Upgrading your astro equipment
Posted: Wed Jul 21, 2021 9:04 pm
When and how to upgrade? People have written books on this subject. We all want to get maximal return on the investment and that's where discussions often heat up. "My no name $15 EP is as good as $300 Televue" or "Televue or nothing" - you see both statements quite often. Surprisingly, both could be correct. Because you need to consider all optical setup, not just EP .
After years of researching, testing and upgrading equipment I came with a few rules of thumb which seem to work surprisingly well. I don't claim that this is the only or the best way, but it works. I like to hear about your upgrading strategies as well.
1) You always start with telescope, this is where you get the most return on your investment. Weather your next scope has largeraperture or better optics, or both - that's where your money should go first.
2) Mount, as important as scope. Shaky mount will kill any benefits from telescope upgrades. Unfortunately, I see it all the time when people focus on the scope upgrades neglecting mounts. Big mistake! So, when you plan for the telescope upgrade always allocate founds to get the mount which carry the scope well.
3) EPs. Do I need $15 or $300EP ? My rule of thumb - don't spend on EPs more than you spent on the scope. Just to give you an example. My back to hobby scope was $300 90mm refractor on AltAz mount. I learned quite fast that EPs that came with the scope are not good and upgraded to Celestron X-Cel LX, ~$70 a piece. Later I discovered that $60 Dual EDs work as well as X-Cel LX in 80-100mm scopes. I saw clear improvement in the views and reach of the scope. They served my needs well until I have upgraded the scope to ~$800 8" SCT . Suddenly, the views at high powers became soft and other imperfections became evident. Upgrading to ES82 ~$150 a piece have fixed the issue. Could I have purchased ES82 for 90mm scope? Sure! Would I see as evident improvement in the view quality as with 8" SCT ? Likely not. I would probably be one of those guys writing "ES82 - what a rip off!" Even if I liked ES82 the performance improvement of dropping $800 on the set of ES82 with 90mm scope is much smaller then getting 8" SCT and keeping Celestron X-Cel LX set.
4) Diagonal. Not applicable to reflectors, but for CATs and refractors it is as important as EPs. My rule of thumb match diagonal price to your most expensiveEP . For 8" SCT I have upgraded to ~$150 2" dielectric and later added ~$160 T2 prism. When I moved to 9.25" Edge HT SCT I went with Baader premium diagonals and Pentax/TV EPs. Again, matching diagonal to EPs, and EPs to scope. Would I recommend $300 Baader diagonal for $300 scope? Nope.
To sum up, my recommendation would be basic $15-30 EPs (Plossls and such) for $100 scopes, $40-70 EPs for ~$300 scopes, $80-200 EPs for $1000, and so on. Can you buy $300EP for $100 scope? Absolutely! But, you will get much larger performance gain by getting $300 scope instead.
When, I was doing all these upgrades I did not go byEP prices, it is now looking back I have discovered that I seem to always end up matching EP set price to the scope price.
Your thoughts?
After years of researching, testing and upgrading equipment I came with a few rules of thumb which seem to work surprisingly well. I don't claim that this is the only or the best way, but it works. I like to hear about your upgrading strategies as well.
1) You always start with telescope, this is where you get the most return on your investment. Weather your next scope has larger
2) Mount, as important as scope. Shaky mount will kill any benefits from telescope upgrades. Unfortunately, I see it all the time when people focus on the scope upgrades neglecting mounts. Big mistake! So, when you plan for the telescope upgrade always allocate founds to get the mount which carry the scope well.
3) EPs. Do I need $15 or $300
4) Diagonal. Not applicable to reflectors, but for CATs and refractors it is as important as EPs. My rule of thumb match diagonal price to your most expensive
To sum up, my recommendation would be basic $15-30 EPs (Plossls and such) for $100 scopes, $40-70 EPs for ~$300 scopes, $80-200 EPs for $1000, and so on. Can you buy $300
When, I was doing all these upgrades I did not go by
Your thoughts?