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"Grab and Go" scopes and accessories

  • johnomahony
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8 years 3 weeks ago - 8 years 3 weeks ago #105596 by johnomahony
"Grab and Go" scopes and accessories was created by johnomahony
With all of the lousy weather recently (with the exception of Saturday night ;) I find that I do not have the will to set up a large telescope in the garden during small breaks in the weather. This was never an issue in Australia :-(

Last Summer I picked up a 90mm Skywatcher Mak Cass (bargain buy) off Amazon and placed it onto my old EQ1 mount which was still in its packing box for over five years. I found it a good scope for looking at the moon and planets and it can take some decent pictures with a Canon camera attached. It is not bad for looking at clusters and nebulae either. It can be picked up with one hand and carried outside and is ready to use in seconds. I found myself using it at every opportunity.
I have acquired a few upgrades to make it a good general purpose scope.

1) replaced the red dot finder with one from my Lightbridge which is better quality
2) Use a William optics 1.25" diagonal and Meade Plossl 4000 eyepieces (ones supplied are junk)
3) Purchased a drive motor for the EQ1 mount from Telescope Service- this works very well for visual use-even at high power
4) A nice TS dew cap
5) A Seymour glass solar filter from KTec for daytime use

I find myself using this scope 90% of the time and leave it permanently assembled near the back door ready to take out at a moments notice.
Unfortunately my new binoculars , which were purchased to complete the package have been sent back to Amazon due to bad field curvature that left only 3 degrees of the FoV usable at night. I have order a replacement pair from FLO (SP 10x50 WP).

What are your primary grab and go options?

The Lord giveth, the Revenue taketh away. (John 1:16)

www.flickr.com/photos/7703127@N07/
Last edit: 8 years 3 weeks ago by johnomahony.
The following user(s) said Thank You: michael_murphy, Mike

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8 years 3 weeks ago #105598 by michael_murphy
Replied by michael_murphy on topic "Grab and Go" scopes and accessories
Mine is an 8" dob.

Not exactly grab and go but I leave it set up in a shed in the back garden.

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8 years 3 weeks ago #105599 by lunartic_old
Replied by lunartic_old on topic "Grab and Go" scopes and accessories
I just picked up a Celestron SLT 102 for a grab and go, I haven't had the opportunity to get it out under the stars, most likely the diagonal will be the first thing to go.

Paul

Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better programs, and the universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the universe is winning.

Rich Cook

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8 years 3 weeks ago #105600 by Fermidox
Replied by Fermidox on topic "Grab and Go" scopes and accessories
It takes me just about 10 mins to have the nexstar SE8 up and aligned, I generally have a set task for every observing session so randomly grabbing and going doesn't really come into the picture.

For prosaic tasks such as spotting Mercury along the horizon I have the 15 x 70 Skymaster binos.

Finbarr.

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