rowan46

if its photo's you are after leave the etx as a visual scope and get yoursef a good mount  ideally you want the heq5. this is the cheapest new version http://www.firstlightoptics.com/skywatcher-mounts/skywatcher-heq5-syntrek.html if you add an eqdirect  adaptor

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/astronomy-cables-leads-accessories/hitecastro-eqdir-adapter.html

download eqmod (freeware) and a laptop and you have a goto mount that is about the best entry level imaging mount you can get. add your camera some nice long lenses and you are away. then when you have saved a bit more get a 130pds and coma corrector or better still ed 80 and field flattener reducer to stick your camera on. then you can save a bit more for guide camera and bits  after that its just more expense.

Seriously though if astrophotograpy is what you want  the mount is the all important bit and the heq5 is the best entry level imaging mount. You can do it on a cheaper mount eg the eq5 but it does not produce results as reliably, the last thing you need is to waste a rare clear night for imaging only to find that half of your subs are useless. Also recommended is this book

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/books.html

It sounds like you were looking at the pleiades or m45 it is one of my favourite sights with a small scope. when you look at your handset again look out for a list of m numbers pretty much all of them look better in a scope.

http://www.seasky.org/astronomy/astronomy-messier.html

Nb these are photo's so they won't all look their pics but quite a few will

I'd have to say no to Barn Doors too, as they still track equatorially. Sorry.

what about eq1's then, Do they count?

Can't wait for part 2  ,  seriously though reports like this are a real help to prospective buyers. it's been a lively and informative readand It's so nice to see something new. Thanks for all the work you must have put into this review much appreciated.

An update on my case I have replaced a couple of pieces so I thought I would show it off again

Top right   ts 80x480 triplet diagonal holder

bottom right   mount  and williams 1.25" diagonal

bottom left pentax xw 5, 7  Delos 12mm

top left maxvision sw 24mm and an es 4.7 which has been replaced by the pentax 5mm so one to get rid of

In the cases in the middle I have an es 2x tele extender and a rigel quick finder 

the other bits are for my push to with the nexus 7  fitting in the bottom left over the eyepieces

Hi,

Absolutely superb thread.  It's what I've been looking for for ages, I take a couple of months off and up it pops!!

I have a 130PDS and have had since October, switching from a Celetron 120mm Refractor.  My moon shots aren't bad but I do struggle with anything over a couple of seconds exposure with movement. I have an EQ2 mount.  "Aha, there's your problem" I hear you all shout, however funds dictate my kits quality.

What then would be the cheapest mount for my 130PDS with camera?  Would an EQ3 suffice or do I have to up it to EQ5? (this is for imaging rather than just

Thank you

You might just get by with the eq3 certainly weight wise it's no issue the problem is that the eq3 doesn't track as accurately and doesn't guide as well  as the eq5 so you would have to throw away more subs. The eq5 is a long way off being a perfect mount but it is doable as the pics show. You will notice however that most of the best shots are taken on better than an eq5

This it seems to me is the new entry level imagers scope. The ed80 may be easier to use but the cost of this makes it such a cheap way to start imaging.

I don't know if this will move your investigation on a bit

http://home.europa.com/~telscope/jbcode.txt

You line the hole up so that it does not cross the spider its the spider that causes the diffraction spikes. So if you had a 12" scope and a 4" hole you would in effect have a 4" scope with no central obstruction in effect a 4" apo this technique is usually used on planets visually to aid with contrast

it works better with big reflectors but it effectively takes any loss of contrast and diffraction spikes out of the equation as there is no lightspilling round the secondary

Thanks alot!

Like i asked Acey, would it make viewing planets and galaxies like M31 easier to see?

it can help contrast a little and it can help with magnification as it in effect changes the focal ratio so it can help with brighter planets. but you still need apparture for dso's so stopping down for dso's is not such a good idea.  people do put baader solar film over it to look at the sun but thats not its primary function. If you do use it for such a purpose make sure the film is securely attached to the cap. A friend of mine used to do it until one time he turned to get an eyepiece and found it had come unstuck from the cap. fortunately it didn't happen while he was actually looking at the sun and he now uses a full apparture filter just to be safe. Moral be very careful when looking at the sun.

I don't have a dob but the principle should work with an alt az refractor so I am going to have a go thankyou

no new eyepieces but a new case

case includes , quickfinder, technosky elle mount, ts 480x80, es 2x focal extender, es 4.7mm

xw 7mm, delos 12mm, maxvison 24mm, 2" diagonal  digital inclinometer, lights and nexus 7 

Theres a section marked supplier reviews far too many to list and of course our site sponsor, if you clck the header it will take you there

Minox 8x42 aspheric get the most use and I also have a pair of ts 20x80 ts triplet binoculars that I Use occasionally

case

top section; mount, rigel quick finder, 2" diagonal, es 82 4.7mm

bottom section; delos 12mm, xw 7mm, maxview uwa 24mm

A small collection but portable

This post will annoy baader I think they have done a few sales on repeat business.

I bought an ES 82 off them It took a week to arrive. I was given confirmation of order and depatch confirmation very quickly and it arrived well packed. I am happy with this company I got a good price and good service

bought a Ts 480x80 triplet. absolutely first class service. There was to be a delay ordering the scope from ts as ts was at a starparty but was informed of this before placing the order. I got a call 4 days later sayiing my scope had arrived and 2 days later it was at my door. great communication all the way and yet another satisfied customer.

just wanted to add my general approval to this retailer . I bought a tv delos and it was delivered 4-days later from germany. Well packed, good communication and no hassle what's not to like. language no problem their English is a lot better than my german.

