I've been learning a few of the constellations and planets, and been viewing with the 10 x 50 binos and my son's 60mm refractor. Caught a nice view of Jupiter last week, and we could even see 4 moons which was a buzz.
I've been looking at upgrading to a reflector, and have been considering a 150/750 reflector on an eq mount, or even a 200/800, probably GSO like. Would love to take photos of what we see, so I understand a solid mount is a good idea, hence a reflector on eq mount rather that a dob, with motor drive would be good, single or dual axis??. Also, we'd like the scope to be reasonably portable to take away to dark sky places, so some 10 to 12 inch monster is probably a bit big. Been looking at different focussers, and it seems that the Crayford type 10:1 microfocus ones are pretty good. Suggestions for eyepieces sizes and 1.25 or 2", barlows, filters, your choices?
Using the cheapish refractor I can see some of the bad points with this scope. The alt-az mount with wooden legs takes a good few seconds to settle after moving the focus. The focus is fairly coarse, not allowing for much movement before going out of focus. Cheap plastic rack and pinnion type. Erecting eyepiece tube or long 3x barlows seem quite cumbersome and will move about a bit in the eyepiece.
Thanks.
