Help with purchase

[Shaun]

Hi all,

It has been a long time since i have been here, i have been asked by a friend to help him buy a new scope he is new to this hobby and i am trying to help him out.

I must admit thet i don't have the passion i did when i started but still use my scope on some accasions.

I am trying to set him up with somthing he will use more than i have used mine so have decided to look at goto system with the largest possible apature for his money, he wants to spend about $2k so i have looked at andrews and come up with these.

Nexstar 130 SLT reflector
130mm x 650mm with Go-To!

$799.00 AUD

C10-NGT 10" (250mm x 1250mm)
Newtonian with Go-To!

$2199.00 AUD

C6-RGT 6" Computerised
150mm x 1200mm refractor with Go-To!

New low price
$1999.00 AUD !

C6-SGT 6" Go-To XLT
150mm x 1500mm

New low price
$1999.00 AUD !


Skywatcher SW-600
200 x 1000P with HEQ5PRO Go-To mount and V3.0 Go-To hand controller
$1899.00 AUD

Refracting Telescope
Skywatcher 120 x 1000 $1950.00 AUD with HEQ5PRO heavy duty Go-To mount and V3.0 Go-To hand controller

He did say he wanted to put his camera on and take some photos and i advised he would need more money for a good setup but wanted to start out with this amount of money.

If you can offer any sugestions to the best unit that could be used for both astro and imaging to a lesse degree would be a great help.

Shaun

[davewaldo]

Hi Shaun,

I would say the 200 x 1000 skywatcher on the HEQ5 would be the pick of the bunch.

The C10 would also be good, but I think the better skywatcher mount would be much better if he wants to do a little imaging in the future. It will also be a bit more portable and easier to handle.

It also leaves a bit of money for some collimation tools, and maybe an EP.

Good luck,

Dave.

[DJVege]

My vote goes for the Skywatcher bundle.

Good luck with whatever you decide on.

[space oddity]

I do not envy your position, it is a thankless task:shrug:. Sounds like your friend does not realise that other purchases like eyepieces, dew shields, decent battery, red torch, telrad etc will make life much better. I would go for slightly smaller aperture, but crisper optics eg ETX 125 . A second hand outfit will fit well with the budget and usually has all the basic accessories to enable an immediate start. The largest aperture you are likely to find for the 2K budget in goto with accessories would be an 8 inch Schmitt Cassegrain eg LX 200. This setup is portable with pleasing views which should keep your friend interested. Andrews has some reasonably priced Maksutovs, which give relatively crisp views. Best of luck

[Shaun]

He wants a new scope thats the type of person he is,i want some thing he does not need to maintain very much thats why i was thinking a refractor, do Schmitt Cassegrain need to be collimated from time to time and can he use a camera on this unit to atleast take photos of planets.

[turbo_pascale]

I'd look at a good 2nd hand SCT. New (especially for a beginner) is money down the toilet if the bug bites, and you want to upgrade.

Stuart has his 8" LX200GPS on here at around about that price.
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=26405

Small enough to be reasonably easy to handle.

He's done lots of good astrophotography with it. Longer term, will need a wedge for long exposure deepsky imaging, but other than that, a great rig (have personally seen his setup - great condition). It's a great go-to scope, and knowing Stuart, he'll have the PEC trained etc, so none of the intricacies will need to be played with for quite some time. It's a good visual scope, and got plenty of focal length. Add a F6.3 or F3.3 reducer and you've got a very versatile scope, and it has the capacity to be a quite good imaging rig.

An SCT needs occasional collimation (rare compared to other reflectors). I think this would be a perfect first scope at this price. If he wants the planets, then the longer focal length of the SCT will be very useful, without the size of a newt tube. At this price, it is a bargain in my opinion.

Turbo

[roccodm]

just a thought: the larger the glass and the more the gadgets the more time spent on maintenance which leads to less visualization and more frustration followed by another used large glass on the market and the GOTO owner headed for a new hobby- with that said i would look for something in the 4-5 inch refractor or 6 inch relfector with good optics on a good mount coupled with some nice "how to find" books - i think your friend will enjoy this much more than doing hours of 1-2 star alignment just to get something in the glass- clear skies rocco WB9QPU

[Shaun]

I need one last bit of help before i start spending his money, we have settled on this combo from Andrews.

