That's a fair view of the difference between the two designs. I tend to think of the Newtonian as the keep-at-home-telescope and the M. Cassegrain as a take-everywhere-telescope.

trust William C. to come up with the goodies as usual with his very very slow SCT..... Where did he go to take those 900 shots? Ulu Yam ah?

I spent the whole night out from 10.30pm to sunrise this morning enjoying Mars from my garden, the sky for once was excellent by KL city standards! Also rewarded with a nice old Moon with significant earthshine! If the weather holds up, it's another sleepless night for me tonite......

Why do you find it interesting by just looking it up until down? The weather of my place is so bad...The light of Mars is so fair...

well, the night sky in KL is so bad most of the year that when a rare night like this turns up, i make lots of coffee, and enjoy myself renewing my acquaintance with all the friends up there (using my trusty old binoculars of course)...... Somemore Saturday night, no need to work today.
It's a good way to unwind from workstress and FRUSTRATION

Don't worry too much, Mars will still be nice and bright for sometime. I'm sure that u'll have at least one reasonable night this week.

one more thing is the heavy weight equatorial mount of the C6-NGT.I think
it works better than the one on the ETX series...
But if u want to climb mountain definitley cant with the C6-NGT..
mm..i think u better buy either one first..and then buy the other later!
how about that? nice idea huh??

that's what i mean when i said the Newtonian design (BTW, i am not refering to the brand or model) is a keep-at-home telescope.
It is a great telescope to have for DSO (in the short focal length incarnation), but if u live in the urban areas like most of us do, then there's obviously a limit to what u can see with it except on rare nights. If i had to bundle it into the car and drive a hundred kilometers away from civilisation to use it at its full potential, then i don't think i will be using it much. Penangites will beg to differ....

The reason why the Catadioptics are selling like hotcakes (again, any brand) is because of their wider range of applications for everyday use. If i only could afford to buy ONE telescope in the less than RM10,000 range, then my choice would be down to a Maksutov-Cassegrain-very portable, or a 8" Schmidt-Cassegrain (like what William C uses)-not as portable, but really excellent performance for the money. Both are great for Astro and Terrestrial photography.

A good solid equatorial mount would be a nice accessory if i want to do a lot of astrophotography, but personally, i don't have the nights for it, being a Klang Valley working class citizen. Maybe when I retire.....

Of course, most serious astronomy enthusiasts will end up having more than one telescope after their first one: fast and slow reflector/refractor, large SCT, solarscope, the list is endless if the pocket is big enough.

I think I better go with the ETX-105AT but too bad Looi(Malaysia Meade Dealer) doesn't allow installments. This is terrible since I cannot afford to pay so much just in a time. I still need RM1300 arr

then go and collect your angpow lar..now raya+deepavali rite?
u surely can earn some more $$$

You are as evil as your avatar

Hey man, let's see what's this!

Anyone can tell?

Edited: It is very shiny. I think it is located at the west. Check it out! First reply is updated!

This post has been edited by Mr.LKM: Nov 1 2005, 08:10 PM

The Newtonian is a Reflector i.e. it uses a concave mirror to bring light from far away to a focus.
Yes, it is suitable for planet viewing. But it would have to be very large and long (slow focal ratio) if you want to see big & bright images of the planets.

I have no idea what that shiny object is. I think it is a UFO! The end of the world is coming!

like my new avatar?

Newtonian is the cheapest way to get longer focal length.
it can be anything..difficult to know what planet for theres no other clue.

It was damn shine...

By the way, C6-NGT has higher aperture and 750mm focal length while 105AT has 2" lower than it and 1400 focal length, which one is more suitable for planet viewing? In the other hand, C6-NGT is a lot better than 105-AT in DSO observing.

I am so confused!!!! Portability is not important as I don't have car and I won't climb up the mountain. (maybe someday)

Ok, the end of the world didn't happen, what a relief!

U are facing the same confusion ppl always face when choosing the first and maybe only telescope. Don't worry, take your time to decide.
Just remember that a telescope which can do everything well doesn't exist.
Basically, if you are interested in deep sky objects, the preference is for a short focal length (fast) telescope. If your priority is planetary objects, then you need a long focal length (slow) telescope.
It is like comparing camera lenses: which do you want? A wide angle lens or a telephoto?

Isn't bigger aperture do better work? 6" aperture gathers more 2X of light than the 4.13". ( told by professional astronomers )

Mmmm....I wonder who these `professional astronomers' are. They're are emphasising only ONE factor in the design of a telescope.
Of course, the bigger the more light collecting ability. But that is only one out of many factors to consider. The quality of the mirror (problems of spherical abberation, since larger surfaces are harder to polish correctly) is also important, as is the efficiency of the reflective coating. A larger surface also requires better support to keep various forces from distorting the shape as the telescope moves to different positions. The need for accurate collimation (alignment) also is another critcal factor, since the tube is longer, and therefore more prone to misalignment.
As I have mentioned earlier, you need to take into account the cost of the mount too. All the savings you get from a cheap Newtonian optical unit goes into the need to have an expensive strong mount.

What I am trying to say is that you shouldn't be too caught up in the technical aspects of the telescope, because just like buying a digital camera, you can argue `til the cows come home on whether a Nikon or Canon or KM design is better........

Concentrate more on how and where you plan to use it.
If you are mainly going to be watching from your garden or around your house area, you have to consider the kind of sky conditions available most of the time.

Watching DSOs requires relatively clear skies and that means you need to take the telescope with you to dark areas. Remember that the Newtonian such as the one mentioned earlier is quite heavy and bulky compared to a Maksutov from the same manufacturer, and you may even think twice about carrying it out to the garden if the sky doesn't look too promising.
If you think that you don't mind driving off to the middle of nowhere at the drop of a hat, then get a fast telescope. But i think i'd be more interested in bringing along a larger 10 or 12" Dobsonian for the trouble I had to go through to get to a dark area.

On the other hand, looking at the planets is possible even under so called poor seeing conditions because they are such bright objects. This means that you generally have more opportunity to use a `slow' telescope, especially if it is light and easy to carry out into the open.

Frankly, a professional astronomer would not likely be using only a 6" telescope. I would guess more in the range of at least 18". Smaller Newtonians are very popular amongst traditional amateur astronomy enthusiasts, and you generally find these people the most opinionated about the equipment they prefer. I think many of them even frown on GOTO telescopes too as being not challenging enough (like doing astronomy for dummies).
For me, to each his own.

Anyone saw the sky tonight around 7.30pm? There was one star (is it a star?) situated upper the moon. I have taken the photo but I can't upload it, I am now at the Cyber Cafe. My pc hdd is broken...

Venus again.

yea..today at around 7.30pm also can see very beautiful moon+venus side
by side..didnt bring my cam along and when reached home at about 9pm
venus olredi gone show us ur pict later Mr.LKM

No problem guys, I think the shinny star was the Venus. I will be ordering my ETX105AT from K.K. Looi (The best seller ever ).

your hdd repaired yet? Hope you didn't lose any important data. HDD crash very scary lah. Always got something forgot to back up...gone forever.