next telescope

[louisec (Louise)]

hi all.

im very new at astronomy and am wanting to buy a telescope. we have already a bintel dobsonian 10" which we love but can be a bit annoying to carry around. can anyone suggest a good scope to buy less than $1000. am thinking of Bintel BT200 f/4 EQ5. here is the spec on the website

Description
Bintel's 8" (200mm) f/4 Newtonian coupled with the sturdy SkyWatcher EQ5 mount with steel tripod legs.

Aperture: 200mm (well corrected parabolic overcoated mirror)
Focal Length: 800mm (f/4)
2" Dual Speed 10:1 focuser
Mirror Fan.
Supplied with 25mm and 9mm Plossl eyepieces (1.25"), 8x50 Straight through finderscope, 1.25" ND Moon filter, Battery compartment for Mirror fan, 2" - 1.25" focuser adapter and 35mm extension tube.


love to hear your thoughts thanks

[MattT]

I wouldn't get an 8" f4 for visual specially as you already have a 10". What about a 100 ed refractor like this http://www.astronomyalive.com.au/ref...telescope.html or for $400 less an 80mm ed and get a pre loved eq5 mount. My 100ed gives very similar views to my 8" f5 Newt, but much easier to get carry around. Depends on what you want to do with the f4 photo or visual? I don't have but have heard the 102mm f9.8 achro refractor is a great scope and still in your budget, check out Skywatcher refractors at http://www.andrewscom.com.au/site-section-10.htm.

[Paddy (Patrick)]

An EQ mount will be more fiddly than a dob. If you want more portability it might be worth thinking about a collapsible dob. Is is space that is the issue with the 10" or weight?

[brian nordstrom (As avatar)]

Cool , it all boils down to as Matt and Pat say what yurns you on in the night sky ?
Me I like the moon , planets and double stars , ,my refractors do this for me , in my eyes there is nothing better , but its expensive , sad but true .
Thats where Paddys thoughts come in , Big scope s , reflectors on a Dobsonion mount ,, yea ha , I have friends with 16 inch f4.5 Meades , GSO's and the such ... woaw these are the toys for deep sky . nice .
But a stopped down big reflector , say to 5 inch , becomes a 127mm APO , like I have , and we have expermented with both and the refractors win every time .
Its the way light behaves.
So , whats your flavour ? . Get some Bino's , have a look .
But if you know whats you . . keep reading here and learn what's the best for you . as I said the night sky is bigger than the ,planet Earth , by infinety .
Please keep us informed . thanks man .
Brian.

[Gurutronic (Ernie)]

Although I'm a fan of the SCT.. if you already have a reflector, then something like an ED80 will be a fine little companion and not blow the budget. Put it on something like a Vixen Porta mount and you're pretty much set to go and the whole lot will only weigh a few kilo's!

[2stroke (Jay)]

Refractor on a alt/az would be a winner if your pure visual and don't have the feel for a eq and just want to move around with ease. A newt on an eq5 would be a bit of work at zenith, may need a step ladder, also get a F5 if its visual to keep collimation simple

I would personally go a 130 SLT $799 or a 127MAK slt $999 at andrews. We are planing to buy one for public viewing nights because of lugging the 10" dob about and also these have goto and tracking for visual Theres also a skywatcher model at around $600 but i haven't herd anything about how well it preforms. These scopes are light, easy to setup and do a fine job for what you pay