Grab and go setup

[taxman (Matt)]

I am due for a fairly decent tax return (yippee!) so I decided I "need" an addition to my 8" inch dob and GSO plossls.

My criteria is (of course) portability, reasonable aperture, planetary and bright clusters with a budget of around $1800 (inc eyepieces).

After some research I am thinking the Vixen 80EDSf with portamount, 8-24 Baader zoom, 3-6 nagler zoom, 32mm TV plossl and a 1.25" Baader Moon & Skyglow filter.

I am a visual only (two kids and a 50-60 hour work week) person and I know someone who travels regularly to the US, so I can get the Vixen for just under 1K AUD.

In my research, I have considered (and rejected) the following:
Nexstar 4SE - too cheap (600US), ordinary reviews and most of the money is in a goto for things I can find on my own.
Meade 5000 - focal length too short for visual, not sure of a mount to suit that stays within budget
TeleVue 76 - A few hundred over budget (with mount) and short focal length
WO Megrez 88 - Great tube but optics a bit ordinary, focal length too short
Skywatcher 80ED - Got burnt pretty badly with a 90mm achro from this maker, and the tube seems to need too much upgrading (focuser etc).

Does anyone have any rebuttal of my above reseach, or experience with the Vixen? Any ideas also on my eyepiece & filter selection?

This will be my last windfall for some time, so I'd appreciate any thoughts...

[dannat (Daniel)]

What about the meade etx-125, I saw them on special in $US for about 700-800, would give you more aperture but a narrow fov

Probably can't go wrong with vixen

[chris lewis]

Hi - you seem to reviewed your selection well. The Vixen would certainly be toward the top of my list.
The one other alternative I could suggest would be the 'new' F/7 ED102 which has been released by numerous manufactures inc. Orion and Stellarvue etc. The reviews on them are very positive. It does have the FPL-51 glass but by all accounts CA is minimal. It remains reasonably portable. It has the 2 speed Crayford focuser. It is available in the States for under a grand.
I have no personal experience with it, however I know that when I went from my Orion ED80 to ED100 the difference in brightness and detail was noticeable esp. on planetary observations as well as DSO's.

http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbthrea.../o/o/fpart/all

[Miaplacidus (Brian)]

Ahem, and what exactly do you mean by grab and go? (Sometimes my 8 inch dob is G&G enough.)

[Starkler (Geoff)]

To my mind "reasonable aperture" rules out anything under 4".
I had an ed80 and was very dissapointed in how little could be seen.

I ended up getting a Vixen R130sf newt on a porta mount.
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...ead.php?t=9484

These are the key benefits I see in this package.

• Yes very lightweight and portable.
• Bigger aperture still in a small lightweight package - Yes it makes a difference.
• Much more comfortable viewing position - can be used standing up and without neck craning.

The downside is that the provided focuser is rubbish, but it can be replaced with an aftermarket one.

[g__day (Matthew)]

Clarify - do you have a mount to use or must this be in the package?

If you had the mount you could plonk a 6" MAK on it dead cheap and add a decent focuser.

Secondly how do you want to allocate funds between OTA, eye-pieces or anything else?

[JimmyH155]

I have just recently bought a Celestron Omni XLT 120 refractor. I am very pleased with it. I leave it all set up in my shed, and just grab it an take it outside - just light enough. Spec says 20.87 kg. Tripod is stainless and 1.75 inches dia so not wobbletronic. Has special "Starbright" coatings supposed to be good. Focal ratio 8.33
Definitely grab 'n go
Also, this one bounces well on a concrete floor with NO damage

[White Rabbit]

The meade etx 125 pe is probably the easiest goto to set up in the world. All you dois plonk in on the ground an loosen az lock, rotate it to the hard stop, tighten, switch it on and press go, align two stars of it's choosing and your done.

I wish GEM were that easy lol.

