Which to buy?

[TheCrazedLog]

In a few months, after I get my dream job, I plan to reward myself with a little telescope purchase

At the moment I have a BT252 10" Dob... which is great. But as I see it thats sort of an entry level telescope? I'm looking to get into things a bit more... photography would be fun, but so would normal looking.

What am I looking at? DSO, solar, lunar, some random satellite that has rudely interrupted my viewing, and locating that damn Coel bird that sits there of a day going WHOOO-WHOOOP for hours on end. For the purpose of termination.

I would prefer an equitorial mount, because I prefer to do things myself. I work in IT (well.. not at the moment ) and much prefer to do things manually.

So... I have a choice:
https://www.bintelshop.com.au/Product.aspx?ID=6883
https://www.bintelshop.com.au/Product.aspx?ID=6884
https://www.bintelshop.com.au/Product.aspx?ID=7150
https://www.bintelshop.com.au/Product.aspx?ID=7155

Now I haven't done a lot of research, in fact, all I've done is have a wander through the bintel site and picked out ones that look interesting.

Of those, I would lean towards the LXD75, the LX200R or the LX90GPS, and of THOSE, I would be going towards the LXD75.
Why?
- It has an equitorial mount, I've never used one of those before and would like to get the hang of it. I'm a very firm believer in do it the hard way first, then learn the easy way, after you've earned it
- Its got computer guidance, so I can do exposures if I wish.
- Lets face it: It looks cool!
- The reason I would shy away from it is that its an 8 inch: Thats a loss of two inches on my current scope... I'm not sure I could deal with that

- The LX200/90GPS are 10 inches, but they have a tuning fork for a mount and that teaches me stuff all
- Besides... it costs 5 grand!

- The lightbridge is tempting by virtue of its gi-bloody-normus size.

Whats the masses opinion? Any others I should consider?

Thanks!

Anthony

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

How about getting one of these
http://www.myastroshop.com.au/produc...sp?id=MAS-043b
and putting and ED80 or 8"-10" f/4 Schmidt-Newt with guidescope on it.

If you want to do DSO then you will need to spend another $900 on a wedge for a fork mount scope. The EQ6 has better carrying capacity than the LXD75

[TheCrazedLog]

Well see I'd be open to getting a EQ6 and putting my BT252 on it... 10inch dob. I'm told I'm pushing it for that though... any thoughts?

[Aster]

Originally Posted by TheCrazedLog

Well see I'd be open to getting a EQ6 and putting my BT252 on it... 10inch dob. I'm told I'm pushing it for that though... any thoughts?

Works fine for me

[TheCrazedLog]

(classical english accent) Good heavens man! Thats a bloody plinth!

Mind you, it looks like it has about 80 kilos of counterweights there...

Whats the feasibility of eq6 tripod with the 252?

[Kal (Andrew)]

If you want to do photography then the most important thing to consider is the mount. Then consider the camera you want, and last, consider the telescope to match the camera/mount (I read that recently, was it here on IIS??)

The EQ6 that 1ponders mentions is a great mount and would be a good starting point

[Aster]

Originally Posted by TheCrazedLog

(classical english accent) Good heavens man! Thats a bloody plinth!

Mind you, it looks like it has about 80 kilos of counterweights there...

Whats the feasibility of eq6 tripod with the 252?

302 Bintel on Tripod very touchy

30kg counterweights, visual and lunar/planetary imaging no problems.
DSO imaging, Yes/No, hands of Auto Guide Maybe.

Works fine on the pier where the 250 is sitting on. So the 250 on EQ6 Tripod should work.

[Stephen65]

I've used an f/5 10" Newt on an EQ-6 and it comfortably handles it.