G'day - and does a BDED120 work on a GP

[geomartin (Martin)]

G'day,

I'm new to the forum and I great you all. The reason I joined that I want to get back into astronomy after 4 years of abstinence.

I recently brought my good ol' GP mount over to Australia and looking for something to put on it. Back in Germany, I had and R150S on it, but I didn't bring it over for volume/weight restrictions and I was afraid to damage it. So I gave it t the good cause of student education.

Now I had a look around down under for a new OTA, and I looked at some options:
-the Vixen NA140SS refractor
-the Vixen R200SS reflector
-the Skywatcher BDED100 refractor
-the Skywatcher BDED120 refractor

My price limit is 2.000ish. The Vixen models are already on the heavy end of the GP capacity, but they both have short tubes limiting the torque by wind forces.

The BDED100 should be a piece of cake for the GP and is well within my price range.
I think I found a good offer for the BDED120 coming close to my price limit, however I'm not sure the GP will carry it comfortably anymore. The tube weight is 5.2kg, adding all the other necessaries it should come to 6.5 to 7kg and it has a length of over 900mm. Would anyone place such a thing on a GP? The seller said yes, but I would like some independent opinions.

I would also be happy to hear of other suggestions I haven't thought of yet. I'm not into Maks and SCs, as I prefer shorter f/ratios and will mostly work visual, although that may change in the future.

Cheers and I appreciate any help.

Martin

[Terry B]

For visual, aperture rules so the R200SS wins if the GP will cary it. I had a VC200L on a GP mount for many years and it was fine for visual. The R200SS is about the same weight.
The 120 refractor would be similar I think but somewhat more affected by wind etc.

[The Mekon (John Briggs)]

Try a Williams Optics 110 - one for sale on classifieds now.
Skywatcher 120 too long.
I had my AP 130 F8 on a SPDX mount for many years. OK on no wind nights, but otherwise too heavy and big for this mount.
I now have an astro-tech 106 on the SPDX and the mount handles it very well in all conditions.

[brian nordstrom (As avatar)]

Hi martin , check out Andrews Communations , they have a sale on LP (WO ) at the moment , an ED110mm f/6 , CF for $1499 , thats a bargian !
Might be what you are looking for ? .
Brian.