Cuto100200

I've narrowed down my choice to these two and just wanted to get some opinions on the benefits of both scopes in comparison to one another, any experiences people have with these scopes etc. Thank you

Also love this it looks beautiful, thanks for sharing this. Didn't know what sort of stuff you could do with lenses + mount so this gives a really nice bit of perspective.

Hi Guys Thanks for all the replies this has really helped, I really appreciate it. Just a quick question, is there any difference between the HEQ5 Pro and the EQ5 Pro other than weight capacity, stability and future proofing, does the HEQ5 provide any superior tracking benefits and would this be worth the extra cost? This is assuming both mounts can carry the weight of the rig. https://www.firstlightoptics.com/equatorial-astronomy-mounts/skywatcher-eq5-pro-synscan-goto.html https://www.firstlightoptics.com/equatorial-astronomy-mounts/skywatcher-heq5-pro-synscan.html Thank you

Hi For around 6-ish months now I've been taking photos with a 250D, the lenses I have are a 130mm and 18-55mm Zoom Lens. Along with this I also own a 8" Dobsonian and I've generally been doing a mix of wide angle shots with the lens, and very limited deep sky imaging using the telescope. It's been a real joy doing all this but I think it's time i'd like to get past this wall I feel i'm at with Deep Sky Imaging so any equipment recommendations would be amazing. Currently i'm looking at the Sky-Watcher Evostar 80ED DS-Pro along with the Sky-Watcher HEQ5 Pro Mount as I've heard these are good all-round products and good for starting out a bit more seriously. Any recommendations on equipment that would be useful to go along side this, if there is any that i'd need, would be much appreciated, or just any alternatives to the main equipment in general. Budget for this stuff is going to be around 1500 all together (excluding the already acquired items like 250D camera). I'm going to use the 250D as an imaging camera, however will either get it modded in future or eventually upgrade to a dedicated AP camera when I have the budget. Thank you Lewis

Thank you both for the replies this helps a bunch, in terms of a just getting into astrophotography, is the SW ED80 and HEQ5 both good pieces of equipment in terms of quality and cost? I was thinking of just using the standard unmodded DSLR until I can afford a dedicated astrophotography camera, also just a question for futures sake; would a cheaper CMOS AP camera in the price range of 200-300 be better than a modded DSLR for the job?

Hi So currently I've been using lenses (18-55m and 135mm) to do astrophotography, and recently managed to get my dslr (250d) to focus in my 8" dob, I got some nice images of the ring nebula and m13 so far as I've only been able to get out with it once. I was using the dob for primarily visual astronomy and that was the first thing I ever got. My question is, when investing in more astrophotography equipment, do I save for a more expensive mount (EQ6), capable of handling the 8" dob (Bresser Messier) , or do I use the money to get a smaller refractor, say the 80ED evostar, and a HEQ5 mount? Any suggestions regarding alternative equipment to what I've suggested would be much appreciated Apologies for the spam of questions lately, thank you for all for the answers they've really been helpful and I appreciate it greatly. Thanks

Just wanted to know, when imaging with a telescope, aren't you generally fixed at a certain magnification optically, how are the close up shots of nebula, galaxies, etc possible with smaller imaging telescopes? Do people just have telescopes with longer focal lengths? Or is it more down to the quality of camera to enable better quality digital zoom? I'm sure it's simple I just haven't really been able to find an answer Thanks

Hi So I've recently been taking photos and stacking with an unmodded, unguided dslr and I was pretty surprised at the quality being better than I expected, obviously the major roadblock to progressing further is getting a good mount, however this also seems to be one of the more expensive pieces of equipment. I looked at the Sky Watcher HEQ5, but obviously this is quite expensive, even with it being one of the cheaper high quality mounts so I was wondering if there are any good cheaper alternatives for someone just starting out? Thanks

Other than the Milky Way what are some other interesting areas of the sky to photograph wide field (anything 50mm lens and below)? This could include just generally interesting star patterns, faint objects etc? Also could anyone recommend some good targets for a 135mm lens? Thanks

Just wanted to say I have a Canon 250d and I have this exact same problem. I just switched to the Sequator software which seems to accept and stack the files just fine.

