Lonely hearts !

[Chubster]

What would be a good partner for my existing scope. Looking for something that will be very good for planets and lunar, especially want to be able to get full image shots of the moon if poss, can take my (soon to be modded cam) but, theres always a but, wont cost me a fortune and is a bit more transportable.

Cheers

Chubster

[Ant]

What do you class as a fortune...?

Russ has a nice Intes for sale which I beleive would be a stonker on the planets...

Ant

[Greg]

Skywatcher ED80..

Or one of their Mak's...

[Ambermile]

You got to give a budget though!

[Chubster]

Around the 350 mark

[GazOC]

127mm Mak/Cass.

[daz]

What, say an f/12 Gaz?

[GordonCopestake]

I'de say a ED100 second hand. You might just squeeze one out of your budget, but the extra focal length makes a difference for lunar and planetary. I took this shot through my ED100 with my D70 at prime focus. not fantastic but you get the idea

[FLO]

I'm with Gaz,

A Skymax 127 Maksutov 8)

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/proddetail.php?prod=mak127eq32

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/proddetail.php?prod=mak127ota

[GazOC]

What, say an f/12 Gaz?

Yep, the model Steve has posted. You can't get a better portable lunar/planetary scope for the money IMHO. Now if you want more of an arounder (ie. imaging, widefield) then the EDs come into play, but for moon and planets the 127 Maks are great.

BTW sorry for the terse answer last night, I was in work, actually had to do a bit and forgot to expand on my opinion.

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

Theres one (Skymax 127) on e-bay about to disappear for under £300

Captain Chaos

[Chubster]

Now if you want more of an arounder (ie. imaging

So would the 127 not be any good for imaging ? I assume I wouldnt be able to piggyback the ed's on my scope but what about the Mak ?

Cheers

[GazOC]

It would be great for lunar/planetary imaging because of it's long focal length but no so good for DSOs (for the same reason)

The Mak would be a bit heavy to piggyback on the Newt.

[Chubster]

What are your views on this one and what sort of mount would I get away with ?

http://www.astrobuysell.com/uk/propview.php?view=9197

[GazOC]

It's a fair price (dent notwithstanding), at a push an EQ2 would do but really it needs a EQ3/2. ED80s are big 80mm scopes as they use the same 100mm bodies as the ED100.

They are good scopes but 80mm is still only 80mm, you'll only get so much lunar/ planetary detail out of them and even a 4mm eyepiece only gives you x150.