What would you buy?

[glend (Glen)]

Here is a Sunday morning question for you:

If you had a budget of $2000, + or - $200, what scope would you buy? Doesn't matter what you have now, what in your opinion represents the best value and performance in that price range?

[sn1987a (Barry)]

Just a suggestion, 2k is roughly the deposit required to get started on a premium 16-20 mirror via say Suchting, Zambuto, Lockwood ect. The lead time is roughly a year so you have that long to save the rest, that way you end up with top quality, rest of your life mirror.

Then while you are waiting you can decide on a kit eg telekit, dobstuff or if you have access to a premium dob, a bit of reverse engineering.

Another option, SDM need a roughly a 50 percent deposit to get started and the lead time is about a year. Spread the cost over a couple of years and you can end up with a top shelf scope that will need no futher modification.

Invest in quality and a few years down the track you'll be glad you did the hard yards now .

[glend (Glen)]

Sorry Barry I changed the original post on you while you were writing your response. I have considered buying a mirror and building incrementally from there. I did research the custom mirror makers you mentioned- and talked to Dennis at Dob Stuff. To me, the differences in optical performance between the custom mirrors and good production quality does not justify the $ they ask for customs.

[sn1987a (Barry)]

Hmm have to agree to disagree with you there Glen, the premium custom guys are craftsmen/women who do the job for love and definately not the money. Sometimes I wonder how they can do it at all on so small a margin.

Truely when you've got the good gear out there on a dark night; purring away..... ahh bliss.

[el_draco (Rom)]

I'd not worry so much about the OTA but rather the mount. Good OTA + Crap mount = crap setup. A substandard OTA on a good mount is preferable IMHO

However, there are a hell of a lot of other factors to take in to account; ie purpose, location, future funding etc...

[Lee]

Imaging or visual
Imaging - probably an RC8 with a moonlite focuser.
Visual- 16" Lightbridge.

[frolinmod]

Solar or nighttime, visual or imaging?

[glend (Glen)]

Night only visual, no desire to image - at this time.

[rat156]

Just bought a secondhand 14" GOTO Dob for under $2k, hoping to try it out a bit tonight.

Depends a bit on what you want visually, if you want goto then it'll cost more, without you can just get a bigger mirror, up to the point of not being able to move it.

Cheers
Stuart

[The Mekon (John Briggs)]

New or second hand?

I have three rigs, two way over your mark (18" SDM & 130EDT Starfire on EQ6) My third rig I still like and use, is a 106 Astro-Tech refractor on a Vixen SPDX mount. I'd be doing well to get $2000 for it, so that is what I would look for within your budget.