Hi James,
Your situation is common for many people in amateur astronomy.
The SCT on the Alt-Az mount is very quick to sent up, and provides good gotos, and reasonable resistance to vibration and wind due to the short tube.
But it takes longer too cool down.
Collimation for planetary objects requires you to fix the primary mirror with some kind of mirror lock. Otherwise you will get a soft result which you will not like.
Central obstruction is larger than a newtonian, which gives a slightly softer result too.
It is heavier than other scope types.
It costs more than the goto dobs, aperture for aperture.
My take is to go with an goto 8 inch scope, of either the sct type or the newtonian, and work out what you like and don't like. Setup and pointing are easy and quick
After that, decide what to do on the basis of increased knowledge. You may wish to move to a goto dob. Or you may wish to move to a bigger sct.
I currently run a 10" LX90 on alt-az. It is very good for my purposes (occultations).
If I were into serious planetary, I would spring for a goto dob of say 16". If I were into galaxy searches for supernovae, I might go for a 16" sct. If I wanted a grab and go, I would get an 8 inch sct.
Your mileage is going to be unique for you. Experimentation is the only way to learn here.
Regards,
Tony Barry
WSAAG
Quote:
Originally Posted by killar65
Hey guys...seeking some advice about buying a first telescope.
50th coming up...always wanted a scope, so I'm going to pull the trigger on one...budget @ $5k.
Currently I lay on the back lawn and look at the sky and go wow...so, super keen...super excited...
I'm ideally looking for a scope that's easy and practical to use, setup etc...
Have done a little research and realise it's aperture, aperture, aperture...so I was initially looking at a 14" computerised Dobsonian...but being a complete newbie, I felt I was going to be out of my depth, plus I thought portability would also be an issue.
So I've narrowed my search down to a Celestron Nexstar Evolution 9.25 computerized;
http://www.telescopesdirect.com.au/C...tegory=7664112
or a Celestron CPC 1100 XLT GPS SCT goto
http://www.skywatchertelescopes.com....t-gps-sct-goto
The nexstar seems to have some awesome features (to a newbie) and the only real downside I have with the CPC is having to carry around a battery of some description, + a tad heavier...
Would love some advice and thoughts about these 2 scopes or any other scopes you might suggest...
Also, any other general advice would be greatly appreciated...
James |