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Very basic set up


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Hello,

I am thinking about a very cheap imaging set up to play around with.  I have an 1100D and old celestron webcam for now.  As I want to stay below £500 I would get an EQ5 with motors. My 127 mak will be OK to start with for planets, but am not sure whether a SW ST80 or SW 130 P-DS would be best for the wider field stuff. Either would keep me in my budget. I am aiming for cheap and cheerful, so EQ6 and ED fracs etc aren't an option.

Thanks

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130PDS if it falls in budget, the ST80 is easier as it is a refractor but not sure about the CA that will be associated with it. That could spoil any image taken, even if DSO's are dim any star in the filed is not and they would show CA.

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The catch is if you look round then people have CA on things when using ED scopes - often called blue bloat.

So if an f/6 ED gives it an f/5 achro is going to be worse.

A refractor would be easier I suspect to use, they are smaller and more compact.

However even used an ED refractor still costs a fair amount and they do not appear that often. So saying play with the Mak and see what appers is an option but one may not appear when wanted. But playing with the Mak initially is worth it, gives you a couple of months more thinking/saving time.

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Hello,

I am thinking about a very cheap imaging set up to play around with.  I have an 1100D and old celestron webcam for now.  As I want to stay below £500 I would get an EQ5 with motors. My 127 mak will be OK to start with for planets, but am not sure whether a SW ST80 or SW 130 P-DS would be best for the wider field stuff. Either would keep me in my budget. I am aiming for cheap and cheerful, so EQ6 and ED fracs etc aren't an option.

Thanks

Do you have any camera lenses in the region of 135~300mm?

A.G

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The 130pds, its a no-brainer! :)  Cheap, fast, truly apochromatic - and quite soundly thrashes telescopes costing quite a bit more. Though it may require a little tinkering/collimation to get the best out of it.

http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/210593-imaging-with-the-130pds/

Thanks Rob. I'm used to collimating so that should be OK.

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Hi, Yes I have a 70-200mm lens

Use the 70~200mm lens with the 100d first. The 200mm FL is particularly good with a lot of the larger DSOs. Depending on which 70-200 it is you may or may not have to deal with CA.

As for the mount you have a choice of either a fully fledged EQ mount or something like a Star Adventurer . At wide settings and with good PA 120s guided subs are quite possible. You can use the lens wide open. Once you find your feet and decide if this hobby is for you then you can start to save up for some serious gear. I advice the use of the existing lenses as opposed to a scope mainly because to get the best of a scope ( the budget Newtonians or Achros ) quite a bit of fiddling and money spending is required which will push the budget up considerably and at the end may not be suitable for serious  imaging.

A.G

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Use the 70~200mm lens with the 100d first. The 200mm FL is particularly good with a lot of the larger DSOs. Depending on which 70-200 it is you may or may not have to deal with CA.

As for the mount you have a choice of either a fully fledged EQ mount or something like a Star Adventurer . At wide settings and with good PA 120s guided subs are quite possible. You can use the lens wide open. Once you find your feet and decide if this hobby is for you then you can start to save up for some serious gear. I advice the use of the existing lenses as opposed to a scope mainly because to get the best of a scope ( the budget Newtonians or Achros ) quite a bit of fiddling and money spending is required which will push the budget up considerably and at the end may not be suitable for serious  imaging.

A.G

Thanks A.G. My lens is a canon 70-200mm L f4.  It's not the fastest but I've always liked it. The Star Adventurer does look like an option for a more straight forward set up. There will be much thought/investigation before I part with the money!

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Thanks A.G. My lens is a canon 70-200mm L f4.  It's not the fastest but I've always liked it. The Star Adventurer does look like an option for a more straight forward set up. There will be much thought/investigation before I part with the money!

The lens is a good one, I have the same and it is pretty good even @ f4. If you want to stop it down then use a front aperture mask rather then closing the iris which gives you diffraction spikes. You can either cut out a piece of black cardboard or use a step down ring as I do. I use two sizes with my 200L, a 55mm or a 58mm to stop the lens down. Star adventurer costs under 300.00 for the whole package and if it doesn't work out you can always pass it on with minimum of loss plus the fact that it is portable so can put it in a camera bag and haul it to a dark location. I have an AstroTrac which has not had a chance to be used yet as I am kind of partial to my HEQ5 Pro even when I image with a 70mm lens.

I meant to say 120s  unguided subs in my last posts BTW, Star Adventurer can be guided using ST4 I believe which will significantly increase the sub exposure length.

A.G

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Out of the ST80 or 130pds I would 100% go for the 130pds. Well, unless you want to do narrow band imaging in which case they might be more closely matched on the images produced. Even so the 130pds has the better focuser.

Erm? Just go for the 130pds, you really can't do better for the money.

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