A Big Hello and a few questions on a telescope...

Thanks for the helpful pointers ye all, this has been great help. Eugene, that is not too far from me but I'm only around weekends but hopefully I could come down on a holiday period.

I'm sent them a mail to see if they ship to Ireland. The ordering system only has shipping costs for the UK. Some good prices there though.

Collegecameras do ship to Ireland but they're currently out of stock of nearly all their telescopes - only 1 of the high-end ones left. They'll have them back in in mid-April.

Steve

Hello Hamster,

I read your post and thought I have a telescope that could be suitable for yourself. The specs of the scope are below.

FOR SALE TAL-150P 150mm (6") Newtonian Reflector Telescope

PRICE £275 – open to negotiation.

If interested E-mail me at neillmckeown@hotmail.com or contact me on the forum.

Magnification Range: x30, x60, x75, x150
Diameter of Primary Mirror: 150mm
Diffraction Limited Optics
Telescope Focal Length: 750mm (f/5)
Eyepieces Supplied (1.25"): 10mm & 25mm Plossls x2 Barlow Lens
8x50 Finderscope
Filters Supplied: Blue, Red, Green,Yellow, Grey and Black
Parabolic Primary Mirror
Equatorial Mount
Heavy Duty Pedestal Stand with Built-in Vibration Suppression Pads

Neill

Thanks Neill,

I will take your offer into consideration. I expect won't be purchasing until mid or May anyway. That's a nice starter kit btw.

Btw, Greenwich replied to me to consider the Orion
Optics 8" scopes - "the Europa range are very good
value for money. They come on the Vixen GPE mount
with wooden tripod legs which are better at damping out
the vibrations. The 8" scopes come in F ratios
of 4.5, 6, and 8 - so if you want a multi-purpose
scope for moon/planets and DSO's I would recommend a 8" F6.
The price of these instruments are 549 ( 50 more than
Celestron)" See www.orionoptics.co.uk .

Anyone try wooden tripods... I could imagine that vibrations would be dampened more effectively but would still need to be solid/heavy?

Anyone try wooden tripods... I could imagine that vibrations would be dampened more effectively but would still need to be solid/heavy?

Oh they will be strong alright! They are treated, and made from a certain wood (in most cases - not just some planks of pine/deal). Wod, which is not as dense as metal but can be as strong in a lot of cases (obviously there are limits), is great for dampening vibrations.

Why do people think the equatorial is not so simple? I got the C8-N manual and I'll go thru it. It looks like a very solid and stable piece of kit.

I bought a celestron C8-N about eighteen months ago and would have no problem recommending it. Set up takes 10 min.......I'd prefer less but 10 min OK.

Bought it off North Down Telescopes for ST£500. Drove up to Bangor in 2-3 hours from Dublin and put scope in the back of my car. Andy McCra kindly assembled it for me and ran me through the basics in his garage. Also bought the celestron eyepiece kit for ST£100 same night.

Damon