Quote:
Originally Posted by sharpiel
Hey everyone. Due to recent life events I have come into a tiny amount of money from which I want to allocate an absolute maximum of $10,000.00 to buy the last telescope I'll ever need. I'll probably never again have this amount disposable so I want to take the best advantage of it and get my best value for money.
So I'm putting the question to all you guys because I highly respect the wealth of online knowledge out there. What - within the following parameters - constitutes the best equipment I can afford? Looking for recommendations from personal experiences as well as general discussion..
Constraints: Equatorially mounted. I am highly leaning towards the EQ8 after closely following other users experiences in IIS threads. Potential cost new $4,500 though would happily buy second hand if available already to save cost and allocate the maximum possible to OTA.
Refractor: 6 inch or (dreams...7 inch), short as possible focal length, ED apochromatic. I'm expecting to only be able to afford second hand equipment but if something new and around the $5,500 residual after EQ8 budgeting is known out there then I'd love to know about it.
Your thoughts..?
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Hi Sharpiel,
A decent 6" refractor is my dream scope too, but that is only a dream and unlikely to ever become reality.
I recently got a price on the Williams Optics FLT 152mm fluorite refractor and you would get little change out of $10,000, landed, assuming you could actually get one. A Tak is around $15,000, just for the OTA, let alone all the Tak specific accessories you would need to also allow for, and they aren't cheap either. If you pay $4,500 for a mount, I doubt you will pick up a "decent" 150mm refractor for $5,500, although there are plenty of cheaper refractors, in this size, around, but I suspect that the quality may be a little lacking. You may want to consider a WO FLT 132mm, but even that, landed, will still be well over $5,000. I have a WO FLT110 and it is my favourite scope, but I wished I had gone for the 132mm, but I couldn't justify it, at the time.
Explore Scientific are bringing out a 6", but I haven't yet got a price. For that, you would need to call Extravision in Queensland, as they are the agents. I was speaking to their managing director today and he thinks one may have just come in, but he wasn't sure if it was a 5" or 6". He didn't have a price handy when I called.
As has been mentioned, it depends on what you want to do with it.
Hope you can get what you want.
Cheers Pete
PS: I forgot to mention that a Tec 180mm (7") will set you back US $19,000!