6" or 8" and what focal ratio?

I have used a lot of telescopes in my time, but usually other peoples! However,
I went out and purchased a skywatcher 8" f5 on an HEQ5 mount just a couple of
months ago. The mount is very good, and the optics are at least good, if not
excellent. The OTA was collomited out of the box, which says a lot for the
quality of the mirror cell.

Cost? £575. The 2" 28mm lens is crap, but I have converted it to fit on my
casio 8000SX. Not a bad deal!

Just a thought, really.

Regards,

Geoff GJ

Jonathan Silverlight wrote in message ...

You're right, but I'm saying he should save some money for later and
just point the digital camera he's probably already got toward the
eyepiece :-) As I found out a while ago, it really is that easy and the
first picture will get him hooked!

Agree entirely Jonathon. Having featureless pictures of the details
you can't see is great fun. g
Seriously though, it is unbelievably easy to capture as much as one
can see visually. And sometimes more than one can see easily. Even
with the camera just held up to the eyepiece like I do with the scope
drive running. Highly recommended for those slightly jaded with visual
observation due to endless poor seeing or light pollution and
wondering what to do next.
The Moon is a perfect target for "snaps". Just blast away and dump
the rubbish frames when you've downloaded onto the computer. Remember
to get a nice big storage device with the camera. 128Megs at least.
They usually cheat and give you 16 or even only 8Megs which isn't much
fun reformatting every five minutes. Don't buy cheap batteries either.
Like I did and missed capturing most of the Mercury transit after
the cloud had cleared! My Sony ones last for ages and I use a £12
turbo recharger from the supermarket for the new Sony spares. (which
deflates them before pumping them back up again to ensure full
pressure)g The Sony recharger was very expensive and put me off a
fast recharger for far too long. Unless you like waiting 13 hours + to
use your camera every time the batteries go flat. Then stick with the
original Sony "Snailspace" (reg.) charger. This obviously won't apply
to other makes.
Oh, and get a Barlow to go with your digi camera. Trying to stick the
camera up against a 6.4 (or even less) leaves you looking through a
small round keyhole. With similar shaped pictures. A bit like
Hollywood's idea of a telescopic view. The Barlow lets you use lower
power eyepieces with nice big eye lenses to hold the camera up to. Am
I getting too technical again?

Chris.B

Jonathan Silverlight wrote in message ...

You're right, but I'm saying he should save some money for later and
just point the digital camera he's probably already got toward the
eyepiece :-) As I found out a while ago, it really is that easy and the
first picture will get him hooked!

Agree entirely Jonathon. Having featureless pictures of the details
you can't see is great fun. g
Seriously though, it is unbelievably easy to capture as much as one
can see visually. And sometimes more than one can see easily. Even
with the camera just held up to the eyepiece like I do with the scope
drive running. Highly recommended for those slightly jaded with visual
observation due to endless poor seeing or light pollution and
wondering what to do next.
The Moon is a perfect target for "snaps". Just blast away and dump
the rubbish frames when you've downloaded onto the computer. Remember
to get a nice big storage device with the camera. 128Megs at least.
They usually cheat and give you 16 or even only 8Megs which isn't much
fun reformatting every five minutes. Don't buy cheap batteries either.
Like I did and missed capturing most of the Mercury transit after
the cloud had cleared! My Sony ones last for ages and I use a £12
turbo recharger from the supermarket for the new Sony spares. (which
deflates them before pumping them back up again to ensure full
pressure)g The Sony recharger was very expensive and put me off a
fast recharger for far too long. Unless you like waiting 13 hours + to
use your camera every time the batteries go flat. Then stick with the
original Sony "Snailspace" (reg.) charger. This obviously won't apply
to other makes.
Oh, and get a Barlow to go with your digi camera. Trying to stick the
camera up against a 6.4 (or even less) leaves you looking through a
small round keyhole. With similar shaped pictures. A bit like
Hollywood's idea of a telescopic view. The Barlow lets you use lower
power eyepieces with nice big eye lenses to hold the camera up to. Am
I getting too technical again?

Chris.B