London resident seeking advice on spending money

[jjoyce]

Hi Everyone

I am so impressed with helpful advice you have been giving I thought I would throw this in. I can see you love spending peoples money

I live in Greenwich, London near a main well lit road higher than my back garden which is a bit protected so wondering what is best for me as I would like to do most viewing from there.?

Do I forget the idea and take up another hobby ?

Do I get a Celestron 102SLT and see what it can find ?

Do I get a larger Celestron, 6" refractor or 8" reflector ?

Is the skywatcher 200 a better bet ?

I am keen on goto I must admit as well as been a bit lazy and clueless I think at least it will show me where to look amongst all the light around

Do LPRs do the job ?

Dew filters ?

Could goto ( pun intended ! ) around £900.

Sorry to ask so much and most grateful for any advice

John

[geppetto]

Hello John, welcome to the forum

I'm not going to suggest a scope as I'm not a goto user

but you'll get some good advice shortly.

As for light pollution, we all suffer it to various degrees and

we plod on regardless but be warned it is a major irritation in

this hobby as are cloudy skies so you have to be slightly

bonkers to hang in.

Great fun though 8)

[GordonCopestake]

£900 is a princely sum of money, and in this hobby is very easily spent! I'm tempted to recommend a big dob, 10 or 12"'s but the problem with dobs is they dont have GOTO which you mention you want. That leaves the little SLT scopes which only go upto 5" and the more expensive GEM mounted scopes. You can buy an 8" reflector on a HEQ5 GOTO mount for £900 but that doesn't leave you much to play with for accessories like eyepieces and filters. Personally i think the Skywatcher HEQ5 is better than the Celestron CG5 mount, but it is more expensive. An 8" scope on a CG5-GT is £829

It depends really on how much you think you will enjoy this hobby and how much you think you will use your telescope. You can buy much cheaper scopes that are on less stable mounts and have less aperture, the 102SLT you mention is £300 (This is a 4" scope), and you have lots left over for accessories. It's a great beginners scope too.

Your other option is to look on the second hand market where you can buy things cheaper and if you dont like astronomy you can sell your kit for just the loss of the postage and packaging. Buying new you will take a loss if you sell up.

Personally I find astronomy a very enjoyable hobby and i live in the middle of a city in similar circumstances to you. My best advice is to try and see what you think. Winter is coming and this is the best season for astronomy due to the dark long cold (buy a hat!) nights. Saturn will be back soon which is always a good sight for beginners and the experienced alike.

As for LPR filters, yes they do work and it would be worth your while getting one, but theres nothing better than dark skies, which could mean travelling to out of town to get away from the steet lights. It depends on how you like to observe, some people never travel and always view from their back yard. These people have HUGE scopes and try and gather as much light as possible. Other people dont mind travelling but tend to have smaller setups that can be easily carried around.

Hope this helps a little

[MartinB]

Welcome to the forum John.

I would recommend having a look at the Celestron Advanced Series of SCT scopes. An 8" goto would be a bit outside your budget. You could get the 8" and upgrade to goto later or go for the 6" goto.

Being in a light polluted site, even with filters your best views will be bright objects - planets the moon and bright DSOs such as m13 m27 M42 etc. An SCT will perform very well on these targets with the added benefit of compactness for if you ever wish to take the scope to a dark sky. The versatility of the scope could be further enhanced by use of focal reducers. SCTs are also great scopes if you were to get into imaging.

[GordonCopestake]

I'de forgotten about the 6" SCT Martin, well recommended.

A link here:

http://www.dhinds.co.uk/pages/fullProd.php?id=496

[FLO]

Hi John

I was also going to mention the Celestron Advanced Series C6-SGT. The Celestron C6 is a wonderful telescope. Its focal length and compound design make it particularly well suited to planetary, lunar and solar (with a filter!) observing but it also has enough aperture for good views of clusters and the brighter galaxies and nebula.

Though the Skywatcher does have a larger aperture I doubt it will make a lot of difference. The Skywatchers wider field of view, on the other hand, will be noticeable - fit a 2" wide-field eyepiece and scan the Milky Way... Breathtaking!!!

As for the mounts, Gordon has already mentioned that the HEQ5 is better than the CG5 - I'll second that but, it matters little unless you plan to use it for imaging.

Hope that helps

http://tinyurl.com/rxbqr

[jjoyce]

Thanks for the replies.

I will add the c6 sgt to the list. I think the thing that worries me most is buying all the necessities like barlow 2x, filters and power pack. Even the 102 slt bumps up to £470 by the time you add these.

