Dave Hedgehog wrote:
Hello all,
I am interested in getting a telescope mainly looking at the planets &
galaxies. I'm not really interested in astrophotography at the moment
but I guess this may come in the future.

The above 2 scopes are in my price range & was hoping somebody on here
with more technical knowlege of scopes etc could advise me what they
would consider the best buy.

The magnification of the Nexstar 4 SE using a 25mm eyepiece is given
as 53x whereas the SLT 102 has 26.4x.
Is this all a newbie astronomer, who just wants to take it out into
his back garden & have a browse around the sky, should be interested
in. Both scopes are obviously computer controlled which makes my life
easier when trying to find things.

The Nexstar 4 SE is quite a new scope, I believe, so if anybody
actually has one & could provide their comments that would be great.

Thanks in advance,
Dave


Hi Dave,

Funnily enough, I'm looking at one of these as a second 'grab and go'
scope to my 6-inch refractor.

Currently I'm leaning towards the SLT 102 as I've always found
refractors to be trouble-free as far as maintenance is concerned.

If you look at the Cloudy Nighs forums there is a one specifically for
NexStars with a lot of usefuls hands-on opinions of both scopes:

http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbthrea....php/Cat/0/C/5

The reason for the difference in magnification is the difference in
focal length of the 2 scopes

SLT 102 = 660mm
4 SE = 1325mm

Magnification = focal length of objective (lens/mirror) divided by focal
length of eyepiece, hence

1325/25 = 53x
660/25 = 26.4

Do a search for "telescope buying FAQ" and you'll find a number of sites
that will give a far better explanation of the merits of short/long
focal lengths than I could ever do :-)

To be honest, from what I've read so far, I think you'd be happy with
either scope.
Not much help eh? - ha ha

Good luck,

Jeff
NE England