I'm after a telescope upgrade

[funkyrobot]

Hello all. I recently got into astronomy, and now have a valid reason to be in the garden staring at the sky in the early hours of the morning. Up until now i've been using a 60mm plastic cheapo refractor that my fiancee bought me from a supermarket (for about £40) last year.

I've had a lot of fun with this telescope (and the astronomy has been great ) but am now hankering for something better. I rate the scope as a learner tool and it has been most useful for learning where things are in the sky etc, but I would like to see more.

I've been looking at new scopes and for some reason I seem drawn to the maksutov-cassegrain style. I have found a scope here which seems a good step up for me and seems to tick the right boxes (is this maksutov or schmidt?):

http://www.telescopehouse.com/acatalog/Skywatcher_...

So, would this be a good step up from my basic learner one? The above scope is at the far end of my budget but is affordable. Also, is there any benefit of buying a maksutov-cassegrain style scope over a normal newtonian reflector or refractor? To me it seems like the scope is more compact and this will be useful for me as I have back problems. I have also read that reflectors need regular mirror maintenance?

I'm not too fussed about the go-to mount (and I would much prefer to learn the skies before being told where things are) but this seems to come with this scope. I like to look at planets and deep-sky objects, but some brilliant views of Jupiter would be the key (i've seen Jupiter through my cheapo scope but it all seems smudged).

I back up my viewings with binoculars which are a very handy tool, but I would love to be able to point at a planet or a nebula and see more detail. I know deep-sky objects are difficult and I know you won't get the images that you see in the mags, but I would like to make the next step towards this.

I'm also interested in getting into astro-photography, but a decent camera will have to follow a decent scope.

So, anyone have any ideas? Thanks all

Edited to add - anybody know of any good scope retailers in the Lincs area, or will I need to use mail order or travel to find one?

Edited by funkyrobot on Monday 13th December 13:39

[nellyleelephant]

The Skymax seems to have a good reputation on Stargazerslounge.

The advantage over of a newtonian or reflector is the high focal length achived in a relatively short tube, my dobsonian has a focal langth the same as the Skymax but is 5.5 feet long!
Contrast is also supposed to be better too, so good on planets, not sure how well it will work on deep sky stuff, but it will certainly be a big step up from what you have now.

Regarding astrophotography, the mount won't be suitable as it's an alt-az type, which will suffer from field rotation on longer exposures. You could probably fit a wedge which will replicate an equatorial mount though.

Hope this helps!

[funkyrobot]

Thanks a lot. All information is helpful .

I'll bear the contrast thing in mind then, and the astro-imaging. The dobsonians, like the one you have, seem like monster scopes!! .

I've been looking a bit more and found these now (which are too much dosh but look nice):

http://www.sherwoods-photo.com/celestron_scopes/ce...

[nellyleelephant]

My dobsonian is pretty big, but it has 300mm aperture and that really does make a difference. I bought mine 2nd hand, no way I was going to pay £1300 for it! Although big, they're less hassle than, say, an 8" newtonian on a eq5 simply because there are less parts.

Plus, if you want to upgrade in the future, you can always mount them for astrophotography.

Just to give you an idea of what you can see through mine, the main equatorial bands on Jupiter are a doddle, you can make out smaller banding with a bit of training. Shadows from moon transits are also viewable (if that's a word). The Great Red Spot is also there too. I've no doubt you would see these things in a smaller scope, just with, perhaps, less clarity. It's the deep sky viewing where aperture really counts though, and if you're interested in that, I can't recommend a large dob/newtonian enough.

You can always upgrade the mount later don't forget.

[IanMorewood]

Tripod looks a bit on the flimsy side if you ask me but then its only a 5” mirror so not too heavy, good news is that it should be fairly light and easy to setup and with Goto drive you should be seeing interesting things within a short space of time.