More questions I'm afraid. Is there any advantage in an area like mine to refractor,reflector or SGs etc?

Because of the light problem is it worth getting a case of filters ?

Anyone experienced the orion dob with intelliscope ?

I guess my dilema, like anyones, is buying once for a while rather than having to buy twice because I didn't go far enough the first time. On the flip side of course is the potential money wasted !

You have been a great help and I will go back to have another look whats available.....

[FLO]

Power packs can be picked up for £20-30 from the likes of Halfords, Macro, even Lidls!

LPR filters do work; the Baader Neodymium will cost £23.40 (after SGL discount) http://tinyurl.com/nvzfx The only other filter you will need is a Moon filter.

The fainter Galaxies and nebulae can be difficult to observe from a light-polluted location - that might steer your choice of scope more towards the Celestron SCT.

Most astronomers have 6-7 eyepieces but regularly use only 2-3. The eyepieces supplied with the scopes will get you off to a good start.

Dobsonians work best as low-med power 'light buckets'. At 10" and above, they really come into thier own. I am not a big fan of the intelliscope setup - just my opinion.

Hope that helps

[jjoyce]

thanks Steve

What if I was to really push the boat out and go for nexstar 8i ?

http://www.dhinds.co.uk/pages/fullProd.php?id=29

Much of a potential gain or not ?

I will be moving into the royal observatory soon

[GordonCopestake]

For an extra £100 i'de go for the CG5 mounted one tbh, i'm not a big fan of the single fork arm mounts, but others here have them and have no problems. The C8 is a great starting scope and one that you will likely never out grow. In the future a nice 80mm APO would compliment it nicely but thats a purchase much further down the line.

[FLO]

I agree with Gordon,

Follow Gordons advice and you will be able to upgrade the mount, if desired, some time in the future or fit a different scope to the existing mount. With the 8i, this is not possible/practical as the mount/scope are not designed to be seperated.

The C8 has almost twice the light grasp of the C6 which is most noticeable on fainter objects like galaxies and nebula.

[jjoyce]

Many thanks once again.

I have moved from a £299 102 slt to a £1299 c8-sgt in half a day :shock:

To recap I need to add LPR, moon filter, power pack...

2x barlow or is that redundant now?

solar filter?

You have been great I just hope my wife doesn't read this one day......

[GordonCopestake]

Hehe, welcome to the slippery slope of astronomy. Wait till you get the APO bug! Then we're talking cash hehe. The only piece of equipment you NEED is the 'scope and the powerpack. I wouldn't buy anything else until you have that to be honest. When you are setup with your kit, and you have used it for a week or so, you can then think about what you need next. You can spend the same amount on accessories as you will spend on the scope if you let yourself go hehe

[FLO]

To recap I need to add LPR, moon filter, power pack...

2x barlow or is that redundant now?

solar filter?

If you buy only one of the above, it should be the Moon filter.

The 2x Barlow can wait but a good barlow is what the Americans call a 'no brainer' as it pretty much doubles your eyepiece collection. The Celestron Ultima or Meade #140 APO are good choices.

Solar filter? Yes, essential if you want to view the Sun! Best to ask again when you have chosen the scope because its type/aperture will influence the choice.

[The Warthog]

I had been thinking about an 8i, but have temporarily decided that an 8" SCT on a goto GEM gives me more options. You should have at least a good quality 10mm ep, and a decent 32mm ep, and a 2x barlow. This gives you four eps, and a good spread of lengths. I chose these f/l's because an SCT is usually f/10, so a 5mm ep maximizes the power of your scope, and you get this

I am in a seriously LP area, like you, and severely need goto, as I can't see most of the reference stars I need to track something down. I often find things by accident while searching the general area where something should be. You should have an LP filter, and possibly a nebular filter as well. I have a pretty good selection of colour filters, but make little use of them, even on the planets. The one I find most useful is the yellow, which I have found to slightly improve Saturn and Jupiter, and sometimes Mars.

Start out with a basic kit with whatever scope you pick, and add fancy stuff as you gain more experience. Get to know some astronomers, and perhaps you will be able to borrow a piece of equipment to see if you will like it. I have done this at star parties, sometimes just before buying the piece of equipment from some eager seller.

Hope this helps.

[jjoyce]

thanks everyone, c8 sgt on order with a few bits

will be back soon with more questions and feedback !

John

[MartinB]

You've made an excellent choice John. I was hoping you would push the boat out a bit and go for that one. Perfect for you situation I think.

[GordonCopestake]

Great choice, thats a setup that will last you years if you want it to.