Hi Guys. Some time ago I posted asking for advice on a 1st scope for my father, well he seems to have settled on a 10" premium dob, which he can now get locally from the the Melbourne Bintel store (yay). Now that takes care of ~$800, what we would like to know is what should the next few hundred in the budget be allocated to (not including red led, chair, planisphere etc)?
Given that Bintel are now in his neighbourhood (kinda) he will most likly be shopping there unless Anrews or elsewhere have a significantly better deal. Obviously first up will be a tool for collimation, there appears to be varying opinions on whether a laser collimator or a cheshire would be first choice, opinions and pricing would be much appreciated. I think I read that the laser ones can be useless unless collimated themselves, is this correct and is this easily achieved?? Also cheshires need to be a particular length to suit the focal length of your scope, yar?
OK, moving on, in the premium deal he will get 3 eyepieces: a Bintel 32mm 2" FMC and a 15mm and 9mm Bintel Plossl. Are these Bintel branded eyepieces the same make as those included in the Andrews deals? What does the FMC abbreviation on the 2" mean? Would there be any benefit to paying a little extra to upgrade these to a next step up in the eyepiece hierarchy, maybe just so that they are all 2", or maybe another brand? (I'm happy enough with where the big name brands lie in terms of drool-worthiness, but these lower end re-branded eyepieces confuse the crap out of me!).
Staying with eyepieces for a moment, what is a reasonable budget wide angle eyepiece? Is the combination of 32, 15 and 9mm a good one to begin with? If you were to get a barlow at the same time what would the choice be then and are Bintel generally happy to change these around?
Next up is the barlow itself, is the Orion Shorty Plus, still the one to get in the ~$200 bracket?
And now one last question (bear with me
), I think I remember reading a comment about the reduced usefullness of a Telrad in light polluted skies, which makes sense. Given that he's based in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne (Bayswater), would a telrad be wasted unless he was observing often at a darker site, should he just stick with the stock finder for now?
OK, well that completes todays session people, if anyones's able to provide some insight into the above topics, I would be mightily thankful. I will be heading over to Melbourne shortly so the items that are deemed useful that he doesn't get himself, he may score off me or the family for Xmas. Now, if only I had managed to arrange such a purchase for Xmas, dammit
Thanks in advance and Merry Xmas!!