Would it be easy enough to stick it in the boot of my car and drive to a dark site?
Newtonian or Cassegrain?
Equatorial or Altazimuth?
A 5" Newtonian with a german equatorial mount can be a real bear to fit in the trunk. A 5" Cassegrain on a yoke equatorial, or altazimuth mount can easily be plopped down on the passenger side seat.
Probably, unless it has a REALLY long focal length. (or the tripod is really big)
With the rear sets folded down I could fit my 8in dobsonian and mount in my Geo Prizm. (would have been tough without fold-down rear seats)
Scmitt-Cassegrains(sp) are very portable for thier appeture.
Brian
[QUOTE=Squink]
Newtonian or Cassegrain?
Equatorial or Altazimuth?
I’m not sure what you would call the telescope but the mount is an equatorial.
The one I’m thinking of buying is on Ebay and can be seen here.
Also, any thoughts anyone has on wether this would make a reasonable first telescope would be welcome.
That is a Newtonian reflector (you can tell by the placement of the eyepiece). Give that the aperture is 5", the 'scope would seem to be in the neighborhood of around f3 or thereabouts, making it a fairly fast (read bright image) 'scope. This is good for viewing faint objects, but the tradeoff is that you’ll need more expensive short-focus eyepieces to get high magnification. Magnification = mirror focal length / eyepiece focal length. Overall, it looks like a pretty good deal for a novice user.
Although I must note the advertiser badly mangled the magnification formula I supplied above, among other things. I wouldn’t trust them for probviding terribly accurate specs, so be warned. Ask about their return policy before bidding or buying.
Sounds like a good first telescope. Most first timers are interested in big mirrors and a lot of magnification. Actually, for the amateur a smaller mirror, 5 or 6" and magnifications of up to 100 or so are best. You get a nice image and it’s bright enough to see.
Somehow I divided 900 mm focal length by 114 mm mirror diameter and came up with a speed of 7.8 which is fairly normal. Either the 12 or 20 mm eyepiece should be fine for looking at most stuff. Unless you have an electrically driven tracking mount the 4 and 6 mm won’t be a lot of use for astronmomical use. The field of view is so small it will be difficult to keep the object in it.
Hmmm. I missed the part where the f/l was quoted (I used the photo to guesstimate dimensions). Also 114 mm would be a 4.5" mirror, not a 5" as the ad states. At least the ad promises a full refund if you’re not happy, so despite the errors, it seems like a good deal.
I’ve got a Celestron 114 mm Newtonian Reflector, German equatorial mount. The tube’s probably a little less than 6" in diameter and it’s 3ish/3 and a half-ish feet in length. When you add the spotting scope and eyepieces on top, you’ll probably need about a foot of room. It fits quite nicely in my backseat, secured with seatbelts, with room to spare. The equatorial mount is trickier - the legs detach and are wood, and fold down on themselves like tripod legs, so their easy. However, the base is a heavy metal monstrosity that’s got parts sticking out everywhere - the counter balance, the two setting circles, the three leg attachments, the adjustment cables, etc. It’s not very large, but it is awkward. However, it fits easily in my truck with plenty of room to spare, and I bet I could fit it on the floor in front of the back seat, if I needed to.
Yep, it’s plenty portable. I can’t imagine you having too many problems.