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fijidave

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Everything posted by fijidave

  1. Good morning, Looking for some advice on a first telescope. I've pretty much decided on an 8" dobsonian as being a good starting point and with a budget of approx £4-500 I've whittled it down to three.... Skywatcher 200p (£379 at FLO) StellaLyra 8" (£459 at FLO) Bresser-Messier 8" (£469 at FLO) Is there any reason to go for one brand over another? Looking at the specs on the FLO website it looks like the StellaLyra has the benefit of a dual speed focuser, right angled finderscope and cooling fan (is that an essential?). The Besser comes with a solar filter and has a 2.5" R&P Hex-focuser - are there any benefits to that focuser over the dual speed on the StellaLyra? In terms of the dobsonian mounts - does anyone have any advice regarding the 3 scopes, or are the all much of a muchness? Any advice is very gratefully received, thanks Dave
  2. Thanks Erling G-P, that's really useful and again what fantastic photos!
  3. Yes, I ve definitely ruled out the eq5. It was in budget but all the advice so far says the same, so I'm going to have to find deeper pockets!
  4. Do you know if there's a thread for showing images taken with a sw200pds? I've seen one for the 130pds, but couldn't find one for the 200. (It's possible I need new glasses as well as a new telescope )
  5. Not aluminium but would something like this work? 270 x 270 x 1200mm https://www.diy.com/departments/really-useful-clear-77l-plastic-christmas-tree-storage-box/172222_BQ.prd
  6. So, my current thinking is this - 3 options SW 200pds - EQ5 mount - On budget, with possibly some left over for extras as required. But - mount unlikely to be useful in the long run for AP SW 200pds - HEQ mount - More costly. Mount good for visual but not ideal with the 200pds for AP in anything less than ideal conditions. But - mount should be ok if I move to a lighter scope for AP at a later stage (130 pds seems to be popular or a smaller refractor) SW 200pds - NEQ6 mount - better combination, but quite a bit more than I originally budgeted for. Which sort of points me towards the 2nd option as a starting point.
  7. I was thinking more along the lines of a tripod/mount and ota so that they could be broken down for storage but also so that if I do ever change the telescope I would still have the mount. I've seen a couple of 2nd hand NEQ6 pro mounts but the price seems to be around £850 but once I add travel costs to pick them up they wouldn't be far off the cost of a new one ( £999 at FLO which would also have the benefit of warranty/delivery) The other problem is I need to start convincing my wife of the necessity for an extra £500 outlay...! Any advice on that is greatfully accepted!
  8. Hi, I was reminded just this morning that I inherited an Opticron ES 80 GA spotting scope from my late father-in-law and, as I'm thinking about making a start in astro photography I wondered if there would be any way of utilising this scope in conjunction with a DSLR? Does anyone have any experience of doing this or is it a non-starter?
  9. Thanks for the warm welcome everyone!
  10. Thank you all for the advice, it all very useful and certainly gives me something to think about. I'll order myself a copy of the Making Every Photon Count book and read thoroughly! Sadly at the moment I think the EQ6 mount is out of my budget- or I could afford the mount, but nothing to put on it! ErlingG-P those photos are amazing! If I'm able to produce anything even a 10th of that quality I'll be a happy man! One more newbie question sorry, you say you improved things with an ADC. what is an ADC? To start with I think I need to get myself used to exploring the sky, I have a canon 1000D dslr which I'll look at combining with the telescope once I can find my way around, but i can see theres a LOT for me to learn both both for visual and astro photography!
  11. Hi and thanks for the advice. I have had a look at the 130pds thread and there are some amazing photos there! How does the 130pds stack up against the 200pds for visual observation? I've read elsewhere that aperture is king for visual, which was making me lean towards the 200pds. Would the 150pds be a decent compromise?
  12. Hi, I have been looking into getting my first telescope and I was hoping I could get some advice. I'm after a setup which I can use for visual observation but would also be useful in the (hopefully not too distant) future to be a good starting point for photography and to this end I was looking at the Sky Watcher 200pds and HEQ5 mount. It's a little more than I was originally thinking of spending but I've read quite a few comments that the EQ5 mount isn't quite up to the job when it comes to thinking about photography. Would this combination be a decent starting point? I guess that initially I'll be using it more for visual use than photography, but I'd like to try and "future proof" my first purchase so that I'm not having to upgrade or by a second telescope for the photography once I manage to make a start on that. I was originally budgeting on around 6-700 but at a stretch I could go for the combination above which would be a little over a grand (unless I can find any amazing second hand bargains) Or would anyone suggest looking at something completely different? Apologies if this has been answered a thousand times before!
  13. Hello, Stumbled across the forum during my investigations into purchasing my first telescope. Looks to be a very friendly and useful place and hope you won't mind a few newbie questions! Haven't actually bought a telescope yet, but I'm very keen to sort that out soon! Then I just need to start praying for the rain to stop... Cheers Dave
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