Dual Use Telescope?

[Issue313]

Hi I'm looking to buy an astonomical telescope to look at the milky way and nebulae primarily, but I'd also like to be able to use it for terrestial purposes, for instance spying on the neighbours. Is it possible to get a good balance between the two? I'm hoping to get one this summer.

[Merlin66]

An 80mm refractor on a small equatorial mount would do the job!

Something like a Skywatcher ED80 ( and a "terrestial diagonal" - makes the neighbours look the right way up...) mounted on an EQ2/3 mount.

[Peter Drew]

Don't overdo the "spying" on the neighbours, they might retaliate by setting up arc lights and spoil your other interest!

[pvaz]

By fitting a right angle diagonal to any astro refractor telescope it can be done.

This one cames with all you need for both purposes and the mount is very nice for this size scope:

Evostar - Skywatcher Evostar 90 (AZ3)

For astro you may want to add a barlow or a 5mm eyepiece to reach higher mags on planets/moon and maybe a 90º non-right angle diagonal to have better light throughput (although this is optional).

[Rui]

A pair of binoculars is the way to go. Give you amazing views of the

Milky Way and, when you buy a book such as this: Exploring the Night Sky with Binoculars: Amazon.co.uk: Patrick Moore: Books, you'll be amazed of how much you can see with binoculars.

Size maters... a pair of 10X50mm (magnifies 10X and has a pair of 50mm front lenses) is the biggest you can hand-hold confortably. But it already shows the Pleades, the Andromeda galaxy, The Orion nebula, etc.

And they are nice to birwatching (looking at the birds in your neighbour's gardens - not the neighbours themselves...), and casual daylight observing.

And did I mention holydays? They are pratical, small and light enough to go with you everywhere on Earth.