|
I know they are not the 'ideal' astronomers scope but how about looking for a secondhand 80mm f5 Achromatic on a tripod. I have one as a 'Grab & Go' and with a couple of reasonable eyepieces, 20mm and 15mm wideviews they give good viewing without breaking the budget but are proper scopes. I carried mine away on holiday, could not take the 10", and it was just awesome in dark skies for globs and even nebula dust lanes. I added a counter balance weight to mine to make it easy to use and adjust and it sits on a robust photo tripod I had. The short focal length and decent aperture is quite a stunner on the moon and I added a solar filter to watch the recent transit. Took it inot work and impressed the staff.
Here's my 'Little Blue' refractor. It's sitting on th big EQ6 mount before it got all moved to the OB. Cost, about $200 second hand including a case and a few EPs and a 90* Diag.
|