C8-A OTA only...$1699 AUD

EQ6PRO SynScan Go-To h/d equatorial mount (white colour) and tripod with V3.0 computerised hand controller. Has periodic error correction (P.E.C.) and over 13,400 objects data base. $1799.00

Now before i spend $3500 of some one elses money do you think he will be happy with the scope and is this the best type of all round scope to buy?

PS he was willing to spend a few thousand more but as a first time buyer i talk him out of it.

[edwardsdj]

Hi Shaun,

In my opinion the C8 on EQ6 would be an excellent purchase. I bought my C8 in the late 1990s and am still very happy :)

The C8 is a great all round scope and perfroms particularly well on planets. The possibilities for photography with this setup are awesome.

My next planned upgrade will be to get an EQ6 for my C8 tube.

Some things to consider that may be needed soon are:

1. Higher power eyepiece for planets (Does the OTA ship with any eyepieces at all?);
2. Collimation knobs (about $30 for Bob's Knobs from Bintel); and
3. Dew shield/heaters (SCTs are very prone to dew on the corrector if you live in a humid place).

Hope this helps.

Have fun,
Doug

[Shaun]

I will check on the eye pieces but lee did say it comes with everything from the mount up with nthe OTA.

I went for the better mount to allow for a scope upgrade at a later date for DSO stuff if he wants, just wish i was spending it on myself, oh well atleast i get to set it up and test it and learn how to use the goto on the mount as it is the type i would like to get.

[edwardsdj]

Definately check if it comes with eyepieces. Mine shipped with a nice Celestron 25mm Plossl. This only gives 80x magnification on the C8. I tend to use 15mm and 10mm eyepieces for planets.

What I love about the C8 is how portable it is. The thing with the EQ6 though is that it is heavy and is going to take time to setup before each observing session.

The C8 on the EQ6 would be very stable for astrophotography though.

The best telescope is the one used most often. I guess it would be worth considering if the EQ6 is a bit much for someone's first mount.

If your friend loses interest though both the C8 and EQ6 hold thier resale value well.

[Zuts]

Hi,

My only concern is that an 8 inch scope is still not that big; and if it is your friends first time looking through a scope he may be dissapointed.

A 10 inch newt on an EQ6 would be more bang for buck but the positions would be very awkward when viewing.

Anyway, if your friend has realistic expectations about what can be seen then no problem, the choice you have made is a very good combination for your budget and allows imaging down the track.

Since basically you are from outback WA you should have access to heaps of dark sky so the 8 inch would be far better than from a city location.

It's a tough call, but how about a few more dollars and get a 9.25 OTA for 1,000 extra.

One final suggestion. If you look around you can get an 8 to 10 inch DOB on ebay for under 400 bucks. Look at this as a cheap investment to show your friend what can be seen with an 8 or 10 inch scope. Then sell it at half price. Even better would be to find someone with an 8 or 10 inch so that he knows exactly what can be done with that aperture of scope.

If he knows what images he is forking out for and still forks out then he wont be dissapointed.

Paul

[edwardsdj]

I agree. The 9.25" Celestron OTA would be awesome!

[Shaun]

Funny you say that i did mention that to him and he was willing to spend the extra but i don't want to get him in to deep right away, i did mention to him if he liked the images and wanted deep sky he could invest in a 12 or 14 inch reflector and put it on his mount, a big mount was one thing i wanted him to get up front.

[Shaun]

It will be interesting to compare my 8" with his when he gets it.

[Zuts]

Since i guess he has looked through your 8 inch then i would stick with your current choice (though i still reckon a 9.25 :) ).

The mount you chose is a geat mount and i have one. I wouldnt stick a 12, 14 inch on it for photography straight up. I know people have done but for a beginner it may be too much. If at the last moment you decide to go for aperture i would limit the choice to a 10 inch newt.

Paul