vansky

Oh thanks that's a great idea!

Yeah ya know I'm guessing I'll use it visually for a bit first before I start trying to figure out photography with it. I'm sure it will be a learning curve with the mount, two telescopes, visual observing and photography. I'll probably just try to get a feel for both scopes and figuring out what each one is good at and getting comfortable using the mount before I strap on a camera and start learning that whole realm. I was just too excited to get started and just had to get both scopes I was interested in at once haha. Bank account got a nice trim yes haha, definitely one of the biggest purchases of my life. Outside of schooling and car stuff it is the biggest purchase haha, but it's all for the cosmos! Thanks for the help!

I bought the stuff! I ended up getting BOTH the ZenithStar 73 and the Skymax 180 so I can right from the start do both wide field mostly astrophotography as well as have that greater reach of a bigger longer scope. Needless to say I'll have my hands full when these things come in! Got the EQ6-R Mount and tripod which were actually on sale by a few hundred dollars so that was nice. Decided to just go for the cheaper 1.25" eye pieces to start so I got the Plossl 9mm and Plossl 25mm in that size. Got a 2x Barlow. Got a T ring. Got the field flattener. And got carrying bags for everything. And the Skymax comes with a diagonal and a 28mm eye piece and finder scope. That should get me started haha! I guess once I have used the mount a bit and gotten used to the telescopes I may also need to get those cables to go from mount to computer for photography, but I'll worry about that when I get to that point.

Alright, well sounds like there is still a lot I need to learn about basic usage of mounts / software. Thanks for the info. I'll look into some of this stuff. I may start by buying fewer things just to keep it simpler at first and then as I start to use the telescope I can say to myself oh Wolfie was right I do need so-and-so gadget to do what I want to do haha

Hey any opinions on refurbished telescopes? Zenithstar 73 is $730 but I just found a refurbished one for $558, $172 savings. The refurbished one is being sold by William Optics, so I assume it should be fine right? Shouldn't really be any different than a new one?

Alright cool thanks. I'll go ahead and get the flattener, and the T ring of course.

By compound scope I mean a SCT or Mak...am I getting that right? Compound and Catadioptric is the same thing? From my research, compound/catadioptric telescopes are the short fat ones with a sealed tube that use both a 'corrector plate' lens up top as well as mirrors. Okay so larger focal length eye pieces literally just can't fit in 1.25"? Ah I'm reading now something about the field stops in eye pieces and the field stops have to be larger in larger length eye pieces so at a certain point on increasing length the field stop inside would be too wide to fit into a 1.25" and would require a 2" eye piece. And so 2" eye pieces have a wider field of view? So is there nothing inherently better about a 2" eye piece? It just allows longer eye pieces and wider field of views, so it just depends what magnification and field of view you want? Is the generally higher cost of 2" just from the fact that they have to have larger lenses and are bigger? If so, maybe I'll just go with a couple 1.25" pieces to get started since they are cheaper. As I said in my last reply here, I'm starting to feel like figuring out differences in eye pieces is going to be an experience thing so I should probably just start cheap and experience the differences over time as I decide to pick up new eye pieces.

Honestly I haven't yet researched what makes a difference in eye pieces yet. I see there are eye pieces for tens of dollars and ones for many hundreds of dollars. Don't have a clue how big the difference is, and don't know the difference between brands. To start I was just going to get a couple cheaper ones and a Barlow 2x so I can have a few different magnification levels. And maybe the difference in eye piece quality is something better experienced? By starting off cheap and then later perhaps getting a higher quality one and seeing the difference I could better understand the difference than just trying to read about it? I don't have an eye piece budget per se, but I'm not looking to spend several hundred of dollars on eye pieces just to get started.

