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another - help me decide and choose thread!


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first off, thank you so much in advance for any input/help regarding my questions. im sure theres a lot of people asking for the same help on here daily.

Im a beginner looking to do the following- view and get fairly decent photos of the planets in our solar system, as well as view and get some what decent photos of DSO's such as M31, Orion Neb, and some of the other closer* DSO's

ive done quit a bit of looking and research online but some assurance would help! I am currently looking at getting a Celestron VX-8 SCT.  I know this most likely wont get me the best views/photos of DSO's but right now im kinda trying to find a scope that will be an all around good scope for several things, not JUST interstellar and not JUST Deep Space.  so my question is.... is this a proper choice for me in a scope?

my other question is regarding astrophotography... along with a scope like the VX-8 SCT, what would be a good starter photography solution? my wife currently has a couple DSLRs, a canon 10D and a Rebel XT I believe.  would these give me just as good of photos as say... one of celestrons astrophotography solutions?  I understand more about telescopes so far then I do about how to capture good photos!  id hate to spend a bunch of money on an apogee or celestron camera when one of my wifes DSLRs would be just as good if not better. so any advice here would be much appreciated!

thanks to anyone who reads thru this and offers help my way! im really excited to get my first scope... finding objects with my binoculars has been very satisfying, I can only imagine what a good telescope will bring me!

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firstly welcome to the forum,

if you want to take images of the cosmos then the mount is the most important thing for astro imaging, personally i would go for a skywatcher heq5 pro as a minimum and better a neq6 pro for a few reasons, but mainly it can be controlled via a computer, either netbook or something a bit bigger with eqmod software which i find a god send.

as of yet i don`t think eqmod can control celestron mounts although i might be wrong as i think i did hear some time ago that a solution was in the pipe line.

but i can recommend either of these mounts above.

now the scope, the 8 sct is a great scope, great scope for visual and for planetary imaging, not the best for dso imaging, you need bigger focal ratio for planetary imaging which the 8 sct has at f10 and it would be harder to guide with as it has a focal length of 2000mm, not good for dso imaging, a 6 sct might be a little easier with a f6.3 focal reducer on the back but still might not be ideal, for dso imaging a shorter, faster focal length and focal ration refractor would be better, these also hold there collimation a lot better than a sct and would be ideal with a canon dlsr on the back, although if you buy a refractor of around 80mm you will need a flatner with it as the chip size on the canon dlsr is fairly big.

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Thanks foe the info red dwarf. Couple questions if u don't mind, with the 8" SCT, will I be able to get any DSO shots? I'm not expecting to get the best of the best DSO photos atm. But I do want to be able to capture some of the DSO light and get some fairly decent photos.

also, what makes the heq5 better than the VX? Ive read tons of comparisons and as a general rule the reviews say they do the same thing but the VX is a better/newer design, and has much better goto software, which u CAN hook up to a PC btw. Wondering what I'm missing in my lack of expertise to understand why the heq5 would be a better solution? And the neq6 is simply out of my budget. Im looking to get scope and mount for $2k or under. Thanks again!

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you will get some reasonable images, you might do better with a f6.3 focal reducer on the back of the scope, but the main problem will be trying to guide at that focal length which might be tricky, short exposures of up to a minute should be good if your polar aligning is reasonable, but a 6 inch sct might be better if your set on a sct for duel purposes as it has a shorter focal length. 

the vx mount is a good mount, i`m not saying otherwise and you can connect it to a pc with the celestron software, but all that does is give you a computer generated picture of the handset on your pc screen, i`m not sure these mounts can be controlled by eqmod.

eqmod will allow you to do away with the handset all together via a eqmod adapter, this makes control of the mount so simple with a computer and also intergrates with guiding software such as PHD.

the goto software is no better for the celestron than the skywatcher and the new skywatcher 5 and 6 gt is alot better than the vx mount having belt drives and duel encoder motors, the vx is just a updated version of the older cg5gt.

i`ve had a older cgt gt and sold to get a heq5 and i`m glad i did, now moved on to a neq6 and would recommend either of these for simple computer control with less hassle.

i havent used a handset for years with my mount.

as for collimation, the sct is, or can be fragile, if you take it out to a dark site or travel to star parties in the car it can need re doing, no problem if your visual as it doesn`t matter that much but if your imaging then it`s another matter and it needs to be good, you can hyperstar with sct scopes but if your budget is low then a hyperstar system for a 8inch sct can suck up a large amount of your budget. 

if your budget is tight and you want to image then i would recommend a skywatcher heq5, nice doublet refractor with a flatnner or flatnner / reducer, qhy 5 guide camera and a cheap guide camera, you have the camera already.

imaging and visual are really different things and no one scope fits both bills very well, so it`s a compromise or two scopes, one for dso and one for visual and planetary.

it can make your head hurt with all the information around but a good place to look is a book called making every photon count, very reasonable price and will help you a lot in the choices you make.

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Collomation isn't much of an issue. They can go out but it's not too difficult to put right. If your fond of gadgets, FLO do the Hotech laser device but is about £350; is good fun to use though ;-) and does have the advantage that it can be done indoors in daylight which saves valuable observing time versus the traditional method with a bright star (rest assured either way collomaring a SCT won't need to be frequent)

More of an issue is that the corrector plate is a real dew magnet on any SCT and personally would advise getting a heated dew shield for it.

The C8 is a nice scope when all said and done.

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it`s a great scope, would not be without mine but i wouldn`t want to spend £350 to check my scope every couple of months, you could have a nice 80mm doublet for that money and have less dew problems, next to no collimation problems with the lenses, and be much easier to image with.

scts are great for visual and planetary imaging but not ideally suited for dso imaging, but not saying it can`t be done, it can i`ve done it, but when you start imaging it soon becomes a rocky road and you`ll want better and better images and you`ll end up changing your kit sooner rather than later.

another thing to consider when imaging with a sct is mirror flop, not ideal when you want a sharp image.

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Your right red dwarf, the amount of info and decisions is making my head spin! Lol. Ive read that the heq5 and an ed80 can be a really awesome choice for AP. But I'm afraid I wont be able to view close objects like moon,Jupiter,Saturn with a setup like this? A C8 would be better for viewing planets correct? It really sucks that I feel I have to make a compromise. Id LOVE to get good photos of Andromeda, Orion, stuff like that.. But would also like to view Saturn and Jupiter... I think your right, maybe a good book helping me understand this stuff better will help me make good decisions.

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Is the heq5 a better mount because it can hold more weight? or just because u can hook it up to a computer more effectively? looks like u can hook any Celestron mount up to nexRemote and use Stellarium to slew.

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