Hi Ann, I've heard very good things about the Orion scopes, as Chuck has verified. The scopes from William Optics are also quite highly-rated and are seductively priced. You can read about them here. http://www.william-optics.com/ Here are a couple of very good review sites. They might be helpful here and they're great for cloudy, wintry nights. http://www.cloudynights.com http://www.scopereviews.com As far as mounts go, I have a couple of thoughts. Those among us who do a lot of astrophotography might comment. Your C11 has a solid mount, except that it's alt-az. A wedge probably won't work well for a scope that heavy. But there might be software that allows you to take a zillion short exposures and then perform the field derotation before integrating the exposures. That would be great, since an 80mm scope would piggyback nicely on the C-11. I suppose you could also use the C-11 as a guide scope. But if you buy an EQ mount, take whatever load-carrying weight that's claimed for the mount and divide by 2 (3 would be better). A mount that's rated for, say 20 pounds, might carry 20 pounds without falling over. But it will shake like a Rotweiler spotting a bag full of kittens. Michael -----Original Message-----

From: Ann Blanchard <blanchard-a@ugs.utah.edu> Sent: Oct 4, 2006 1:45 PM To: utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com Subject: [Utah-astronomy] Which 80 mm refractor to buy?

We have an 11" Celestron CPC (our first telescope purchased this June), and we are really enjoying, but we have been thinking it would be good to have a smaller, more portable scope, for ease of use and perhaps some simple astrophotography. My husband, Craig has been looking at an 80 mm refractor such as the Meade ED triplet apo (series 5000), or the Orion ED apo, or the Celstron Onyx ED. Has anyone used these and have a recommendation? We also don't know what would be a good, but not too expensive equatorial mount for a refractor. Thanks for any advice you have, when you are just starting, there are so many choices, it's hard to know what might be best.

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