Lightfoot

Having never really dabbled with astronomy in any kind of meaningful way, I have decided that I now have the time and inclination to try my hand at AP. I have been a keen photographer for an awful lot of years now so forgive me if I fall back on a photography term rather than an astronomical one. In a different thread I expressed an interest in EAA (getting the hang of acronyms as well) and received a lot of good advice. On the back of that advice I have ordered a Skywatcher EQM-35-Pro goto mount, I based that on the information in this link, https://www.darkframeoptics.com/product/stellardrive-eqm35 and a lot of reading, I figured a decent mount would be a good starting point. Yes, I could have bought a more expensive mount, I could also have bought a cheaper one. My rationale is that if this is a flash in the pan, then at least I have something with a half decent resale value, and if I persue this as a hobby/interest then it might be a better starting point than some other options. So that's the mount sorted, the next item on my shopping list has really taken care of itself, an ASIAir + along with a guide scope and camera. Why would you want to put yourself through polar alignment and all that faff. That leaves two remaining major items, what telescope and what camera. I would like to image stuff like, Andromeda, the whirlpool galaxy, the sombrero galaxy etc. This is where I need advice, at the moment I'm leaning towards a Redcat 51 or something a bit bigger, a 70 to 80 ed as my first real scope. I simply don't know enough about telescopes to make an informed choice, mind you I didn't know anything about mounts either, still don't come to that. So please make some suggestions and tell me why. Finally, the camera. I currently use a Nikon Z5 full frame 24 mpixel item. It's more than sufficient for my needs and talent. So can I use that or would I be better off using a camera from ZWO? I assume that an Astro camera can come with different sensors, full frame, apsc, m43 or maybe even smaller. I also assume that crop sensors (apsc and smaller) have the same cropping effect with a telescope as they do with a camera lens. I would probably prefer the astro camera route rather than use my Z5. Do you need to match a camera to the scope? Does it matter? Does using a colour camera negate the need for a filter wheel? Do I need a motorised focusser? Sufficient to say that apart from the mount and the guiding I'm not sure of the direction I should be heading in, HELP 😕

Hi CHR 15 Having had the time to do some reading, I'm really leaning towards a set up similar to yours. The Dwarf 2 just doesn't inspire me and the Seestar doesn't start shipping until August, if then. I notice that you do not use a motorised focuser or filter wheel, do you not need them? No counter balance either so I assume that the weight is well within the mounts capabilities.

Some very good suggestions, so many thanks. I had never heard of the Dwarf or the Seestar but I really like the size of both of them, these are probably the kind of thing I had in mind but just didn't know it. I don't want to have to move an 8 or 10 inch Dob, I have already said that mysteries like collimation are not for me so maybe a refractor on a motorised eq mount but even that has it's drawbacks in terms of portability and setting up. I will do some research on the Dwarf and Seestar as they look similar but are two different beasts. I need to find images from both and user reviews for ease of use. Thanks again for everybodys input.

Would you believe its nearly 12 years since I first posted on here, and I have not posted since, is that a record? At the time I was living in west London and busy with a new relationship (we have been married for 8 years now) being made redundant and moving to a new part of the country. Too busy for astronomy apparently 🤔. Now I'm living in the middle of Dartmoor with darker skies than West London and I have decided to give it another go, my first telescope went awol during the move to Devon, never did find out what happened to it. So recommend me a new (or secondhand) set up with the following criteria in mind. I'm now old and lazy and don't want to drag large , heavy equipment around, it wouldn't get used. It needs to be simple to set up with no complicated regimes to adhere to, collimation sounds like an inflamation of the bowels and I don't want to dabble with that. I'm interested in planets and galaxies and just might want to try astrphotography at some point. I'm a blank canvas really, budget wise I'm happy to spend up to 2k but would like to spend less obviously as there is a serious risk of losing interest in short order or dying whichever comes first 💀🙃 Looking forward to see what comes up. Thanks in advance.