Telescope Reviews: What Scope(s) Do You Have??

Oh what a question....

I have a few scopes.

1. Tasco Star Guide 60. 60mm F11. Bought this as part of Pete Rassmussen's Tsumni relief project. Kind of fun, the focuser is sloppy but everything pretty much works. Limited aperture...

2. TeleVue Pronto (70mm 480mm FL) Extremely well made mechanically, no casting here, all machined parts as far as I can see. Pretty darn nice optics, does a great job as a wide field scope, 4.5 to 5 degree FOVs at 15X is pretty impressive, works nicely at higher powers given the limited aperture, takes a great night for me to see the Cassini, splits doubles nicely. Works as a birding scope for both visual and digiscoping. THe only real issue is that it is an achromat and under some circumstances the false color is evident.

3. Tasco Rocket Scope/Orion Fun Scope. Bought the first one at WalMart for $28. This is a 3 inch Portaball style plastic toy dob. 3 in F3.7. Down Side: 30X correct image eyepiece, not too good. No finder, Eyepieces are proprietary though 1.25 inch but two pins keep one from using standard eyepieces.

The Good side: Knock those pins out, collimate this little scope, use the slip and slide focusing and it is pretty amazing. Surprisingly sharp images, does diffraction rings at 116X. I actually bought a second one from Orion so I could remove the optics and make a real scope...

One can even hand hold the scope, cradling it.

3. Celestron First Scope 80 EQ, F11.4.. CG-3 mount, not so bad, not so great: What I like: This scope does surprisingly well for an 80mm, showed the Cassini clearly, false color is minimal, does a nice job on double stars and even DSOs. At F11 focusing is not so critical. Does a nice job with simple eyepieces, plossls are sharp edge to edge. What I don't like: 1.25 inch focuser. This scope would be pretty awesome with a 2 inch focuser, field of view is just a bit limited.

4. Burgess Optical 102F6.. For the price, this scope is pretty nice mechanically but optically is it horrible. After waiting nearly a year on a promised 1 month delivery, it arrived with aperture stopped down to 80mm but was still badly astigmatic. A closet sitter that may be used for parts.

5. Old C-5 OTA, Not a bad scope, certainly the most compact 5 incher out there, With a focal reducer it can provide a wide field of view. It does OK at most things. I don't use it much,,,,

6. Orion Space Probe 130ST OTA. A favorite. It is fitted with a 2 inch focuser and provides nice wide field views. It also does a nice job at high powers on the planets and double stars. It is quite compact, 24 inch tube length and about 7 lbs. Dislikes: Cool down is relatively quick but it is not a refractor in the regard. Tube dents when dropped.. :-( Mounted on an Orion EQ-3 with dual drives and a Vixen wooden legs, this scope is a solid performer.

7. Konus 8 inch F5 Newt. Got this from Jeff Moore. One of the older Synta ones, optics are pretty darn good. Focuser needed some real work but I think I finally nailed it. This scope has a built in T-ring and will come to focus with a 35mm camera. OF course cool down is an issue and there are the various issues with rotating the OTA for viewing but I think this is a pretty good scope.

Currently it sits on a CG-5 but I just got an CG-5/GOTO/Celestron so when the rain stops I will give that a try.

8. OPT Starhunter 10. Essentially the same scope as the Hardin 10 inch DOB. I like this one, 2 inch focuser, small enough to be reasonably compact, easy to move about, big enough to do some damage. Optics seem very good, does a good job on the planets. Nice wide FOV with a 2 inch eyepiece for DSOs and of course with 10 inchers of aperture it is nice for hunting. Focuser is better than the Syntas, uses two nice chunks of Teflon. It holds collimation well.

On the other hand, the mount could be better, it needs the Telfon/Ebony Star treatment. Cooldown is an issue as it is with any 10 incher. Probably the scope I use the most for astronomy.

9. 12.5 inch Discovery, F4.06. This is an older scope and I have a "love-hate" relationship with it. I have upgraded most of the weak points, built a new mount out of birch ply, replaced the primary cell with a Novak, had the mirror refigured and both recoated, replaced the focuser with a JMI, RCF.

SO what I ended up with is a 12.5 inch Tube DOB that will fit in my 1992 Ford Escort Hatchback, has an OTA that weighs about 50lbs and is 52 inches long, can be setup in 41 seconds after arriving at a spot, provides some pretty amazing DSO views and when the seeing is good does a nice job on the planets. With a Paracorr, the widefield views are even quite sharp edge to edge, and those widefield views are pretty wide, for a 12.5 incher, even with a Paracorr the focal length is under 1500mm, without its 1288... About the same as an ETX-90 but with somewhat more light gathering.

Sounds pretty good and it is...

But that F4.06 mirror means I am never quite sure whether it is collimated, it does take quite a while to cool (its 1.5 inches thick) and when the seeing is bad, everything, looks pretty bad... The lack of tracking is not a problem, the mount is solid and pretty smooth what with the Teflon and Ebony Star.

I think I would prefer a scope with F5 Optics that was as compact as this one, which of course is not happening...

Bottomline: The only reason I can see to get tangled up with an F4 scope is for size, I don't think there are many 12.5 inch scopes that are as compact as this one and that can be setup as quickly. But optically I think F5 is a better choice.

10. Coulter 13.1 incher. This is an old Blue one, I bought it for $100. It seems to have pretty good optics but the OTA weighs 85lbs and the base another 40 or so, too much work, too awkward, makes me realize how nice that 50lb Discovery OTA is. This scope is destined for South Carolina, donated to someone who needs it for a social project.

Best wishes, clear skies

jon