Hi All,
I'm keen to get into astronomy and have been using my binocular's, a set of Vortex Diamondback 8x42's, on a tripod for the past couple of months. I've picked up a Chandler planisphere and a copy of Astronomy Aus 2014 to get me started for now with the binos whilst I save up for the scope and various necessities. I also got a copy of Tirion's Bright Star Atlas but it's not very clear to me yet, hoping to work on that before I get a scope!
I am located in the North Eastern suburbs, near Eltham and would like something to use in my backyard as well as take to darker skies.. I think an ASV membership will be on the cards in the near future.
My requirements:
Visual only. Umm, everything I can see I guess! So Moon, Planets, clusters, and DSO's.
I have astigmatism of around -3 in both eyes on different axes and am shortsighted and thus wear my eyeglasses all the time, however I'm entrigued by the TV DioptRx lens and am trying to find out just what other brands of eyepieces these will work with, though some say that they reduce the FoV too much. Any opinions on these?
I've been through many guides and threads and visited Bintel in Melbourne a few times and am considering either of the 8" or 10" Bintel dobsonians but I am still casting glances towards more portable SkyWatcher refractor options... That said after seeing the 10" dob several times in person it appears more and more acceptable to me in terms of size and weight. I was also considering whether to save and get the GOTO functionality of the Orion Skyquest XT10G, though it would really be stretching my budget considering I'd likely want/need to pickup an extra eyepiece or two so when I really think about it I think would rather get the Bintel unit, use it and then spend any extra money on a quality eyepiece or two with good eye relief and fov and from reading this forum that would be something from the Pentax XW, Denkmeier or TV Delos series, all with 20mm ER.
Oh and I'm thinking I'll either need something to sit on, something to sit the scope on, or both!
Thanks!
