New to the forum!!

[greenbbs]

So, first time post here!

I'm anxiously awaiting my first telescope/mount combo to arrive (it comes today!!!!!)

I bought the Celestron C6 SCT/AVX mount combo as a good place to start for me, and I'll explain why (plus, I want your input to see if I'm on the right track!).  I felt the price was fair, I was impressed with the mount for the value (which is really all I wanted anyways, but for a bit more, I couldn't pass up the scope).

I have done a ton of ultra-widefield imaging (landscape astro), and have completely run out of challenges.  There's only so many 14-28mm shots of the Milky Way you can take before you run out of good local places to find an interesting foreground.  I also live in a relatively dark area south of Rochester, NY with clear views of both Polaris (to the light polluted north), and the southern sky features (with no major cities due south of me for a while, other than the scattered small town, farm, etc).  

Here's the view from my backyard towards the South (August 19th, at about 22:00pm) :  https://500px.com/photo/80541289/the-backyard-way-by-brian-greenberg?from=user_library

Here's the view from less than a mile away:  https://500px.com/photo/85936351/after-the-rain-v2-0-by-brian-greenberg?from=user_library

I needed a new challenge, so I decided on looking at doing tracked images and deep sky astro.  I originally was looking into a Vixen Polarie/iOptron for my cameras, but realized that I'd probably be better served by buying a real mount (hence the AVX/C6 combo).

My non-telescope camera equipment as currently owned:

1.  Sony A99 Full Frame DSLR

2.  Sony A6000 APS-C + E-A converter (extremely light sensitive, however...does a pretty good job at up to ISO 6400)

3.  Rokinon 14mm f2.8

4.  Rokinon 8mm f3.5

5.  Sigma 24-70mm f2.8

6.  Sigma 70-200mm f2.8

7.  Sigma 2x Teleconverter

8.  Minolta 50mm f1.4 prime

9.  Vello intervolometer

10.  Old, Old Sony A100 body (first Sony DSLR ever- was 10.2mp APS-C)

When I was originally searching at mounts, I figured I could easily adapt my 70-200mm f2.8 with the camera to any good GEM mount and have decent results (I'm currently untracked, and if I could do a 5 minute exposure at 200mm f2.8 on a full frame body, I'd consider this a victory!), but then when paired with the telescope, I had some intriguing options snap into my head.  First, if I have the C6 SCT, I could invest in the t-adapter and tube (which I did) for the Sony Alpha system, and image directly off the scope (at first without an auto guider, because I think I could get fairly good polar alignment with practice and be able to do several minute exposures without trouble).  

More importantly, however, I could buy the piggyback mount for the C6 (which I did), and image a second, widefield camera at 200mm f2.8 for much, much longer without trailing and get some fantastic images off of that (nothing like running dual cameras off the same mount!)

I couldn't justify buying a Vixen Polarie and its accessories when for not a ton more, I could get a pretty decent mount in the AVX, and a decent Celestron OTA, which, IMHO is a better place to start than on something that probably couldn't hold a full frame body and a fast 70-200mm lens +/- a teleconverter

Anyone have any thoughts about this set up/imaging idea?  

And more importantly, anyone know how to modify the Sony A100 body for astro or know anyone that does?  Right now, that body's worth *maybe* $100.  It's not in bad shape, but who wants an old APS-C body when you could blow it out of the water with quality from the newer things?  If I could astro-mod the A100, I could use that as a primary scope camera, as it's on par with the Canon 20Da's, and would make more than adequate images!

Thanks in advance, and definitely look forward to sharing what I get when I'm all set up and running in the next few weeks!

[greenbbs]

And, I know I'll need a guider at some point....but I have to leave some things for the holidays as presents!!!

[pyrasanth]

Those are nice locations. My location is pretty rubbish but even with light polluted skies & narrow band filters you can do some nice work. I'm going to check with Baader to see if there enforced 3.5nm HA filter will work with my hyperstar as short focal length length telescopes can cause the light cone on filters  to do strange things. I'm fairly sure that my existing filter is not as deep as it good go & is probably between 7-9 nm. Baader did not put the specifications on the tec sheet.