Bivanus

In a previous comment on a thread regarding the size of the senzor vs a better picture , I had had declare my long term goal to be a 5.5" refractor with a digital Hasselblad camera back. I have just updated my long term goal. 

Oh boy ! Respect !

And a small joke 🙃

Hello @LunarRob here's some food for thought:

Hardware: Astrodymium Ring System for Rokinon / Samyang 135mm F2 Lens: Guidescop - this is only one of several kits dedicated to this type of lens, some of them also have realy pro-sumer options for motorised focusers and such I use a Canon zoom 18-135mm lens instead and put toghether my own little rig that I rather quickly upgraded to an astrocamera with an EOS lens to M48 adapter, atached a picture of the latest iteration 

Software: BackyardEOS - O'Telescope (otelescope.com)- I used it sporadically until I've got the EQ6 mount and went the way of the NINA 😅 but I will certainly still make use of it at some point since in my personal opinion it hits the spot for EOS astrophotography ( like all things, practice is required , and thus time...lack time being the scurge of our times ! ) 

Happy Beelink user here, thou not mounted on the tube like Stuart mentions, I preffer the EP tray for support.  

Not a parrent yet , just happend to get hands on a sister and some cousins 😅 There are some steps in a baby development , one of them being the slow - oh, soooo slow , it seems like eons ! - stabilisation of the sleep cycle. A todler needs feeding every couple hours , his/hers little body develops tremendously in the first six months .After that , the rithm goes a tad slower , and a different development takes over , one that requires longer continous sleep. I can't talk for all babies but my experience was that after 9 to 12 months a full night sleep becomes the norm rather than the exception and things get a tad less hectic.  

I think you already thought this quite well, from best but pricey to low tech but doable, my bet is on option 5 combined with a tweaking of targets - less DSO and more Lunar / Planetary. Also - and this is from personal experience - having a small grab&go rig pre assembled and ready to go makes all the diference, especially now before the baby mobile phase when many things will have to be locked down 😄 

Well, being a city dweller - talking Bortle would be simply laughable , I have some six street lamps around my small yard - I have rather quicly learned that sadly apperture  does not help a lot. So from the 102 it went down to 72 and then to 80 which I find the most balanced for both visual and moon/planetary EAA while still light enough to allow fast deployment outside the acursed light poluted area. 

I still have the 102 , and sometimes it works , especially on visual. and indeed I am sorely tempted by the 140mm TEC or APM ( more likely since is in EU) and a Hasselblad digital back. First things I'll buy after winning the Lottery.

I've got an used ZWO ASI 585MC with a decent discount. Trying to also nail an ADC from ZWO too , but time will tell. Right now I'm playing with it indoors since outside is , of course , pouring  The test rig is made with a Canon 18-135mm lens, makes for a good toy when night are cloudy 😉

And, if you also happen to have a 2x and 3x Barlows for it , you will also have some great ( albeit a tad on the heavy side) Long Eye Relief 15mm and 10mm EP'S 😉

I am glad we had this discussion , any man needs a long term purpose , thus the economy account for my Hasselblad & its assorted 5.5" APO with 3.7" focuser was initiated.

Well, any plug is good up to a point , however , unless I must use Cigarette Adaptor Plugs due to Cigarette Plug being the only one available like in my car , I tend to go with bipolar plugs like XT60E (Mountable Female Plug) / XT60H (Bullet Plug) Something like this: https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B074PN6N4K/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1

There are also higher amps rated models, but I have yet to burn one. Also , there are models with caps so water doesn't get in like the RIIEYOCA XT60 Adapter

EDIT: Also , looking at the way the power plugs are mounted , may I suggest you look a bit at high IP (55/65/67) power supply enclosures and notice that all the wire penetrations tend to be on the side not on the top/bottom as to ensure water has to work against gravity as much as possible. 

15 hours ago, John said:

The point made by @Space Hopper about limited opportunities to develop these skills, especially in the UK perhaps, is valid though 🙄

Sadly it applies to all modern villages & towns plague by light pollution and LED luminaries (the cities were terrible anyway just by size , but villages used to be better... ) regardless of country. 

Sometimes people are a tad different when seen live than the mental image one has of them while reading their comments. With Don I had had the oposite experience : he was just like I imagined him to be. Verry glad that I managed to get some Naglers just before he closed shop  , the chances for that to happen were...astronomical 

Does a bigger sensor make a better picture...so just the sensor size we're talking about ? Then the answer is simply NO. 

Photography - just like philosophy - can't be bought by the kilogram. Something about both subjects requiring a systemic aproach  with many parts of said system having to work toghether to get a 'better' result.