Hi thanks for this didn't know about the infinity focus with adapters thing! I found two that looks quite good but im not totally sure which looks better quality or better for the money at least https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fotodiox-Lens-Mount-Adapter-Pentax/dp/B008CQ9K5A https://www.ukdigital.co.uk/pentax-pk-lens-canon-eos-adapter.html Could you give your opinion on which one looks better if you have time? Thank you

Thinking of getting a Pentax Takumar 135mm F2.5 for AP with Canon ES 250d. Anyone have any experience/can recommend any good adapters from Pentax K to Canon EF? Thanks

Okay cool that makes sense, yeah i'm using a static I just didn't know exactly how the stacking software worked. Thank you for the advice by the way, much appreciated!

Thanks for this! Just another question I've been wondering, when actually taking long exposures, obviously it takes a long while to complete if you're doing over 100, so would you need to move the camera at all during shooting or does stacking software just know how to stack the images and make up for the fact the stars will be in slightly different positions in each photo?

Understood, this looks amazing! So will taking a lot of 2 second exposures to avoid star trailing and then stacking these in software provide decent results? I'll need to learn how to do blacks to reduce noise, if i understand correctly blacks are done by using the exact same settings as you use for lights but you put the lens cap on?

Thanks for telling me all this it really helps! I honestly just didn't know if cameras were that capable of capturing objects, I thought it'd be a lot more complicated and finicky, thought you'd need to zoom somehow or something. I have a canon 250d, would this be enough to do astro with by stacking short long exposures of brighter objects like Andromeda etc? (I'd like to get a Goto tracking mount in future, I was looking specifically at the sw heq5 that you have as it looks very good value for money)

Ahh understood that's really cool, I still need to learn how to do darks and bias's. When finding an object in the sky, do you just aim the camera at it and shoot or do you zoom or crop somehow to get it enlarged?

This is very cool, how would you go about doing this? Do you just take many long exposures and then stack them or do you have a tracker?

Any cheapish canon lenses that are better than the kit (EF-S 18-55mm 3.5 - 5.6) for astro worth getting? When I say cheap I mean under 200 Thanks

Wow that photo is amazing, thanks for the comparison between the two. Was looking at 200d and 250d's as well, I think they're quite new models though so there's less information regarding using them for astrophotography compared to other models I've seen. Are most DSLR's fine for beginner astrophotography? Or are there specific models I should avoid?

Thank you these really help to get an idea for whats possible with an unmodified one. These are beautiful, this sort of thing is what i'd aim for honestly, I wouldn't be attempting anything more detailed than this (not that I really know what that is because these are truly amazing to look at), obviously my budget is a lot less than a 6D so I imagine the image quality would be greatly reduced but even then, i'd be very happy to get even the slightest bit close to these sort of images.

Hi guys So I've recently been enjoying visual astronomy, and plan to stick with this for the foreseeable future, however I also wanted to get into photography in general, nature etc, however I wanted to get a camera that in future could also be used for astrophotography, as i feel getting a basic understanding of visual astronomy + normal photography would give me a good amount of knowledge to eventually progress to astrophotography when I have the money. My question is, what's a good beginner DSLR camera that could be used for normal photography and in future with astrophotography Currently i've been looking at this (this is also around my budget): https://store.canon.co.uk/canon-eos-2000d-ef-s-18-55mm-is-ii-lens-backpack-sd-card/2728C045/ And this: https://store.canon.co.uk/canon-eos-4000d-body-ef-s-18-55mm-iii-lens/3011C006/ Thankyou

Hi Guys Just a quick question regarding the primary mirror, obviously eventually dust, and whatever else may get on the mirror, how much of this does it take to actually effect visual quality, and when does it need to be cleaned? I can spot a black thing on mine, its very small and i imagine it's probably a part of a leaf that could be easily blown, or wiped off though it hasn't seemed to effect visual quality whatsoever, or at least from what i can tell Thanks

Really nice colour!

I recently viewed Saturn and Jupiter with my 8" dob, I was able to make out Jupiter's gas rings at lower magnification, though as soon as I tried to bump up magnification the seeing conditions took a toll and visuals deteriorated. I think as everyone else has said, obviously they're quite low in the sky and therefore seeing for them isn't the best and therefore high magnification is going to be affected. Generally I think the trick is to just get a decent eyepiece and just keep going at it, the conditions vary quite a bit from night to night! I'd agree with John on the BST eyepieces, I've heard a lot of good things about the ES Barlows, but personally haven't used mine enough to give an opinion other than the build quality is very good.