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Old 12-12-2020, 10:31 AM
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Outcast (Carlton)
Always gonna be a NOOB...

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Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Cairns, Qld
Posts: 1,289
Christopher,

Two other scopes you might like to consider are the Skywatcher table top Heritage Dobs. They are of the collapsible tube variety & are relatively compact, I would suggest as compact as those you are already looking at.

Non-Goto & don't have the mobile phone mount setup but, available in 130mm & 150mm versions both, well within your budget.

I don't own one but, there are a couple of folk on here that do & they are very positive about them. The 150mm version would give you even greater deep sky reach.

Saxon have a version of the 150mm which is essentially a rebranded Skywatcher; Synta optics... comes out of the same factory just has Saxon on it rather than Skywatcher.

Another option to explore is the Vixen 130sf although, I'm not sure where you can get these (or even if you can anymore) in Australia. I own one of these & it punches well above it's weight... If I had to strip back to one telescope only, this one would figure highly in my thoughts of which one to keep (and I have plenty of options - see my signature)...

Alternatively, if you decide to go down the refractor path, don't discount the 80mm you already have or if you crave more aperture, look at the SW achromats in the 102mm range. In terms of light grab, don't forget in a reflector there is a central obstruction that actually reduces light gathering so, when you look at aperture in a refractor vs reflector, you're not exactly comparing apples with apples. Having said that though, my vixen 130sf is definitely brigher than my 80mm triplet or my 72mm ED on deep sky objects &, for what it's worth, my 130mm will provide greater magnification than my two refractors provided the seeing is good.

Cheers

Carlton
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