what to do to get a telescope?

orly_andico · Post by **orly_andico** » Sun Aug 09, 2009 11:29 pm

hello all,

new member here...

I just recently got transferred to SG and I am wondering what's the most cost-effective way for me to observe given that I have no car...

I'm from Philippines and back there I have an 80mm f11 Celestron Vixen (on a shaky EQ-1 type un-motorized mount, as well as the bits and pieces of a 10" f5 dobsonian. (I bought the optics from US and then built a truss dob, but its build quality was so bad given my bad carpentry skills that I took it apart)

The 10" f5 actually allowed me to see the Whale Galaxy etc. from a dark sky site in PH. But it's in pieces right now. In Manila I have a car but the 10" f5 was so unwieldy that I hardly used it anyway... Manila has so much light pollution that we'd have to drive 80km to get decent sky.

Would like to know what options I have now.. on the plus side I can afford better gear, but on the minus side everything's so darn expensive!

Should I carry my 10" f5 mirror from PH next time I go to Manila, and then somehow hope to build a new scope in SG? (unlikely given all my power tools are back in Manila) or should I carry the 80mm f11 and its tripod and head? (bad head.. no motor but good enough for visual 100X on planets)

Or should I buy something better? something along the lines of a Megrez 90 plus a decent head so I can do some DSLR astrophotography (this option will cost a lot though so not something I can just jump into)

All this of course bearing in mind I have no transportation..

Thanks!!!

p.s. I registered for the Martin Rees lecture. Anyone else going?

Post by **Airconvent** » Mon Aug 10, 2009 1:08 am

Hi
Welcome to Singastro!
I was about to recommend you the 115mm Celestron tabletop Dob scope at S$149 only for portability and relatively bigger aperture available at the Science Centre Astroscientific shop. This one transports easily.
But then I saw your 10" scope and realised you have been "spoilt" by big apertures..Once you play with big apertures, its like you normally drive an SUV and suddenly have to ride a bike...haha.
In anycase, the megrez 80mm combination is also good although the aperture may not yield satisfying results in Singapore.
Where do you stay? Why not drop by the Tiong Bahru meetup and talk to the local astronomers before deciding?

cheers

hommel · Post by **hommel** » Mon Aug 10, 2009 1:20 am

Airconvent wrote:Hi
Welcome to Singastro!
I was about to recommend you the 115mm Celestron tabletop Dob scope at S$149 only for portability and relatively bigger aperture available at the Science Centre Astroscientific shop. This one transports easily.
But then I saw your 10" scope and realised you have been "spoilt" by big apertures..Once you play with big apertures, its like you normally drive an SUV and suddenly have to ride a bike...haha.
In anycase, the megrez 80mm combination is also good although the aperture may not yield satisfying results in Singapore.
Where do you stay? Why not drop by the Tiong Bahru meetup and talk to the local astronomers before deciding?

cheers

Do you mean the 76mm celestron tabletop dob instead?

Post by **Airconvent** » Mon Aug 10, 2009 3:12 am

oh yes...was a little confused.
Based on the $149 76mm version but I actually had this in mind :

http://www.singastro.org/viewtopic.php?t=7347

Thanks Jeff..

orly_andico · Post by **orly_andico** » Mon Aug 10, 2009 7:07 am

The 10" was good but with no tracking not so much fun for planets or small DSO's like planetary nebulae. I would imagine that with the light pollution large DSO's are out of the question anyway.. what's the use of unused aperture right? :-)

Someone in my astro club back home was able to cut a deal to buy the Megrez 72 for 22000 pesos delivered to Philippines (that's including shipping but not including Philippines customs duties). That comes out to about $700 SGD. It is normally $600 USD with free shipping world-wide but since Philippines is close to Taiwan I guess he was able to get a lower price. What is the generally levied duty on items imported into Singapore? (SG is much closer to Taiwan than the US so I would expect a similar shipping reduction)

Or I could buy an ETX-125 off A-mart they go for around $600 and have it shipped to Philippines? at least that way I don't have to worry about a mount. (I can hand-carry it to SG since my work takes me back to Manila occasionally)

Has anyone tried to polar-mount the ETX-125 considering the very low latitude? can the motor turn the scope? I have an ETX-60 and its motor is too weak when I polar-mount it, not to mention the fork is too small.

One other possibility (I'm all over the place!) is the Vixen BT-70. I used to want the Fujinon 10x70 FMT-SX but realized that without 45- or 90-degree eyepieces your neck will eventually kill you. Downside of the BT-70 is it can't do high mag very well, and with light pollution planets are your friend :-)

Post by **VinSnr** » Mon Aug 10, 2009 12:23 pm

I say send your 10" f/5 mirror to dobstuff and ask them to build a simple structure around it. Then ship it to Singapore.

The cost of everything will be the same as buying a new scope here because you need OTA and mount + shipping..

With this, at least your 10" mirror don't sit around collecting dust

orly_andico · Post by **orly_andico** » Mon Aug 10, 2009 1:27 pm

Vincent,
that's a good idea.. actually now that I've checked out DobStuff I was thinking I can order the wood parts only and I can assemble it myself.

Thanks!

Post by **VinSnr** » Mon Aug 10, 2009 1:42 pm

orly_andico wrote:Vincent,
that's a good idea.. actually now that I've checked out DobStuff I was thinking I can order the wood parts only and I can assemble it myself.

Thanks!

Yes..that's very viable too. Especially if you already have some experience in woodwork.

And it would be minimal cost for shipping if you just order the wood parts.

orly_andico · Post by **orly_andico** » Mon Aug 10, 2009 7:35 pm

crikey.. Dennis Steele quoted $600 for just the wood parts!

At that rate I'm better off getting a used ETX 125 from A-Mart for the same price and have Go-To and tracking. My 10" is a Guan Sheng anyway, not a Royce, so I'm not going to lose sleep over it gathering dust.

Post by **acc** » Mon Aug 10, 2009 10:46 pm

Check out william optics online store for free shipping of scopes and accessories direct from Taiwan. Import duty is 7% for shipments costing more than $400.