What is the perfect Grab and Go classic telescope? Which of your classics to you take out for a quick look at the Moon or Jupiter? Which one do you leave set up close to the door for convenience? Please show us a picture of yours.
What is “enough” aperture in a portable scope? Is 60mm the minimum? How about focal length. Do you need 800mm or will 500mm do? There is no wrong opinion here. It’s a matter of taste. What is your preference?
To be considered Grab and Go it should be:
1. Reasonably light weight and portable. No Cave 16 inch Newtonians, please!
2. Offer good performance with some detail for planetary, lunar and double star observing.
3. Quick and easy. One or two trips out the door to be ready for observing. No complicated extra pieces to assemble.
Here is my current favorite. It’s a Vixen Polaris SA-70-S. It has a 70mm aperture and 600mm focal length so it’s got a lot of punch in a convenient package. The equatorial mount adds some bulk but is very nice for high power observing. And this scope can deliver! The optics are perfect and it is a triplet semi-apochromat, one of the early ones from the 1980’s. It was made to compete with the Takahashi TS65P triplet and it does so shiningly. You can actually see the 5mm aperture difference in careful comparisons. I was able to resolve the closer of the Epsilon Lyrae doubles more cleanly with this scope than with my TS65P.
Edited by Dave Trott, 01 June 2022 - 12:30 PM.