What to buy - getting confused now!

[Red Dragon]

Hi All,

I am new on here and looking for opinions for buying my first telescope. I am looking for one that can be used for terrestial viewing during the day also. i am completely new to all this and I am starting to learn doing research on the internet.

My budget is around the £300 mark. My questions are:

I was thinking of a cassegrain as this seems to be a good allrounder, is this right?

The telescope that I keep coming back to is the Skymax 127 Auto Supatrak (which I have seen for £319) - is this worth getting and does anyone recommend it? And also is it worth paying the extra to get go-to or is it good and more rewarding to find your own way round the night sky?

Do I need any additional equipment to get started eg for terrestial viewing, filters etc.

Any advise would be greatly appreciated as the more I look, the more confused I seem to be getting.

Red

[ollypenrice]

An astronomical mount might be a bit of a pain for daytime viewing. With an electronic one moving it would need the motors and handset, battery etc.

If you want a nature scope and astro scope rolled into one a manual alt azimuth refractor might be better. Also for birding etc you do cart stuff around a lot and bumps are better absorbed by refractors than reflectors.

I use a TeleVue 70mm Pronto and Telepod tripod for this role. Total cost second hand was bang on 300 pounds. Price new about six times that...

Olly

[rowan46]

maks are pretty good terrestrial scopes one of the top birding scopes is a questar, but I have to agree for terrestial a motorised mount is no good get the ota on a alt az mount. actually looking at the price you're not going to get the 127 on an alt az mount for that price the 102 skymax on an alt az mount comes in at your price good. for the moon and planets and an excellent terrestrial scope.

[Red Dragon]

Thanks Olly & Rowan,

With regards to the al az mount, would the AZ3 be suitable or am I better going for the AZ4 heavy duty one for either the 102 or 127? It will be mainly used around the outside of the house and occasionally taken away from the house.

Once I get an idea of which mount is suitable, I will see if I go for the Skymax 102 or stretch the budget a little for the 127.

Thanks again for your help.

Red

[rowan46]

I haven't used either mount so couldn't give a definintive answer on which would be best,the consensus appears to be that the slow mo controls are nice to ave on the az3 but it struggles when its pointed up at at any great elevation. That strikes me as a problem for astro use. the az4 however takes a bigger load has better astro performance but no slow mo still people manage with a dob so I guess it must be doable

[ronin]

A Mak has a narrow field of view, so unless the terrestial object is stationary it will disappear out of your view very quickly indeed.

This also effects the finding of whatever you are intending to look at. Pointing the scope towards whatever will 999 times out of 1000 result in whatever it is not being in view.

I would suggest that you consider a spotting scope for terrestial use, that is what they are built for, that's what they do and they are pretty good at it. Bushnell do a small one, just attach to a small camera tripod.

The 102 or 127 is a decent scope, the autotrak will follow the objects if you have aligned it reasonably. Goto's need more alignment but when aligned will aim you at the object chosen. Again the small field of view does not help here (I have one so it is experience by which I know) so you may actually find it less frustrating to get the autotrak. You know you have to find the object and that is it.