newbie needs a little help

I recently purchased the orion spaceprobe 130 as a first scope. Although it has been good overall I am a little dissappointed with its planetary performance. I am now looking for something else to replace it with. I just wanted to know if the apex 90 or 102 would give better views or do I need to go to a 90mm refractor? I definately do not want another reflector. I want something smaller....ie...portable. And before you say it....I did collimate the newt with a cheshire.

Any advice is welcome.

Travis

I own a 130ST too, and actually it performs quite well on the planets. If you can see Cassinis division, GRS and white ovals your scope is not bad at all. A small, cheap MAK or refractor will not neccecarily show you anything more!

A friend of mine bought a 90mm f/10 refractor from Orion which was significantly worse than the ST130 on planets. He returned it and bought the Skywatcher version of 130ST.

Club members who own the OMC andIntes MAK's are impressed by my scope. I'm not saying the 130ST outperforms these high end MAK's, but most nights the difference is subtle.

My advise is not to buy a small, cheap MAK or refractor if you want a significant leap in performance. Buy quality (Intes?), quantity(XT8?) or both (Portaball!!).

Erlend


....or keep the 130ST

Well, I decided to write a little update. Thursday or Friday night (forgot which) I set up for some lunar and planetary viewing. First up was the moon. I started out with my favorite eyepeice (cause I only have 3) the orion expanse 9. This gives me 100x and the entire moon fits into the fov with a little room to spare. Great views as usual. Next, I barlow it. This time it was crystal clear and actually kinda easy to focus (I was real happy).

Next up..Jupiter. I go back to the 9mm (not barlowed) and spend about 10 minutes observing what I can. Which was pretty cool cause there was a lunar transit. Then I barlow the 9mm and the view got mushy again but not as bad as usual. So I decided to try the 10mm explorer that came with it(180x). This was better than usual but still a tad mushy. I think it was easier to focus because of the transit that turned into a double transit later that night. In my viewing I was able to make out more detail than before and this was my best night so far. I really think another eyepeice is needed so I can get about 150x as I think that would probably be the best mag for this scope on Jupiter.

Overall I beleive I was expecting too much from this scope. How could I not after seeing all these great photos all over the place. Also, last night I made my first star party and was able to look thru a 10" Discovery premium dob. Boy that thing was huge and heavy. The view of Jupiter in that was actually not as good as I had expected (go figure, for me) but way more detail than I have ever seen from mine. Now, If I could get that view in something alot smaller without costing a fortune I would have it made.

I just wanted to say thanks for all of the replies and the help from everyone here.

Thanks,
Travis