grab and go scope

can anyone give me their personal opinions for hands on experience with high quality grab and go scopes, and any comments on personal favorites, peripheral equipment, etc. ... my interest is in getting help (information without salesmanship) with the nexus on high capability, versatility, as well as true portability for my next scope.
cheers

The Stellarvue Nighthawk 80mm and the William Optics ZenithStar 80mm are both short tube f/6 refractors that are ideal for beginners who want to learn the sky and want a QUALITY BUILT scope.

Nighthawk

http://www.buytelescopes.com/product.asp?t=&pid=5324&m=93

ZenithStar

http://www.buytelescopes.com/product.asp?t=&pid=8432&m=49

I am waiting to recieve my William Optics ZenithStar 80mm and will post a first light report after the first clear night.

Don
There is a TV85 with mount at a very good price up in Astromart right now in the Refractors section that would fit the bill.
Buck

Televue 85

Televue build quality, Televue Optics, F7 which IMHO is an ideal compromise between wide field and planetary viewing in a small refractor. Also keeps the grab and go in mind as it keeps the tube short. Consistently excellent reviews and can be had for a reasonable price used on AM. The 85 mm gives 12.9% better light gathering vs. 80mm scopes. More aperature helps at this size.
There is a reason they go quickly when they come up for sale on AM.

I think you have gotten some good suggestions. I have tried various small scopes for this role, ETX's of various sorts, a couple of ST-80's. Currently I have a C-5 OTA and a TV-Pronto that fill this roll.

My experience is that a small moderately fast refractor works best for me. They do a nice job at low magnifications and high. There are no cool down issues nor problems with collimation. The small refractor also has the benefit that it doubles as a birding scope, something I became interested in after acquiring my Pronto.

The C-5 is nice and can be fit with a focal reducer to bring the FL down to about 800mm but it still takes a while to cool. The bottom line is that C-5 just sits while the Pronto gets used most every day.

Since you have a flexible budget, I would suggest considering two scopes, the TeleVue 76 and the Orion ED-80.

The TeleVue 76 has a focal length of 480mm which makes it significantly more compact than the TV 85 and other similar scopes. This makes is easier to carry and a better terrestial/birding scope.

The ED-80 is a nice scope with APO optics (doing it right IMHO means APO) and seems to be in the same league optically with the TV-85 and at a price of about 1/3. If money is dear to you then this is probably the scope to consider.

There are plenty of other that have been mentioned and are good choices but essentially I would recommend an APO that is somewhere around 80mm and reasonably fast.

jon