What would you do?

[Ian123]

I'm in a bit of a dilema. Been considering a purchase of Helios Quantum 4 25x100 bino's and mount which would cost £355 .

I also would like to buy an APO e.g...equinox 100 or 120.

No way can afford both but seeing as it's pay day soon i could buy the Helios then or wait a few month's for the APO purchase .

Really cant make my mind up, both excellent pieces of kit, just which one to get??

Any suggestion's??

[Capricorn]

Scope.

More flexibility and I would say the 25x100 binoculars would be no more transportable then the scope. They are not holdable so will again need a substantial tripod.

Other then a possibly wider field of view I cannot see that binoculars hold any other advantage.

25x although nice is fixed and not that great, even Jupiter would still be a small disk of no detail. Orion nebula tiny.

[Ian123]

25x although nice is fixed and not that great, even Jupiter would still be a small disk of no detail. Orion nebula tiny.

That is one of my concern's is the mag is fixed !!

That's the main reason for holdin out for the scope.

[Capricorn]

My concern would be the fixed magnification and the fact that a set of 25x100 binoculars must weigh as much or more then a 100mm scope anyway.

So still need a substantial tripod on which to use them.

Stick a 32mm eyepiece in an evostar 100 and you still have a fair field of view for clusters. Stick an 8mm in and you can see detail.

I have some 20x binoculars around and the moon is nice in them, doesn't fill the FoV however, but I cannot get in to a lunar feature that I can with a 100mm scope at 80x or 100x.

[brantuk]

Hi Ian - I agree with the above for the reasons stated. The appo will be much more flexible and you will take a while getting to know it anyway - so the binocs can wait - or you might decide to get a few superior quality ep's instead by the time you've saved up

[Ian123]

Thanks for the responses guys now my other problem is

which one. I like the look of the 100ED and the 120ED

but can i justify the extra £500 for the bigger model.

It is for visual only (for now) so would i see a significant

difference between the two?

[John]

I don't think anyone can justify the extra expenditure for you - only you know how much you can afford and I've never seen a formula to place a £ value on extra light gathering and resolution which the additional 20mm will give you.

If you plan to use the EQ3 mount you might be better with the ED100 - I don't think an ED120 would be entirely comfortable on one.

£500 would buy you a 10" dobsonian which will out perform both scopes of course