Posts Made By: Larry Janowicz

Within your budget you should be able to find good quality standard porro prism Pentax, Minolta, or Nikon binocs of either of 8x40(42) or 7x50 styles.
If you really plan a good split use ) land and sky) I would downsize and go the 40mm route. These will also tend to give more pleasing views astronomically under moderate to sever light pollution because of their smaller 5 mm exit pupil.
I have owned or used all three brands - 50mm Nikons and the 40 mm Minolta/Pentax. They were all very good optically and mechanically but I would give the edge to Pentax on an overall basis.
Larry

Does your budget figure include or exclude a mount? You didn't say how your SCT was mounted.
Larry

Right from the ad link:

Optical Design: Newtonian Reflector with relay lens.
( Which also says it has a 114mm achromatic lens. I'll concede on the "achromat" part)

Barlow...relay...whatever. No way you're gonna get a 1000mm focal length in an 18" tube without some "helper" optics.
Larry

All else being equal ( sky conditions - especially sky conditions - and optical quality) I I would still favor greater aperture. You would be really pushing things here with a 4" and there WILL be those times when you wish you go just a little further than your stated limits.

This analogy might not be the best but let's say that you calculate your personal household budget to be $2000 per month. I don't think you would then go out and get a job that pays just $2000 per month.

Get the biggest scope you can afford and handle and avoid possible future regrets.
Larry

Not bad.
Seems to agree reasonably well with what I see at the eyepiece currently.
But, of course, it won't look this way at every apparition.
Larry

I'm going to add an endorsement for the XT4.5
It's big enough to see the "major attractions" fairly well and small enough to be kid friendly and transportable/storable.
Small refractors are a good choice for kids also, but they have to matched to a stable easy to use mount. That adds some bulk to the equation.
I've taken short tube refractors ( on a decent but simple astronomical mount - not a photo tripod) and my XT4.5 to public viewing sessions and the kids seem to take more of a shine to XT4.5.

The "go to" and "push to" scopes do have some intrinsic advantages but they are not fail safe and many require power to be operational. This could be a big disadvantage when you're out in nature for an extended stay.
Kids also tend to have interests that change over time. I've learned that all you can do is strike a spark and hope the flame catches somewhere and sometime. From what I've observed it doesn't seem to matter if it's a big spark, small spark, expensive spark, or economical spark. Remember the old stories about how some high tech/expensive toys get pushed aside so the kids could play with the box?
Larry

Not a clue if feel you need aluminum.
But you might want to look at other tubing types (pvc,abs,galvanized,whatever) and see if you can find something that has an ID matching your tubes OD.
Larry

Bought some for a 6" reflector some time back.
Good service and a great tube.
Larry

Dave budlong said:

I can't speak to the properties of your scope in specific but, I have an 8" Dob and from relatively dark sites I have seen the spiral structure of M51.....

I've seen the same things Dave mentioned with same size scope.This was under an approximate mag 5.7 to 6.0 sky. As others have mentioned dark skies are very important. Observing skills come into play also. More experienced observers often see things totally missed by the less skilled.
But bigger is still better.

Larry

Aaron Tornow said:

What is it that all of you do that you are able to afford the amount of equipment you have?

It might help to moonlight (literally) as a Liquor Store Asset Reduction Consultant.

I sometimes ask the same question when I drive and see a Hummer go cruising by.
But the answer is simple and fairly self evident: Some folks have a lot of discretionary income, most have some discretionary income, and some have little. The factors that allow for "discretionary" vary greatly from household to household and often change over time within a household. This is not a Nobel Economics Prize winning piece of news.
I'm doing college payments right now...No Taks for me.
I quickly thought of what the members in my club own and it's really like a bell curve. A few have some very nice high end toys, an equal few are using bargain equipment or borrow the club's loaners, and most are probably just like you - in the vast middle ground. If you've got a 5" mak I'll bet you're probably in the the same spending range of the majority of folks who are into this hobby.
Used equipment (Astromart) is a great way to stretch a finite budget.
Larry