Grab & Go - Your Opinion?

Well I currently have just one "scope" an Orion XT8, w/red dot and 9x50 RACI finder upgrades. So I am good to go for my first starter scope. I got it out to one of our clubs dark sites for the 1st time this past weekend and saw 20+ objects!

Anyway, I don't always want to truck the dob around, especially if I just want to go into the courtyard of my apt complex and look at the moon or something. Granted the dob is about as easy as it gets but its big and heavy and I don't get those quick peeks I occasionally would like to get on a clear night.

I have a celestron c65 mini mak spotting scope but it sucks for astronomical uses. Daytime only as it doesn't really find the focus ever on stars and its fixed zoom eyepiece is subpar.

I do have a photo tripod and an Orion slow-motion adapter to use as a mount, trying to avoid buying another mount if possible.

My options as I see it is a small Mak-Cass a-la Orion starmax/apex series, possibly a Celestron C90 (or equal), or a small refractor.

What do you think?

about $200 and under is what I am thinking, for ota as I have seen the apex 102mm for ~$180 on astromart here. A C90 goes for about $200 or I could get an Orion short tube 80mm for the same.

Or others......

Mark, have you thought about getting the XT8 lil' brother for this, like the XT4.5?

To be honest with you, I doubt you'll get a better "complete set" than this for about $200... (and it is quite portable)... (also not to mention that the footprint will be smaller than with a tripod/scope...)


Just my .02 cents... don't spend them all in one place...

>>What do you think?

about $200 and under is what I am thinking, for ota as I have seen the apex 102mm for ~$180 on astromart here. A C90 goes for about $200 or I could get an Orion short tube 80mm for the same.

Or others......
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Mark: I think I have tried them all at one time or another, refractors, reflectors, Maks, SCTs....

My thinking goes like this: You are looking for a companion to your XT-8. That means you want it to do the things that the XT-8 doesn't do and visa versa.

To my mind this means: Small and compact= portable. No cooldown or collimation. Widefield low power views are important as is some ability to do terrestial viewing...

Put this all in the grinder, crank the lever and what comes out???

It's got to be a refractor, even an ETX-90 has a longer focal length than an XT-8 and can't take 1.25 inch eyepieces...

Price range: $200...

Answer: New or Used Orion AstroView 100F6. The New OTA is $200, used with rings and stuff they seem to go for around $130 or $140. I have one the 100mmF6 Astroview objectives hooked up to the front of my Burgess OTA and it provides nice widefield views and reasonable high power views. Better all the way around IMHO than the ST-80's I have owned because the greater aperture provides brighter views and helps out on the planets as well.

There are other choices, the Celestron C-5 Spotting scope fit with a F6.3 focal reducer provides a 2 degree FOV, still constricted but not so bad. Cost is going to put you up to around $400 and at the price a used ED-80 would be superior...

I have owned both an ETX-90 and ETX-125. These duplicate the XT-8 without the aperture and 2 inch focuser, don't really make a good companion. 80mm F11 refractors are interesting but again the long focal length and lack of a 2 inch focuser limit the FOV...

I say consider the AstroView100F6, if you don't have a mount, wait for a cheap EQ-2 or Meade 390/4500 mount to come along and use it alt-az.

Jon

Mark:

If you want to keep costs down and use your current photo tripod and slo-mo controls, I think a 102mm refractor is too much OTA for your mount.

You would probably be happier with something in the 66-80mm range with a relatively short tube.

There is a new Stellarvue Nighthawk 2 "blem" on the SV website for $295. That's a pretty good deal for a new scope, and it would be worthy of a later mount ugrade.

Jim

How about a Starblast?