Portable telescopes - SV 90/TV 85

[thefrogulox (Al)]

Hi all

After having had my first opportunity to travel to dark skies with my 120ED and NEQ6, I realised that I need/want a more portable setup for travel purposes.

While I will eventually purchase a more portable mount, for the time being my focus is on a smaller, lighter weight telescope in the 80 - 90mm range.

The scope would be ideally used for both visual and imaging (approx 50/50).

I have had my eye on the following 2 scopes, and would like some advice/comments, or perhaps some other alternatives.

TeleVue 85 ($2,399 from Bintel), StellarVue 90 ($2,200 from OPT).

The SV is made from carbon fibre and is lighter (notwithstanding the bigger apperture) than the TV and comes with a feather touch focuser. My preference at this stage is the SV.

Any thoughts?

[Waxing_Gibbous (Peter)]

Or this:
http://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/...-Crayford.html

I believe 'Marc' has the Sharpstar version and is very happy with it.
I am after a portable set-up also.
While the SV90 was neck and neck, after a fair bit of digging I settled on the TS because:

-First rate reviews and an almost perfect test on www.astroforen.de
-Weight. Very light for the extra 10mm over an 80. Approx. the same as the Orion CF T80.
-Price (around $AU1400 posted) was 1/2 the Stellarvue's.
As you don't have to pay the 19% VAT - you can afford "express" delivery!
-Same lens as the SV and the QC from TS is very high. You can ask them to star test it for you.

Despite its fanatical following (particularly amoung 'twitchers') I found that the TV85 showed more colour than I was prepared to accept in a $2000 scope. It's very slight, I grant you but still noticably there. It manifests mostly on the Lunar limb and bright objects such as Venus, Jupiter and Sirius.

Just my 2 cents.

[thefrogulox (Al)]

Thanks Peter, have you done any imaging with the scope?

[dannat (Daniel)]

if you google 90mm triplet astrotech or carbon fibre you will see some pics taken with the scope, i had the one marc bought -it was just 10mm from reaching focus with my b/viewer & corrector

[Waxing_Gibbous (Peter)]

Originally Posted by thefrogulox

Thanks Peter, have you done any imaging with the scope?

Paid a deposit but haven't got it yet.
Someone has to buy my IM715 first!

[thefrogulox (Al)]

Pete, I feel your pain... this hobby is seriously sending me broke!

[Kal (Andrew)]

If you do go the SV route you can buy direct from Stellarvue themselves. You can also buy the same SV90 in an aluminium tube with the feathertouch focuser for US$1995 saving a couple of hundred dollars (it is only one and a half kilos heavier, and if anything, the aluminium will help with the scope cooling and it will reduce focus shift for imaging). You will also get unsurpassed help from Vic Marris, the owner of SV himself, should you ever need it.

[thefrogulox (Al)]

Thanks Kal.

I did email Stellarvue last week but never received a reply...

[multiweb (Marc)]

Hi Al, got the CF triplet from Daniel. Very happy with it. Good grab and go scope, light, extremely sharp and excellent color correction. My QHY8 is 28.5mm diagonal so I needed a corrector. Pics with and without corrector here, latest stuff here , here and here.

[Logieberra (Logan)]

I have a Takahashi Sky 90 which I find incredibly portable with the dew shield retracted. In the hands of experienced images (like Marc etc) it too should produce wonderful images. It does however require a dedicated flattener / reducer...

I also like the option of adding the Extender-Q for additional focal ratios... lots of options.

Chris (Omaroo) has the same scope.

Good luck