TMB 92mm vs Stowaway F5

Looking for a high quality, travel/grab-n-go short refractor.

I would love a Stowaway, but they seem unobtainable (at least on my budget) so...

The marketing stuff suggests that the TMB 92mm SS is a worthy alternative to the Stowaway.

The question is simple: is it? Would I be better off with a Sky 90? A Lomo 80/480? What else would you suggest?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Many choices here....a Stellarvue SV90T is quite reasonable for what you get and the one I looked through was stunning with great color correction.
Ivan

APM just mentioned a 95/650 triplet. Check out the APM forum to see the detail.

If you plan on traveling alot with the scope I'd avoid the Sky 90. They're prone to going out of collimation if you even look at them the wrong way. Personal experience with three of them (one Sky 90 I and two Sky 90 II's) validated this. They also have more false color than the other Tak doublets.

I'd heartily recommend a LOMO 80/480 triplet (the ones in APM/TMB or WO tubes are the lightest and the most compact) and have heard very positive comments about the TMB 92 as well.

Good luck!

Roger,

A listing today specifies such as an item (Stowaway at f5) for sale .... but no price stated so you will have to send an email to the seller.

Good luck.

Anthony.

Roland posted an interferogram of a typical Stowaway here on Amart:

http://tinyurl.com/arr94n

If you are planning on traveling extensively with a small scope you may want to look for something that wouldn't make you cry if it gets damaged or stolen in transit.

I know two Stowaway owners who declined an offer of $10K for their scopes so Markus' post isn't off base for a rare scope of high quality.

In case it hasn't been mentioned already, there is a generally positive review of the 92mm f/5.5 TMB by Alan Dyer in the March issue of Sky & Telescope.

Dave Mitsky