Ah Wolfie thanks for the reply! I do have a portable power supply so I'm good on that. if you're asking me about cables I'm guessing that means the cables don't come with the mount eh? Didn't realize that. I was figuring with something as wide field of view as a 430mm FL I wouldn't need a guiding scope? Maybe that's wrong. And I have not begun to look at software yet. I have an app that I can remotely use my camera with, but I don't know anything about software controlling the mount. Good stuff to look into. But I mean I can just control it with the controller on the mount right...but you're saying I should get some software on my laptop to do it? I don't really know how the whole AP process works haha. I figure it'll be a learning curve once I get the telescope and try it out. Hello Elp! Okay thats good to know about the adaptor on the scope. After I wrote my post above I looked at the Skymax 180 specs, which is the compound scope I am thinking I'll get once I get comfortable with the whole astronomy/AP thing on my ZenithStar, and its 2" so maybe I'll just get all my stuff at 2" so I can use the eye pieces on either one, though i'll check price differences between the 1.25's and the 2's. Yeah I know I need a T ring, and then an adaptor to go from T ring to the scope, so what I wasn't sure about is if a flattener does the work of an adaptor? And I'll be getting the WO's Z73A flattener that's made to fit the scope so I'm good in that regard. It says the flattener is adjustable so I assume that means I just need to adjust it to what my camera needs. I didn't follow much of what you said about the mount. I should research how mounts work and how to use them haha. All I know is I need one, they track stuff, and you have to balance the scope with counterweights. I have no clue what a harmonic drive is. I'll do some mount research tomorrow! I'm getting the eq6 because that should do fine with the compound scope I want to get as my second scope to compliment the refractor, and then if at some point I do a refractor upgrade the mount should handle whatever that future scope is as well.

Hi voyagers of the cosmos! Been doing research on here and what feels like a million other places the past few days, first time posting. I'm planning on getting a telescope for the first time since I had a Celestron compound as a kid. Been doing research the past few days and I've narrowed down my plan to get a WO Zenithstar 73 APO, for some visual astronomy but moreso astrophotography with my Nikon D5600. I know a scope that small ain't gonna do a lot for visual and I will probably follow this purchase up later this year with a compound scope for visual astronomy (was thinking the Skymax 180). Anyway I'm trying to figure out all the stuff I need to use my Zenithstar for both viewing and photography so I can get everything at once. So besides the Z73 I'm going to get: - a Skywatcher EQ6-R mount: I know that is probably overkill for a small refractor but I want my mount to be able to handle a heavier compound that I'll likely get next. - a Nikon T-ring - I know I also need a T adaptor, diagonal, and eyepieces, but here is where I run into some questions that I want to be sure about... 1. Do I need a field flattener for AP? Does it make a big difference? My understanding is that without it stars at the fringes of the image will like stretch a bit or whatever. And does a field flattener take the place of a T-adaptor as the piece that connects the T ring with the telescope? If a field flattener does the job of a T-adaptor then I'll just shell out the money for the field flattener so I don't end up eventually buying both. 2. Sizes of diagonals and eyepieces, 1.25" vs 2". Does it matter in terms of image quality for my Z73? I have no idea what difference 2" vs 1.25" size makes for optics. And can you fit either size in anything? Like, the WO 73A field flattener recommended to go with the Z73 scope is 2", so I assume that means the back of the scope is 2". Does that mean I can only get 2" diagonals and eyepieces? Or do both 1.25" and 2" diagonals and eye pieces fit no matter what size the back of the scope is? Can I just get a cheaper 1.25" diagonal and it'll fit no matter what? And then presumably if I get a 1.25" diagonal there wouldn't be a point in getting 2" eye pieces (and do 2" eye pieces even fit in a 1.25" diagonal)? 3. What are your recommended starter eye piece sizes for a 73mm aperture / 430mm focal length f/5.9 telescope? Should I get two eye pieces and then a 2x Barlow so I have four magnification options? I read the rule is double the aperture (in mm) is the highest you want to magnify the view, which puts this scope's limit at 146x, and 430 FL ÷ 146x = 2.94mm so 3mm should be the smallest eye piece I get right which would give a ~143x magnification. Should I get a 25mm eye piece for viewing big things at only 17x, and then with Barlow it'd be 34x. And then maybe a medium magnification one like 9mm which would be 48x, and 96x with Barlow. So 25mm and 9mm and a 2x Barlow for a 73mm/430mm telescope? Thanks in advance! :)