Shopping worldwide for telescopes

[alweek]

Hi all,

very keen to start out in this hobby and would like to seek your opinions.

I have a relative who is a pilot and offered to carry back a telescope for me through check in. all i need to do is mail order the scope to the hotel and he can check it in all the way to singapore. he flies to US, europe, japan, UK etc so the choice for vendors is very wide! Just not sure where i would get best value for money.

i would like some points:
1. Long-ish focal length for planetary viewing, maybe about the 900-1500mm kind of range, i think the 2000mm territory will be a bit tricky for a beginner to get used to.
2. Preferable with GOTO mount as i will be a lazy astronomer in the beginning. also plan to let my kids use it and maybe get an interest in astronomy so GOTO will be helpful to take care of the alignment/tracking. At the minimum an EQ mount that can be motor driven.
3. astrophotography is not a priority at the moment.
4. not particular on type of optical system. Keen on MCT's and SCT's due to their compact size and long focal lengths, also don't mind dobsonians due to potential aperture fever! staying in a semi-D house so storage is not a limiting factor (subject to wife acceptance of course!).
5. Most important, budget is about S$1000 or less. don't want to spend too much on a first scope.

fire away! Thanks in advance!
Alan

[acc]

Buy from the US. A Nexstar 6SE comes to mind based on your preferences.

[Gary]

Hi Alan. I agree with acc the nexstar 6SE is good candidate base on your requirements.

But if you can honestly tolerate the following issues, then you may consider a dobsonian also.

(1) Learn how to collimate a reflector. There are many detail videos on youtube by now and dob experts to seek help in this forum. With laser collimator, it is quite easy to do it and not as scary as it sounds.
(2) Your pilot friend does not mind or have any issue bringing in a dobsonian.
(3) Longer setup time. Should decrease with increase familiarity with it and some user modification.
(4) Viewing position may not be as comfortable but can be improved with adjustable-height chairs. In the context of Singapore sky, it is seldom clear for many hours continuously anyway.
(5) Have enough motivation to setup when sky is clear. You need much more of this compared to a 80mm refractor.

The reason why I am suggesting you can also consider a dob because in your earlier post, you have stated you are a bit lazy to bring to darker sky location which means you will be 99% of the time observing at home. Since you have the space at home to store and observe, it may also be logical not to be too concerned about portability and take full advantage of your observing location (i.e home backyard/frontyard).

And since you are mainly using it for planetary viewing, it is quite easy to find them via a finder scope or just a zero-power finder. Thus, need not be overly concern about long focal length like 2000mm especially if you have goto in addition to finder scope(s).

So if you can tolerate the above 5 issues, this is what you get to enjoy:

(1) APERTURE!!! With $1000 budget and minimal international shipping fees, you may get a 10 inch dob with computerised push-to (not full GOTO) or perhaps a 12-inch with no computer/goto!

Not sure how young are your kids but learning to manually find and observe planets in the sky is relatively easy and fun. Anyway, the ipad/iphone generation of kids now should not have much issue learning about computerised stuff and GOTO in time to come.

(2) Generally smaller central obstruction with means better contrast over typical Maks and SCTs at same aperture (ignoring other factors like optics quality, build, light baffling, ...etc).

If possible, try to attend a star party where you can compare the planetary views through a Mak/SCT and a dob of equivalent value and see if the difference in views is really worth enduring the weakness of a dob design.

Here's an *example* of what $1000 can buy. I do not have much experience with dob yet so I will let the dob experts here comment on the pros and cons of specific dob brands and models if your final decision is indeed a dob:

Orion SkyQuest XT10i Computerized IntelliScope Telescope:
http://www.optcorp.com/product.aspx?pid ... 3-67-11802

Good luck and sorry for throwing more spanners in your decision making. LOL.

[alweek]

Wow. Thanks for the pointers! I will look into the 6se and Orion dob's

I appreciate the opinions cause I was looking at a skywatcher dob that did not have push-to capability and did not realize Orion had this nice feature. Also was looking at the 4se at local prices and did not realize I could get so much more bang for buck from the optcorp store.

The nexstar wins on having goto capability and compact size, the dob's win on aperture.... Decisions decisions

Now just trying to find out the number of cartons and size/weight for carrying back!

[Gary]

Enjoy this poison...er..i mean educational video.



Best youtube comment for this video: "Can you tell my missus how much I need one of these for me please?"

[alweek]

Quick question,

Are there any good telescope shops based in the UK, Germany or Japan? My pilot friend flies to US but he does not have any direct flights back to Singapore, which means he has to stay 1-2 nights in uk, germany or Japan. I feel bad asking him to carry around a 20kg++ box. Would be easier to order the scope at his last stop then there would be less carrying.

I had a quick check on google but could not find any shops that were competitively priced like optcorp and Orion USA. Maybe you guys have some suggestions on this?

Alan

[acc]

Unfortunately you can't beat the US for the best prices. Europe is a no-no for value-for-money scopes. Japanese scopes are cheaper in Japan but then Jap scopes (e.g. Tak) are relatively more expensive to begin with. Perhaps you can check out what Vixen scopes you can get from Japan.

[alweek]

To revive this topic a bit....

Any good recommendations to get scopes from china? Since they are all made there nowadays . I have a friend who I can ask help buy and maybe ship over. Not familiar with the merchants over there so not sure how to research the websites and shops there. Specifically, my friend works in shanghai if that helps

[kochu]

To revive this topic a bit....

Any good recommendations to get scopes from china? Since they are all made there nowadays . I have a friend who I can ask help buy and maybe ship over.

Try SharpStar. I believe they are the OEM for AstroTech, Stellarvue etc...105 Models

Kochu/17-6-12

[cloud_cover]

I'm not sure about buying direct from China as there may be sample to sample variability. Unfortunately if you get a lemon there's virtually no way to reverse it.
I'd suggest shipping in from the US. Yes, it will be expensive for a large DOB but at the end of the day, it may be better than getting a bad sample and having no recourse.
There are also a few outlets in Hong Kong that may have what you want; you can try shipping from there.