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Old 22-03-2019, 09:19 PM
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JeniSkunk (Jenifur)
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Join Date: Jul 2018
Location: Brisbane
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Quote:
Originally Posted by PTZONE View Post
Hi,
Welcome to IIS, Mario.
Hope you enjoy the discussions here.

Quote:
I have often based at the stars and have been fascinated by what is outside our atmosphere. I have decided to buy a telescope so I can enjoy some of the wonders of our universe. I have been researching for a week or 2 and was surprised at the available options, every time I found a telescope I liked, up pops another one and have been going around in circles so I thought i would ask the experts.
One thing I am lacking is i have no reference as to how the images will look like for each type of telescope.
What you generally see in astronomical photos are hours long exposures, heavily processed. So any scope you use you won't see that, since the human eve is not sensitive enough to resolve that detail.
It doesn't mean that it's pointless to want to see more detail of what you CAN see though.

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Here are my priorities, ( which have been constantly changing over the past few days) .

Priority 1: portability, I want to be able to take it with me in the car when I go away. ( due to go to south coast, Berry and Tilba Tilba over Easter and want to take one with me)
Priority 1a: I am interested in DSO’s but love to look at planets. I am guessing if I get great DSO views the planets will also look great.
Priority 2: Auto-tracking plus manual capability but will settle for manual only if i can get some great DSO views within my budget
Priority 3: Terrestrial viewing.

Here are the ones I have narrowed it down to ( in my budget - around AU$600):

1/ Skywatcher Heritage 130 Tabletop Dobsonian fl 650mm (collapsible)
2/ Skywatcher Virtuoso Mak90 tracking tabletop Dobsonian fl 1250, I like the upgrade path to a GOTO as well ( there is a 114P version fl500mm but I can’t seem to find one for sale)
3/ Skywatcher 6 inch Dobsonian ( not as portable as the others but the 6 inch aperture would give me clearer images and ability to look deeper into space ( did I get that right?)
Priority 3 and options 1 or 3 are NOT a viable combination.
A Newtonian reflector turns the viewed image upside down.

Options 1 and 2 as a combination is where things get interesting.
The weight limit for the Virtuoso mount is not exceeded by the 130mm collapsible Newtonian. So you can run the scope from the 130p, on the Virtuoso mount, or just as easily use the Maksutov-Cassegrain on the manual Dobsonian mount of the 130p.
For the record, I own a 130p, and I know how much its scope weighs.

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No preference to skywatcher willing to look at others, I am also willing to upgrade the viewing lenses if I need to.
Upgrading eyepieces is pretty well a must.

First up, a simple rule of thumb, the bigger the eyepiece value in mm, the lower it's magnification.
However telescopes do have a limit in what they can use. Get a too short eyepiece for your scope (smaller eyepiece value in mm), and it will over-magnify, blurring what you can see.
This becomes very important when you start using Barlows. A Barlow works on the focal length of a telescope.
So for the 650mm focal length of the 130p, a 2x Barlow turns it into effectively 1300mm.
Use a 6.5mm eyepiece in the 130p, and it magnifies to 100x. Use a 6.5mm with a 2x Barlow, and it magnifies to 200x. A 3x Barlow and the 6.5mm would be too much magnification for the 130p to work with.
Downside to higher magnification is, objects move across your field of view, fast, so you have to constantly slightly move the altitude of the scope to keep the object in view.

Second reason for upgrading, the quality of the optical glass used, the lens design, and the field of view.
Better eyepieces have better glass, more effective lens design, and a wider field of view than the stock eyepieces supplied with a telescope.

Third thing to be aware of, eyepiece diameter. The common standards are 1.25inch and 2inch. The three telescopes you list for consideration all use 1.25inch focusers.

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Thanks in advance for any advice that gets me started.
Glad to give what advice I can.
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