Best easily portable telescope for planets and some DSOs?

[Alasdair]

It's said that the best telescope in the world is useless if you don't use it. Well, that's my situation.exactly. I have three telescopes: a 10" Dobsonian (in need of collimation), a Skywatcher triplet APO refractor on an EQ5 mount - a fabulous beast but which is so heavy it's almost impossible to move it to the balcony of my 5th floor apartment, and a Saxon 1201EQ3, light, portable, and its own way excellent, but very wobbly.

Anyway, I'm.about to move to another north facing apartment, but with less room. And it seems that the scopes I have, while all fine in themselves, don't actually suit my use of them.

So I'm looking to get instead more of a grab and go scope; one that can be used happily for planets and maybe some of the easier DSOs.

Any recommendations?

Thanks!

[AstralTraveller (David)]

I echo what Alex said about collimating the newt. I have one and carry it about the place. Collimation is a 5 minute job done during twilight, maybe 10 minutes if both mirrors have moved significantly but in truth the primary rarely moves at all. If you are only carrying it inside and outside I doubt it will need recollimation once you have it right (including the tension on all the adjusters and lockers).

If that idea isn't appealing how about this?
1) Plan to sell 1-2 scopes to make room (and make cash)
2) Buy the 8" NexStar here: https://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/...d.php?t=215519
The total weight is 18.1kg and it can be moved in 2-3 stages. I'm not sure how well you can set up the goto with your limited sky but you have that problem no matter which option you chose.

[Pierre_C]

For 'grab and go' you could try:

• Puting one of your refractors on a better AZ mount - light and quick to set up, but limited aperture. (I hear the Explore Scientitic Twilight I is good, but I have not tried it).
• Considering the Nexstar SE8 - larger aperture but expensive.

Either may still be a little unstable under windy conditions, but might not be such a problem from an apartment balcony.

Another option would be to work out some way of putting what you have on wheels, and/or protecting what you have from the elements so that you can have it permanently set up on the balcony.

I suspect that once you have owned a 10 inch aperture telescope, you will always perfer the larger aperture option for visual astronomy.

[Pierre_C]

... or maybe your better refractor on a harmonic mount and carbon fibre tripod?

[Alasdair]

Originally Posted by Pierre_C

... or maybe your better refractor on a harmonic mount and carbon fibre tripod?

Now that's a neat idea! The combination of the EQ5 mount and tripod is a considerable weight, which means more effort moving it, which means I tend not to use it. But replacing them with lighter, but equally useful mount and tripod, may be just the thing! I'll see what I can find.
Many thanks indeed.

[mental4astro (Alexander)]

You asked for a scope for the planets & your solution is a dinky refractor knowing that aperture is what you need? Good luck.

I see I wasted my time with my first reply to your thread.

[By.Jove (Jove)]

Originally Posted by Alasdair

Anyway, I'm.about to move to another north facing apartment, but with less room.

As an apartment dweller, also with a north facing garden... from experience with a tightly confined space and limited view of the sky...

1. Any OTA with the eyepiece at the back works better than a newtonian, ie SCT, cassegrain, RC or mak, as you need both aperture and focal length to get a decent view of the planets and refractors have neither.

2. An equatorial is a PITA to use in this scenario. A really compact altaz works, especially if it has encoders and Nexus II so you can align on any two objects and push-to anything you fancy on SkySafari.

Sorry but I've just sold the rig I used - a Stellarvue M2C with encoders and tripod etc.