"Tony Flanders" wrote in message
...
"Tom E." wrote in message
...

Naw, I just wanted something for planets. Something I can take out of
the
house without a fuss.

I'm quite familiar with that niche. I don't think that a 60mm refractor
makes any sense at all for it. Not that I have anything against 60mm
refractors; they have many virtues. But the amount of planetary detail
that you can see with such a minimal aperture is extremely limited.
And if carrying out of the house without fuss is your limiting
factor, you can easily handle a *much* bigger scope, giving you
much more planetary detail.

If cooldown time is an issue, a 4" refractor would probably make
sense, and if not, a 6" - 8" catadioptric or Newt would be better
yet. You can also get a Newt to cool down reasonably well in you're
willing to install a fan.

- Tony Flanders

I already have a 114mm newt, a cheapo, and don't really want another one.
The supplied eyepieces were a 20mm, which at 900 f.l. only shows a small
white disk for Jupiter, and the supplied 4mm couldn't resolve. I guess a
9mm
could actually work. Anyways, X-mas is coming up and I have the scope
fever.
Those Mak's look perfect for planets. Would the EXT 90 fork mount track a
planet well enough to photograph? I can't quite see a heafty camera riding
on that
thing, so CCD is a thought. Can it track obects such as M31 well enough?

Is that Stellarvue Nighthawk any good? Better or worse than the Orion ED?
I sort of like the refractor idea because I can eventually put it on an
accurate mount
such as the cheaper Losmandy or Vixen models.
-Tom