Noob Scope Wars - Episode II

[JethroB76 (Jeff)]

Hi Guys. Some time ago I posted asking for advice on a 1st scope for my father, well he seems to have settled on a 10" premium dob, which he can now get locally from the the Melbourne Bintel store (yay). Now that takes care of ~$800, what we would like to know is what should the next few hundred in the budget be allocated to (not including red led, chair, planisphere etc)?

Given that Bintel are now in his neighbourhood (kinda) he will most likly be shopping there unless Anrews or elsewhere have a significantly better deal. Obviously first up will be a tool for collimation, there appears to be varying opinions on whether a laser collimator or a cheshire would be first choice, opinions and pricing would be much appreciated. I think I read that the laser ones can be useless unless collimated themselves, is this correct and is this easily achieved?? Also cheshires need to be a particular length to suit the focal length of your scope, yar?

OK, moving on, in the premium deal he will get 3 eyepieces: a Bintel 32mm 2" FMC and a 15mm and 9mm Bintel Plossl. Are these Bintel branded eyepieces the same make as those included in the Andrews deals? What does the FMC abbreviation on the 2" mean? Would there be any benefit to paying a little extra to upgrade these to a next step up in the eyepiece hierarchy, maybe just so that they are all 2", or maybe another brand? (I'm happy enough with where the big name brands lie in terms of drool-worthiness, but these lower end re-branded eyepieces confuse the crap out of me!).
Staying with eyepieces for a moment, what is a reasonable budget wide angle eyepiece? Is the combination of 32, 15 and 9mm a good one to begin with? If you were to get a barlow at the same time what would the choice be then and are Bintel generally happy to change these around?

Next up is the barlow itself, is the Orion Shorty Plus, still the one to get in the ~$200 bracket?

And now one last question (bear with me), I think I remember reading a comment about the reduced usefullness of a Telrad in light polluted skies, which makes sense. Given that he's based in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne (Bayswater), would a telrad be wasted unless he was observing often at a darker site, should he just stick with the stock finder for now?

OK, well that completes todays session people, if anyones's able to provide some insight into the above topics, I would be mightily thankful. I will be heading over to Melbourne shortly so the items that are deemed useful that he doesn't get himself, he may score off me or the family for Xmas. Now, if only I had managed to arrange such a purchase for Xmas, dammit

Thanks in advance and Merry Xmas!!

[mick pinner]

FMC, fully multi coated although all ep's seem to be FMC regardless of cost.
do a lot of research on ep's because what works in one scope will not work in another and the eye relief is a big factor for some people especially those with glasses.
1.25 ep's will generally work better for planetary observing, higher power magnification, 2" will be better suited for wide field work at lower powers, look carefully through the threads under eyepieces, barlows etc and you will save some time and probably some money.
my opinion is have a look at the Vixen Lanthinum range 1.25" for around $150.00, certainly a real value for money ep.

[astrogeek (Leon)]

Hi Isdonisgood,

For collimation I use both a laser collimator and a cheshire. First I collimate the secondary with the laser collimator then I use the cheshire to collimate the primary. Another way to do it is to buy a laser collimator that has a bit cut out where the laser is. This allows you to see the returning laser beam and collimate both the secondary and primary with the one tool (Secondary by getting the beam into the circle on the primary, and the primary by getting the beam to return exactly to it's source). This is the most accurate method.

Also:

- Yes, laser collimators need to be collimated themselves, but it is quite easy. You should get instructions with the laser or you can find them on the net.

- I don't know about if the size of the scope affects the size of the cheshire (Although it doesn't sound right to me)

On to eyepieces. On a budget I would recommend Celestron eyepieces from York optical. They are about $75 and I recently bought a 32mm and was very impressed. The 32mm, 15mm, 9mm combination sounds good and in your scope will provide magnifications of 37.5X, 80X and 133X respectivly. I wouldn't get any smaller eyepieces but thats just me. I find that my most used eyepiece is my lowest mag, the 32mm at 33X (For my scope), but this is just personal prefference. High mag requires good skys, and if you are going to do most of your observing from light polluted skys then it would be a waste. Infact my highest mag is 100X and I have found this to be more than enough.

Orion Shorty Plus is a very nice barlow. Bintel have it or simmilar for $180 if I remember correctly and I have view through it and had no problems.

I dont have a telrad but I do have a Rigel Quikfinder which is simmilar and I have no problems with it under light polluted skys. Finders like this make finding things so much easier and I really recomend them. The Rigel Quikfinder is quite good and doesn't take up much room on the top of your scope.

Anyway I hope some of this helps you and I hope you have many great years enjoying everything this great hobby has to offer.

Leon "astrogeek" Schreuder

[ving (David)]

I generally just use a cheshire for collimation. mines a andrews cheapie but it seems to do its job

I cant really comment on a telrad as i have only used one a handful of times and without success... I guess its what ever suits you but i found it dificult to use.

you are heading down the right road for the barlow so I dont need to comment there

EP's... hmm... although they arent widefield (dont limit yourself too much) televue plossls and celestron ultimas are great EPs and probabably in you price range
GSO SV EPs probably wont work too well in your scope (F5 isnt it?) but at F6 the 15mm is quite good....

[rmcpb (Rob)]

All the above advice is great. My little extra is that the Meade series 4000 eyepieces are great value and should not be overlooked. After saying that, think about sitting on your hands for a while and letting your father get to know his scope and then he will make better discissions regarding other eyepieces and upgrades.

As for the Telrad, it may be worth setting it up alongside the finder scope, if you already have one, so either can be used. I had mine set up like this for a long while before taking off my finder scope but in light polluted skies it would be worth keeping both.

It may be worth making a cardboard "dew shield" to keep the stray light out of the scope before any other upgrade.

Finally, just keep the scope bog standard for a couple of months then start making informed descisions about the upgrades.

Good luck.