Hi
My existing telescope is becoming too cumbersome & heavy for me to handle. I get serious neck ache & back ache every time I use it! Therefore I want to buy a light telescope with a GoTo. Mike has suggested a Celestron NexStar which looks ideal to me. Do any of you have one I could look at and see how heavy it is etc.? Or could you tell me where the best place place would be to buy one where I could check it out first.
Cheers
Delphine
Hi Delphine,
A look on the Net showed Astronomia of Dorking stock Celestron. We went there to buy our mount and they seemed very helpful, knowledgable and had a reasonable stock, though it's always worth calling first. Also Dorking is not far to go and has a lot of interesting shops worth browsing. In terms of reviews of telescopes try these sites.
http://www.cloudynights.com/category.php?category_id=2 (http://www.cloudynights.com/category.php?category_id=2)
http://www.scopereviews.com/ (http://www.scopereviews.com/)
Good luck
Roy
The Celestron Nexstar sounds like a good choice Delphine since you don't plan to do any imaging.
Simon who joined the society a couple of years ago had one but he seems to have disappeared off the face of the Earth. I've got his work E Mail address (assuming he still works there), but the shop in Dorking sounds like a good bet.
You want to try lifting an NEQ6!!! ;)
Carole
I had the Celestron 130SLT - in fact I still have it - down in France.
Optics are fine but the Go-To mount (same as the other NextStars) was only just adequate for it - it takes a while to calm down after being nudged - especially with a heavier eyepiece. The whole thing is extremely light though.
I did manage to set it up for eyepiece projection:
(http://www.markshelley.co.uk/Astronomy/eye_projection_1_t.jpg)
to obtain this image of Saturn:
(http://www.markshelley.co.uk/Astronomy/saturn150407.jpg)
Mark
Hi Roy, Carole & Mark,
Thanks for your replies. I have looked at the reviews on the links you posted Roy and I am pretty certain that I should go for the Celestron NexStar. The only negative thing that I can find on the reviews is that the GoTo mount is possibly a little bit flimsy as you also mention Mark. However I am prepared to put up with that if it means that is light to carry. As Carole says I am not planning to get into any serious imaging so possibly that won't be too much of an issue. I may take the odd shot of the moon and planets though.
Thanks again for your input.
Cheers
Delphine