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New rig - thoughts wanted


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Hi Gang

Another opportunity to spend other peoples money ;). I'm thinking of a new set-up and your input would be appreciated. I currently use either my Skylight 100mm f13 achro (which I'll keep) or my TAL 125mm achro (f8.9) which I might replace- nice scopes but maybe not so good for AP dabbling.

I have three competing tensions - aperture and a desire for some AP, and a relatively limited budget (c. £1k, maybe a bit more). Mount not an issue (I have an AZEQ6 to carry it all). Note, my AP ambitions are limited (currently) to planets and the moon, and maybe  brighter DSOs like globs and M42. Not interested in Dobs/newts or SCTs for purposes of this discussion.

  • My first thought is to get a Skywatcher 150 f8, put a moonlite on it and use that for basic planterary caps - gives me aperture (esp for my visual needs), but wth some hopefully filterable CA, and is quite cheap to put together.
  • Second, up my budget a bit and go for skywatcher 120mm ED - no aperture gain over my existing set-up but better for AP? - I guess I need to budget for flatteners or can I add later if I get more serious?
  • Third, up the budget some more and go for a ES 127 triplet or similar - as above.

A couple of questions - is there much difference visually between a 127mm triplet and a 120mm doublet?

Any recommendation for a entry level CCD camera would be good too - up c. £200 ish?

Cheers :)

Mark

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Hey marki, hope you are well, going to chuck a spanner in the works here and my first suggestion for planetary AP is going to be a Maksutov, (note NOT an SCT), reason being its got the long focal length and sits well on a mount plus APO type optics,

Ruling out Newts then the 120ED from Skywatcher would make a good investment, but for planetary AP you might well want to use a barlow to get the focal length up to some thing like what you will want (150 pro mak already has the FL)

good luck with your choice  :cool:

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Hello, Mark,

to get the ball rolling (hopefully), here are a few thoughts...

So many options...

The SW 150/f8 is another achro, so no significant "improvement" (quality) on your existing stuff.

The ED will give better colour control, but it really depends on what you want to do with it, long term. And yes, you might need to invest in flatteners, but this will depend on what camera you get (more later)

The triplet generally improves CA further, but you will still need a flattener, so no easy way out here.

I have both a SW ED 80 (Equinox) and a WO 110FLT in carbon. Both need a flattener, but I use APS-c sized cameras.

For lunar/planetary, I understand the Mak is a good choice. The SW 180 mak will set you back £750, so well within your budget and leave more for a camera. I know oyu look to want a frac, but a big corrected apeture for a grand, probably not going to happen...

Your ccd budget of ~£200 will not get you much and to be honest, the chip will probably be so small that you would not need a flattener for it. OK for planetary, but the time taken to do a big mosaic of the moon would be an issue. Also, with this size of camera, you probably do not need a Moonlite to support it.

Even second hand, 200 gets not much, so maybe even consider putting your whole budget to a camera and try it on your existing scopes, or at least the savings from the mak...

Hopefully, someone with a better idea will come along to help you soon....

Gordon.

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Beaten to the posting, but two "votes" for the Mak !!

However, I guess  the other consideration will be how you plan to progress with imaging, as it has such a long FL and would be totally unsuitable for DSO's

G.

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it becomes difficult when you say moon, planets and easy dso's. an easy dso uses the same gear as a difficult one which is completely different from planetary. I can't really comment on planetary scopes but for dso, you're after something on the small side. the sw 80ed is good for this and is also pretty good for visual as  well. I guess the ideal scope is a bit of a unicorn. a fantasy

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You've kinda made your question unanswerable with the caveats. (A rare lapse into Americana for me! :grin: ) I don't see how it can be done. You want aperture but you don't want a Newt. You want aperture but you have a tight budget. You want to do planetary imaging and you want to do 'easy' DSOs. (I don't know what these are but I'd be excited if any turned out to exist!) However, I do know what you want.

You want a Newt. You just don't know that that's what you want! It is the only one that can do the lot.

Ho hum, don't kill me!

:grin: lly

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You've kinda made your question unanswerable with the caveats. (A rare lapse into Americana for me! :grin: ) I don't see how it can be done. You want aperture but you don't want a Newt. You want aperture but you have a tight budget. You want to do planetary imaging and you want to do 'easy' DSOs. (I don't know what these are but I'd be excited if any turned out to exist!) However, I do know what you want.

You want a Newt. You just don't know that that's what you want! It is the only one that can do the lot.

Ho hum, don't kill me!

:grin: lly

Thanks Olly - made me laugh  :laugh: 

And thanks to all who have replied. I guess I do want it all (who doesn't :evil: ). Forget the aperture for now...is there any significant difference between the 127 triplet and 120mm doublet? Maybe I should have held on to my 80mmED and just learnt to do more with that!

