Best crossover telescope/spotter?

[MortonH]

I've always liked small refractors, and have always been on the lookout for the perfect small scope that would do double duty as a spotter and an astronomical scope, within the obvious limitations of small aperture. I've tried a 70ED scope and more recently a Megrez 72 but felt they were a bit heavier than I'd like.

The old William Optics ZS66 is lighter but is essentially restricted to 1.25" eyepieces due to focus issues with larger ones, so that limits the field of view to around 4 degrees, which is a bit restrictive for terrestrial since the Megrez 72 with its 2" focuser can achieve 7 degrees, similar to binoculars.

Have thought about a dedicated spotter but their prisms are either fixed straight through or 45-degree, neither ideal for astro.

Anyone else using a small scope for both purposes? What are you using?

Cheers

Morton

[dannat]

canon 15x50IS -i much prefer binos for spotting

[Profiler]

Hi Morton

Probably the best small scope with portability being the key criteria would be the TV-60 - it has to be seen to be believed in terms of its small size and clever design with a helical focuser etc - however - the big downside - it's design only allows use of a 1.25 diagonal/Eps. Naturally, it also works as a delux finder.

If you eleminate the TV-60 on the basis of needing something that will take 2' EPs/diagonals etc then the Tak 60 is slightly better on every other attribute but loses to the TV-60 in terms of sacrificing portability

[MortonH]

Yeah, and I wouldn't be spending close to a grand on a casual spotter!

Astro Tech had a short-lived 60ED but it was a triplet, as heavy as a 72mm scope and the optics weren't great. Otherwise it was exactly what I wanted!

[anj026]

The TV 60 has been my little travel scope/daytime scope for a while now. I use the Panoptic 24mm, Nagler 9mm and 3-6mm zoom and that covers most uses from 15x terrestial to 40x close-ups to lunar and planets up to 120x. I had a William Optics 66SD previously.

When I want a wider field of view than the TV 60/Pan 24 then I use binoculars such as a wide angle 10x50 or 8x30.

If you want light weight/less expensive then you may want to look for a second hand Borg 60 or 70mm.

[MortonH]

Good points. Since I already have binos maybe I don't need the 2" capability in the scope.

Thanks, Andy.