Let me simply enumerate a couple thinghies: is your telescope big enough for that big sensor ? is it colimated & aclimatised ? is it an Achro/APO/Mirror/Catadioptric ? What sky are you working with? Can you see the sky - hello Cumullus my old friend...  How are your post processing skills ( mine are so bad the wavelets refuse to wave or something😅)

If BIGGER would be BETTER just like that , I have a feeling there would be WAY much more discussions about how to adapt those pesky Hasselblads or other medium format camera's to a telescope and we would all do it like Teruyasu Kitayama...   Teruyasu Kitayama | Capturing Nebulas and Pinwheel Galaxies (hasselblad.com)

That would be a 'Long Eye Relief' 7mm combo , perfect for planetary and some Moon riding 😄

I use a similar 'Long Eye Relief' 10mm ( APM UFF 30mm + ES 3x / 2in) and it's swell on both planetary and the Moon.

Well , I'll be ! Looky here folks:  UFO sightings over Brazil, Argentina and Chile leave experts baffled | Daily Mail Online

Does that seem similar ?

Since the aurora is an energy driven event, the 'fast and furious' flares produce lively displays. I also suspect the colours to be dependent of the excitation level of the particles , lots of reds and mauve and pink appeared as opposed to the more traditional green-blue hues. Of course, this are educated guesses.

Sadly only in the news for us. Rare ocasion where even the news site's have trully interesting pictures 😁

Northern Lights arrive in Britain: Brits as far south as London enjoy spectacular nighttime display due to a severe geomagnetic storm that threatens to disrupt world's power grids | Daily Mail Online

😄 Ok ,so, the Baader Q Barlow I mentioned yesterday was Part #1 in a late delivery , today Part #2 also arived ,also for bino-viewing: pair of 10x/22mm highpoint microscope eyepieces with dioptry-adjustment by LACERTA ( Mik10xz-diop)  

Tested them in day light view , crisp focus with only the tiniest of CA when looking at very thin tree branches - that's a hard test actually and in my book they are ok especially at 49.90 EUR per piece. 

I am currently in my TV phase of Nagler flavor  😅 so I would steer you towards the PowerMate which is actually a Tele-Extender (this being the reason why it doesn't affect ER) . Funny enough , I don't own a PowerMate but the ES equivalent at 3x in 2" format 😄 

Like in the atached pictures. The numerical value of ER does not change , however , the cup positioning matters.

With only a couple weeks of delay , my Baader Q Barlow 1.3x/ 2.25x has finally arived. Brand new , from a shop , but maaaaan did the postman go postal on the delivery.

Thankfully it arrived and it's working - I use the 1.3x cell in my Poorman's GPC to 'widen' a bit the binoviewer views. Was a tad aprehensive if it will get into focus , but truth be told it's probably more like 2x in the full optical system. Still beter then the previous 2x Barlow cell that was in reality a 3.5 - 4x. 

Welcome ! All the above advices are spot on. Personal favourite from the three OTA's listed would be the WO Zenithstar 81, it is in my opinion the best bang for buck AND let's you some monetary leeway in either getting a better camera&accesories and/or an aditional OTA for visual ( again , purely personal preference - I would choose a MAK over the SCT since I'm guessing you'll go 5-6" rather than the 9.25" and upwards from where the SCT rules)

However , since you tell that AP would be the main interest , the ZWO ASI585MC would be very good for both planetary and beginer AP and / or EAA. If I was to choose , I would rather choose to buy the ZWO ADC too rather that going for the cooled PRO model . Being in a similar position of not being able to get too many nights in arow , I've slowly but surelly come to understand why the ADC can do the difference.  

Regardles what you chose , remember the old saying: the best telescope is the one you actually use 😊

That looks better, and the dimensions seems ok - the height probably will not be such a bother once you open it I would think.

There were also some pictures with a propper observatory  shed tucked similarly to yours , it was a bit more wide from the looks , alas I can't seem to find them anymore on Google.

Something like this ?  https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-equipment/a-compact-back-garden-observatory/

Oops ! Now I saw my post lacks the end of a proposition: "and one more Eyepiece like this UFF : APM Telescopes. APM Ultra Flat Field 18mm Eyepiece 65° FOV (apm-telescopes.net) 119 EUR of course you may also choose at the same price the 15mm APM Telescopes. APM Ultra Flat Field 15mm eyepiece 65° FOV (apm-telescopes.net) That would give you the following magnifications: 150x for 10mm ; 100x for 15mm ; 60x for 25mm"