newbie seeking telescope advice

[cliverob (Clive)]

Hi, I've just joined and would like to say hello to everyone. I'm retired and recently moved to far south coast of NSW with dark skies and good ocean views (whales moving south now).
I've been browsing the forums for a few days now and rather overwhelmed at the scale of equipment and technicalities but very impressed with the level of assistance offered by very kind and helpful members.
I started out looking for information on a good telescope for mainly terrestrial viewing but with the ability to do some 'star gazing' as well. I would also like to take photographs (I have a Nikon D50 DSLR).
On my fairly limited reviewing to date a 80ED refractor seems to fit my bill but would appreciate some advice please on this.
I see that currently AOE are offering the AOE80ED 80mm refractor with a Heavy Duty Alt-Azimuth AZ3Tripod for $649. What appears to be a very similar unit is advertised by York Optical (80mm ED Refractor) at $999. I cannot see much difference in the 2 units but may be missing something here. Any assistance would be most helpful. The AOE is about the maximum that I could afford!
Many thanks.

[dannat (Daniel)]

I don't think many will recommend the AZ3 tripod - one of the other alt/az tripods like GS alt/az(or bintel equivalent) or vixen porta mount might be worth a look. If looking at ocean yo will probably want an erect image diagonal - so you can look at things right way up and left to right.

Try looking at the bintel.com.au site & http://www.andrewscom.com.au/site-section-10.htm for more choices.

[TrevorW]

Enjoy your retirement especially in such a prestine location. An 80ED on alt/az is a good starter scope but I'll go for the cheaper one to start as even the Orion ones are made in China like every thing else these days.

[GeoffW1 (Geoff)]

Originally Posted by cliverob

On my fairly limited reviewing to date a 80ED refractor seems to fit my bill but would appreciate some advice please on this.
I see that currently AOE are offering the AOE80ED 80mm refractor with a Heavy Duty Alt-Azimuth AZ3Tripod for $649. Many thanks.

Hi,

I bought a Skywatcher f1000 102mm (not the premium type) here on IIS, as a 2nd string grabitandgo type of scope, and put it on an AZ3 mount from Andrews Comms for $150. All very very budget, that was the plan though.

I got immediate difficulties with the mount when focussing, it was all so wobbly and flexible, so I invested in a Skywatcher motorised focusser from Bintel, and all was fixed!! Remember this is a minimum space camping trip type of thing.

So I took it all to Sussex Inlet

35°11'4.70"S, 150°35'29.86"E

where it performed beautifully with a couple of reasonable eyepieces (Baader Hyperion 17mm). We got (this is a location similar to yours) stunning views of Jupiter (the children thought this was terrific!) several nice globular clusters, the Tarantula Nebula, several binaries, the Orion Nebula, M31, etc.

That from a budget scope, I thought it was good value. So I would suggest you go for it, just budget for a motorised focusser to cope with the wobbly mount

Cheers

[Bassnut (Fred)]

A motorised focuser copes with a wobbly mount??????.

Spend the money on the mount, forget "motorised focuser"

hehe, was that a mistake Geoff?

[GeoffW1 (Geoff)]

Originally Posted by Bassnut

A motorised focuser copes with a wobbly mount??????.

Spend the money on the mount, forget "motorised focuser"

hehe, was that a mistake Geoff?

Hi Fred,

No, it was carefully considered. You flew to the keyboard too quick

I wanted a stripped down, lightweight, cheap (my 3rd scope) setup to throw in minimum space. The AZ3 wobbles for about 30 sec after focussing, and the electric focusser fixed that, and was perfect for all the kids at the campsite. Pressbutton, like their Playstations .

That said, if you do have a setup that is not going to be flung in the back seat all the time, I agree, spend the money on a EQ5 or something instead.

I had best add, what I was trying to say was this:

If you are on a restricted budget and lucky enough to have dark velvety skies on the far South Coast (oh gee I remember this out to sea) then, a bit of tweaking with a ED80 and a AZ3 mount will do just great. That's all.


Cheers

[Bassnut (Fred)]

Ah, you mean the autofocuser eliminates the need to bump the scope again to manually focus?. In that case, sorry, your right.

[GeoffW1 (Geoff)]

Hi Fred,

Thanks muchly for your generous reply. I also forgot say that I was knocked over by what a difference a top quality eyepiece made to this setup.

A friend had there a Teleview Ethos 13mm, which was worth more than this entire budget OTA and mount of course.

We put that in, not knowing what to expect, and the result was amazing. You would have sworn that this humble ED was a Takahashi or something , at least until we calmed down a bit

Now I am colourblind and cannot judge fine differences in performance in that department, but others felt that this top eyepiece improved the budget scope tremendously.

It was an unlikely pairing, one that you would not ordinarily make, and a very interesting one. It impressed all the youngsters tremendously viewing Saturn.

Cheers

[cliverob (Clive)]

I've been away and not able to access the site til now. Many thanks for the helpful advice which I'm taking onboard. Decisions, decisions!!