[White Rabbit]

Bintel are selling them atm for about 1300 plus an eyepiecs case and about 4 ep's as well from memory.

[taxman (Matt)]

Thanks for all the responses.

By grab and go, I mean something I can take out of the garage, plonk down and get 5-15 minutes viewing without the kids noticing I am gone (that sounds terrible, but c'est la vie ).

As far as mount is concerned, I have a truly terrible GEM mount, and would like to get a decent alt-az. So mount definitely has to be in the package.

I looked at the smallish goto telescopes, but as I said, it seems to take away too much of my relatively low budget away from optics to put into electronics. Besides, the objects that a goto is handy for are hard enough to see with my 8" reflector, let alone something with 1/5 of the light gathering capability.

Eyepieces I don't want to scrimp on, so a TV 3-6 nalger will give me planetaries of 100-200x depending on seeing, that I can adjust to suit, with an 8-24 Baader for brighter clusters, with the upside of usability on the dob.

I have previously owned a very ordinary 90mm achro, and don't remember Jupiter being that bad - but then again, it was hard enough to focus let alone to get it to stop wobbling long enough to see anything. I was hoping the ED glass would make up for the loss of aperture, but it seems not...

I really would like to keep the scope and mount around 1k, but I suppose I could go over a bit by sacrificing the Baader zoom and putting up with the GSOs a bit longer.

However, to my mind, I need a general purpose skyglow filter and I need an adjustable planetary, so $500 has to stay there, leaving an absolute maximum of $1300 for the scope. The problem is that as soon as I go over 1k AUD, GST etc comes in, so an extra $300 only gets me about an extra $100 in value...

Again, thanks for everyone's thoughts...

[jayscheuerle]

I had the ED80sf. It was a nice instrument, but just couldn't provide the aperture for anything other than planets and the Moon in my LP skies. Now I won't take anything less than 6" out. My G&G scope of choice is a 6" f/5 reflector (Eero2 ball-scope). - j

[netwolf]

You will need to define portability a bit more, do you mean quick setup for home use, or quick travel scope in a car, or travel scope suitable for carry on luggage in a plane, etc etc.

The Nextstar 8SE can be had in the US for 1300$. You could also pickup a used unit for a bit cheaper than this in the US. If you can get the seller to hold it for your mate to pickup or deliver to a US address from where your mate could pickup. Or else have it shipped with USPS ~200USD shipping.

This scope is good apperture and a very good goto platoform. The SE single fork arm mount can easily be retrofited to cary many other OTA's. It would easily cary a ED80 perhaps even a ED102. While the Porta mount is a nice mount it does not have goto. My friend has the Nexstar 5 an older version but still a very portable setup with good apperture.

The ETX-125 is also a very good option but does not permit use of alternate OTA's easily.

Lastly a Used 8" LX90 could be had locally for around the 1500$, this is a quick setup option for home use. And will also travel easily enough in a car. The two fork arms make it a bit more stable if you want to dable in Planetary imaging.

Finally There are plenty of used Meade/Celestron dual fork arm Celestron's being sold in the US in your price range. Again it depends on your definition of portability.

Also note that in Vixen terms, the 'F' in the name of the scope usually means made in China, so you could buy any of the many clones for a bit less. There is another version of the scope that is made in japan.

Regards
Fahim

[tnott]

I use my ETX 125 as my "Grab & Go" scope. Leave it setup on the tripod & just carry the whole lot outside. Not sure if you could do this with an 8" SCT. Very sharp on Moon & Planets and 5 inches of aperture is big enough for most of the main DSO glossies as well. I also use a pair of 11X70 binos for wide field quickies.

[netwolf]

Tim, I used to do the same with my 8" LX90, just leave it setup in the lounge and carry it out. I found it a lot less demanding to carry then the 10" dob that usually took two trips. Then again i have a step in my door to the backyard so i had to lift it out. But you could have it on a trolley and wheel it out depends on your doorway outside.