Hi Rob,
The only prblem with all these reviews and opinions (including mine
) is that they are all done by different people, under different conditions, with different biases, needs and budgets. The reviews and opinions are only guides to consider.
You can end up going around in circles endlessly until you either look through something that you love straight away, test out several or just take the risk and buy something you have not seen before.
My SCT's were great scopes for the price and what they were, but I was never entirely happy with their visual perfomance no matter how well collimated and cooled down. For my latest scope I took the time to do extensive research and look through other peoples systems before buying.
Cheers
Quote:
Originally Posted by casstony
Here's one reviewers opinions on a range of scopes for planetary:
BEST PLANETARY SCOPES SO FAR..
1. 14.5"
2. 16" & 18" Starmaster w. Zambuto and Pegasus optics 2. 12.5" Portaball from Mag1
3. 10" Teleport w. Zambuto optics
4. 8" Portaball with Zambuto optics
5. Takahashi FS-152mm & Currently Testing FCT150mm
5b. 6.1" D155 f/7 Astrophysics EDF
(Two above are close, TAK seemed better, Ed Ting is testing them against ea. other, and has come up
with the opposite conclusion)
(Takahashi TSC225 seems to fall approx. here.. as for the CN212, planets were not available)
6. C-14 SCT (not 100% positive, needed better seeing to confirm, brief test only, use this with skepticism)
7. C9.25" SCT Celestron SCT
8. 7" Starmaster with Zambuto optics, and 7" Teleport with Zambuto optics
9. Ultima 2000 8" SCT
10. 5" Takahashi refractor FS128 & 5.1" Astrophysics EDF (planets not avail. when FC125 was used)
11. Intes MN56 Mak-Newt (5" f/6)
Source: http://www.weatherman.com/scope.htm |
Quote:
Originally Posted by rmcconachy
May I suggest an alternative Rob? Don't buy another scope at all just yet and join a local astronomical club instead. There are at least two in Perth - The Astronomical Group of Western Australia (AGWA) < http://www.astronomywa.net.au/> and The Astronomical Society of Western Australia < http://aswa.info/about.html>. Attend a few observing sessions with some of these guys and take the opportunity to look through a variety of other people's telescopes (most people are happy to let you look through their scope if you ask nicely). After you've done that you'll have a much better idea of what kind of telescope will work for you personally.
Happy observing whatever you wind up doing. |