I get the point re budget too - might be able to push it some. Ok - advice on camera if budget up to £500? And if I had £1500 for a scope?

Maybe I should just go rethink what I want to do in the first place :p !

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Don't see anything in that link Jules - doesn't seem to work for me.

Have a search for Maksutov on ABS there is a 180 like new £620 posted.

I think in some ways you are wanting the holy grail of scopes, its what we all are looking for  :laugh:

I keep toying with the GSO 150 f6 newt as MAYBE being capable of all this, fair size aperture, 900mm fl, this would do planetary imaging, a bit of DSO imaging, and if you wanted to push the boat out a little then there is the TS UNC carbon fibre version with a nice focuser...............but its a newt lol

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Cheers Jules. Will take a look.

If I'm honest, maybe I just want some new toys :grin:. I really need to think about it all - time to reread some of the threads in the imaging sections.

And maybe I'd just settle for a few clear nights with no wind, no full moon and when I don't have to get up at 6am the next day :).

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Cheers Jules. Will take a look.

If I'm honest, maybe I just want some new toys :grin:. I really need to think about it all - time to reread some of the threads in the imaging sections.

And maybe I'd just settle for a few clear nights with no wind, no full moon and when I don't have to get up at 6am the next day :).

marki, im with you on the clear nights/no wind/not having to get up for work....dont mind a full moon though, nice with a scope and dslr

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Cheers Jules. Will take a look.

If I'm honest, maybe I just want some new toys :grin:. I really need to think about it all - time to reread some of the threads in the imaging sections.

And maybe I'd just settle for a few clear nights with no wind, no full moon and when I don't have to get up at 6am the next day :).

Any more thoughts on this new set up?

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Not at the moment, Jules - still in window shopping mode.

Following Olly's post, I have looked at a few newts. The one you mentioned, the TS UNC 200mm f/5 looks quite interesting, I have to say. On the other hand, maybe buying a good camera and learning to use it with what I have might be a better option, as per Bukko's suggestion.

So far, I'm wondering about something like the DFKAU04 or DFK AU618 for a camera and an 8" F/5 ish newt or maybe a 180 mak or C8 type thing. Or just save up some more and get a nice 120-127 apo and replace the TAL125, and get a nice camera later. Cloudy and wet otuside so lots of time to make a decision!

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Funny thing with Newts, there are a fair amount of people doing some top planetary imaging with newts, but mainly big ones, problem with big newts is the "sail effect", an OO VX6L should be a pretty good bit of kit with 1/10 optics..............but not for me

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Thats one of my concerns with that size of newt (the other being collimation and cooling) - seeing the 8" ones in at the starparty in Lncs and at Peak Star party, I seem to recall they're really quite bulky. The one virtue of the 6" f10 istar frac (other than excellent optics) was that the wind never budged it - simply tooo massive and heavy!

Also for a mix of visual and some AP use, I assume f/5 is ok in a newt - I don't really need f/4 (unless for propoer deep sky stuff)? I do have a copy of "every Photon" lying around at home somewhere...really ought to reread that before I get too much into this sort of thing. Another question is, will I miss the longer FL for higher mag? Maybe a cheap big dob, to slake that need as well?

Its amazing how circular these sorts of arguments can be...the only conclusion I've really come to is I need more scopes :grin:

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Thats one of my concerns with that size of newt (the other being collimation and cooling) - seeing the 8" ones in at the starparty in Lncs and at Peak Star party, I seem to recall they're really quite bulky. The one virtue of the 6" f10 istar frac (other than excellent optics) was that the wind never budged it - simply tooo massive and heavy!

Also for a mix of visual and some AP use, I assume f/5 is ok in a newt - I don't really need f/4 (unless for propoer deep sky stuff)? I do have a copy of "every Photon" lying around at home somewhere...really ought to reread that before I get too much into this sort of thing. Another question is, will I miss the longer FL for higher mag? Maybe a cheap big dob, to slake that need as well?

Its amazing how circular these sorts of arguments can be...the only conclusion I've really come to is I need more scopes :grin:

F5 is okay for general viewing and maybe a bit of DSO imaging, but for planetary a longer fl would be a bonus, hence a 150 f6 with 900mm fl or even on your mount the 150pl f8 1200mm fl, this is a cheap scope but every one that owns one says the very best things about it

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I still think for planet imaging a 150 pro Mak, you could add a 130p DS for dso imaging plus a camera all for a grand, you would be more than welcome to come over and try both these scopes if we get clear skies. Failing this I would say ED120 frac

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