lightweight 'Frac

[Rossco72]

Hi all,

I'm looking for a lightweight, 3-4 inch refractor for purely mobile visual use.

I have a TV85 which oozes quality but weighs a ton and is built like a tank.

Something small, light and well enough corrected for visual use would be great.

Any suggestions?

Cheers

[Ben Ritchie]

How mobile do you want to be? how about a Borg 77ED? Very light, breaks down in 30s to very little.

[Rossco72]

Hi Ben,

The weight is more of an issue than the size. (as long as it fits in the car!!)

I want to be able to use it on a SupaTrak or AZ GOTO mount which means lightweight!!

[johninderby]

Just how small and ligtweight do you want it to be?

Price?

I would recommend the TS 80/480 FPL-53 triplet but that's a bit over £500.00. Same weight as the Megrez 72 and only a cm or two longer.

John

TS 80/480 with a pair of 15x70 bins for a size comparison

[Ben Ritchie]

Hi Ben,

The weight is more of an issue than the size. (as long as it fits in the car!!)

I want to be able to use it on a SupaTrak or AZ GOTO mount which means lightweight!!

The Borg 'scopes are very lightweight indeed.

The 80/480 is a good idea too, although TBH for purely visual I prefer the 80/600

[johninderby]

The real problem is that there is so much choice nowadays. :D

Here's a pic of a Megrez 72 on an SLT mount. The combination works really well and given the OTA weights are the same the TS80 should work equally well.

Here's another photo of the TS80 on a Nexstar 6/8 SE mount.

John

[Merlin66]

If it's only for "fun" visual observing why not go down market and go for the ST102.

I was pleasantly surprised by it's performance... sure it's not a Genesis but, hey it's "cheap and cheerful" -and lightweight!

[cs1cjc]

There may be a lot of apparent choice, but they are largely from the same factories. It is worth looking at this independent report by Wolfgang Rohr

Google Translate

[Rossco72]

If it's only for "fun" visual observing why not go down market and go for the ST102.

I was pleasantly surprised by it's performance... sure it's not a Genesis but, hey it's "cheap and cheerful" -and lightweight!

I did seriously consider this, but I'm not sure I could live with the chroma. I've been a bit spoiled over the last few years with the colour correction on my scopes!!

[cs1cjc]

The IKI 70mm F6 ED works well for me.

IanKingImaging's IKI 70mm F6 ED APO Refractor OTA and Hard Case from Ian King Imaging

It is quite solid and you need to think about the whole system. With a 1.25" diagonal (WO CF) it weighs just under 2.5kg and then you need a mount and some eyepieces.