can you even buy a sub-150mm newtonian OTA?

[mark3d]

Hi all. Well, we are narrowing down our purchase options. I plan to get a big dob eventually, but the portable scope is what we need now for practical reasons.

I was looking at a vixen porta mount + 130mm reflector .. but I have been put off a bit by the plastic focuser on the OTA that i couldn’t upgrade without drilling (otherwise it looks fantastic so that’s disappointing).

We would like something to put on one of these mounts:

* Vixen porta mount
* GSO/bintel skyview

but I just cant find a single Newtonian, sold as an OTA, that would be suitable for it! There are actually very few below 150mm that are not too long (I think 750mm is pushing the portability a bit far), and the few that are around are on EQ mounts.

Does anyone know of a sub-150mm Newtonian OTA in Australian shops?

At this stage we plan to get an 80mm refractor but if there is an equivalent Newtonian we would like to consider it for that bit extra aperture.

Cheers!
Mark

[vinnie]

Gday Mark,

I'm new to this particular forum so I haven't checked out all your posts. I therefore may be repeating someone else's comments. Seems to me you are trying for portable + aperture and the only answer I know is one of the smaller Maks

Of course this could fall into a budget consideration, but then an 80mm refractor worth having isn't cheap.

Agreed a Newt is your cheapest option, but I doubt you'll find smaller than 150mm as a new OTA.

The smaller SW Maks (90, 102, and 127) can be had as OTA's, but you would have to hunt around a bit as some suppliers carry one and not another (as OTA only)

I am assuming that you already have a mount? Otherwise go for one of the Mak packages.

Apologies if I am repeating previous suggestions.

Vinnie

[rapidfire]

like Vinnie says....I picked up a great ETX125 mak OTA from these forums. great portability. Strapped it to a small mount with some tube rings. It was a nice cheap way to get into some visual astronomy. Ive just picked up myself a nice HEQ5Pro mount upgrade for it too. :rofl:

Marc.

[acropolite]

Mark, the little vixen is a very good OTA by all accounts, focusser excepter. Geoff (Starkler) put an aftermarket focusser on his.

[mark3d]

hey thanks guys .. for your patience as much as your replies!

i think you summed it up Vinnie - i was trying to get everything in one.. ;)

we had a good chat with my mother (who we are going halves with) and she was way more keen on a dob than i expected.. she loved the idea of the meade lightbridge.. looks like we are getting a 10" LB yay :)

not ultra portable but will easily fit in the car boot - so i think its a good choice in the end. as folks say the first scope is rarely the last - id like to look into a Mak and a tracking mount in the future.

thanks to all for the help; definitely a welcoming community here!

cheers
Mark

[Starkler]

Yep I fashioned a wooden box to mount a 2" gso crayford which wasnt the most elegant solution but it worked for me. If you search the CN forums there was a recent thread about this scope with one user sourcing a good quality 1.25" aftermarket focuser which really looks the part.

With the focuser taken care of, the r130/portamount combo makes an ideal grab n go scope in my opinion.

[MortonH]

The only 'problem' with Maks is that they tend to have long focal lengths, which means higher powers but narrowwer field of view.

Saxon make the following 130mm scope with tracking alt-az mount

F13065AT REFLECTING TELESCOPE with AUTO TRACKING

Frontier Optics have them on the website but there is no price. You'd have to e-mail them. The link to their website is

http://frontieroptics.com.au/

Or see the Saxon website

http://www.saxon.com.au/new.html

There are some on ebay with a starting bid of A$399.

Cheers

Morton

[mark3d]

the r130/portamount certainly seems like great value on paper.. and the focuser probably isnt as bad as i imagined ;) i just didnt want to be in the position of not being able to change the focuser if i did hate it after a few good sessions.. i dont want to be drilling into my scope for quite some time :lol: