the stars in 3 minutes, be it a dob or a small refractor on a simple mount.

[nicnac]

good post oceanheadted.

think i will pick up the StarTravel 150 (want the ap) and prob a 127/150 MAK, at least i can down grade the mount with these two stubbies.

i have noticed FLO doesnt do the focuser upgrades for these only for the newts which is a shame although optical vision do stock them

[stev74]

Ok I must say this has been an enjoyable thread mainly due to the mix up - as in I had figured out that the post was by the EX Navy nicnac not Lulu's mate and probably the best line of the thread was -

p.s. don't forget to allow for silly hats, make up and red wine in the budget

It was an easy mistake though due to the similarity of the names!!

Anyways back to the question, all I can say is with your budget there is so much you can buy and even your last choice before you changed, of a 200p on EQ5 would be a good one. Saying that it's not the first time I've heard the saying - whatever your first purchase is, you'll not be happy!! Basically because you never know exactly what you want out of astronomy until you actually spend enough time at the eyepiece!!

So be prepared to buy and then change your mind completely after a while. To be honest I think your spending too much time analysing your decision, just buy and enjoy - the experience will tell you what the next choice is.

The bottom line is - if you keep asking the question you'll keep getting different answers!! Just give yourself a minute then make the choice and good luck - you may make the right choice first time and be happy, if not there's plenty of people looking for second-hand kit!! :)

All the best!