I uunderstand and share many of your thought, you have given one recommendation and hopefully other can suggest something for the £100-150 budget, ideally hugging the loer end if possible. But I'll consider the upper end when I can understand the benefits.

thanks

There's a slight difference between the use of telescopes for terrestrial use and for astronomy. Although both instruments are the same they are used in a different way. a scope for terestrial use is used to make things easier to see by magnifying. this can be done because there is plenty of light consequently the slight dimming of an object while under magnification isn't a problem as there is still plenty of light to see it. An astronomical telescope is used in the dark its primary purpose isn't about magnification its about collecting enough light to make a dim object visible. In short it needs to be bigger, the bigger the scope the more light it collects and the more the eye can see. A bigger scope costs more but it sees more if you get a small scope it will limit your use to the moon a couple of planets and a few deep space objects and stars. For some people thats enough. In a fairly light polluted place you are best off getting a scope with a minimum apparture of 5"-6" more would be better. if you intend to travel to a dark site you can get away with a smaller scope. the next thing that adds to a cost of a scope is the mount. you are looking at a fairly dim image so this needs to be fairly solid as it's difficult to see an image that is dancing around. cheap scopes have cheap mounts which are not really fit for purpose. If you want to get good views expect to pay near the top of your limit.

http://www.firstligh...p-flextube.html

Will show you jupiter and its moons ,saturn and its rings, the moon, mars, most of the messier list of deep space especially under dark skies. lots of double star systems and quite a fair bit more

If you want get into astrophotography seriously you need a heq5 minimum not the eq5, cg4, eq3. and you need a small fast refractor so as not to strain the mount (imagers usually work on 1/2 to 2/3 mount capacity) you will need a guide scope a guide camera. Seriously hold off buying anything till you read the book. You strike me as somebody who knows a bit about photography and would know the difference between a good photo and a just about ok one. That'll do will not keep you very enthused for long. If you must have a scope get the dob but £500 isn't going to get you something you will want to keep on doing astrophotography with. To sum up if you want to do serious deep space photography 80mm fast apo refractor on a heq5 is your cheapest route to quality pics if you want to use a big scope then you are going to need a bigger mount than the heq5

The problem is trying to kills 2 birds with 1 stone. visual astronomy uses 1 set of parameters and deep space photography uses another you can't do both brilliantly with 1 scope and mount unless you have a serious amount of cash. For visual astronomy a scope with a large apparture is best. But if you want to photograph using this big scope then you need a very big accurate mount to put it on. With deep space photography you need a good accurate mount to hold a scope and equipment steadily.

Seriously before you start buying equipment that is only marginally adequate to your needs get and read the book. You can do imaging with the setup you are proposing to buy but it will be tricky frustrating and if you do crack a routine for getting some product with it you will quickly realise how limiting it is and feel that you have wasted the money that could have got you the setup you needed in the first place.

I bought a setup for visual saw the pics on here and decided to try taking pics I have wasted an amount of money trying to make it do a job that it can't do very well. Moral get the right tools for the job its quicker easier and gets you a better result

welcome to sgl i have a little good news and bad news. I'll give you the bad news first ( I always have more fun that way ) Your camera is not going to be very good for planetary photography. Prime focus is ok for the moon and long exposure deep space photography but for planets you are better off stacking video images.

Now the good news because you don't need a super mount and camera for planetary imaging you can get a fairly good visual scope and just put a cheap webcam on. So get yourself a 200p dob http://www.firstlightoptics.com/dobsonians/skywatcher-skyliner-200p-dobsonian.html and a chep webcam and you are good to go the money saved can go towards your next astro mount when you can use your dslr to better effect

It arrived today in a nice looking hard case, on closer inspection it's not a premium case, rivets look a little soft not full aluminium but that's okay it looks fairly nice and it does the job and I didn't pay a fortune for these bins.

The bins themselves are quite nice not thick rubber armour but everything except the centre focuser is rubberised it has lenscaps which fit and don't come off unless you want them to and the focuser and right diopter have a smooth action it also has a built in tripod adaptor which will fit on a standard tripod also included were a neck strap lens cloth and a packet of haribo gummi bears.

I took them out tonight along with a chair and a lightweight tripod there's my first mistake with bins this big I definitely need a more substantial tripod. They only weigh 2.4kg but because of their size there was quite a lot of torque put on the small tripod head. Nethertheless I managed to adjust the balance of them and got them to something like the steadiness of hand held 7x42 bins.

First target Saturn Titan was clear as a bell obviously not a star but also not a disc, more of a dot if that makes any sense Saturn itself was surprisingly good not quite a disc but the rings were visible although not as a distinct entity separate from the planet. I feel Saturn with these bins would be a little better if I was a bit steadier as there was a bit of a double image due to my wobble.

Looking into the murk above Birmingham I was able to penetrate much further than my pentax xcf 10 x 50, not as wide a view certainly but the stars remained point like much closer to the edges although the image brightness dropped off more with the ts bins.

I bought larger bins with the summer in mind I just wanted somthing grab and go for the summer months to look at the milky way and easy to pack for holidays I haven't been able to look for any colour fringing as there was none will need to look at the moon to do a good test for that certainly the pentax show plenty.

Have I got a good pair of bins? I think they are alright I have never looked through high end binoculars so I am not qualified to say how good these are but certainly they show less coma at the edges than the pentax and less ca on bright stars If you don't want to pay a fortune for 20 x 80 bins you could do a lot worse than these the only 20 x 80 bins I have looked at other than these is the celestron skymaster these ones are certainly better but they are more expensive I believe these are sold as garret in the USA and are from the stable as the strathspey.

Forgive me if I have left anything out it's my first review

http://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/language/en/info/p1421_20-x-80-Porro-binocular---triplet-semi-APO---w--tripod-adapter.html