Sam23

6 hours ago, Phobos 226 said:

Hi Sam,

I was faced with a very similar position and budget as you last year and thought I'd pass on a little of my journey as well as what I would do differently in retrospect.

As of today I have a Skywatcher 130PDS which is an extremely well regarded compact imaging newtonian mounted on an EQ5 that I "tuned' myself using a few different guides and converted from manual to fully Goto using the open source OnStep system. I've been working on a little blog site that explains the process I went through to get it all working and you can see my recent results on Astrobin.

All that being said with the benefit of hindsight I would look at perhaps a slightly more compact and lighter scope with the EQ5 for astrophotography as I'm really pushing it with the 130PDS. I will likely be upgrading to an EQ6 or similar quite soon to better cope with the weight and give me tighter guiding which averages 1.4 to 0.9 arc seconds RMS depending on the night. I will then likely put a smaller, shorter focal length and lightweight refractor on the OnStep EQ5 which it should be better suited for.

If I were going into it again with the EQ5 as my only option I would still pursue OnStep as it has clear benefits as an overall system than the stock EQ5 Synscan system and even some off the shelf Goto mounts owing to the active and open source nature of its development. The caveats here are is it requires some DIY knowledge and a bit of a delve into electronics as well. I would also probably look at a shorter basic refractor as a starting point, something well regarded for imaging at a budget like a 72ED or similar at ~half the weight versus the 130PDS with mandatory tube rings which add almost half the weight of the OTA on top.

Another option if you're just starting and already have some lenses for your DSLR is have a look for a fast prime lens on the second hand market and mount the DSLR to the EQ5 directly with a basic dovetail/saddle and you might not even need to guide under 2-3 minutes if you're lucky. The benefits of shorter focal lengths let you tackle bigger targets like nebulae and a full shot of Andromeda as well as being more tolerant to coarse guiding which you get with the EQ5 no matter how hard you tune it as it's just made cheaper and lacks things like a proper DEC axis bearing, instead relying on teflon washers over a proper bearing.

Of course the safest and likely most sensible option is to save up for an HEQ5 or EQ6 class mount or hope you get lucky on the second hand market (difficult in these COVID19 times) and work your way up with the mount capacity already in hand as most of the work in taking good astrophotos is down to the mount alone and I'm sure many others have ended up in a situation where they feel 'undermounted' and wishing they had more payload capacity from the beginning. You can always upgrade incrementally as budget allows but spending once on a mount is something that will be a net benefit overall and your future self will thank you for it.

The question is do you want a challenge and to learn something new as you go on your astrophotography journey, or do you want to avoid the hassles and get to decent and reliable imaging ASAP? I certainly know far more about how mounts, worm drives, gear reductions, periodic error, soldering, stepper motors and microcontrollers than I did a year ago that's for sure and I look at it as an invaluable learning experience that taught me so many new things and skills I never would have had the confidence to even attempt not so long ago. Since then I've build my own regulated power distribution hub, electronic focuser, peltier cooler for my DSLR, light box for taking flat images, a DIY dew shield from a yoga mat and even removed the IR filter from my 400D to make it 'Astro-modified' for better Ha response.

Hopefully that's some help to you as somebody who had similar thoughts and was in a similar position as you almost exactly a year ago! Just remember this is a what can be done and not in any way what should be done; I'm not suggesting you follow the same path as me unless you intend to get the same experiences and challenges out of it!

Just be aware that you'll probably be like me and looking at cooled mono cameras, bigger mounts and more OTAs on your shopping list as the bug bites you down the line... But I don't think that's a rare phenomenon in this world as many would agree.

6 hours ago, Lockie said:

This is the cheapest compromised solution I can see. Could you stretch to this? It has fairly accurate stepper motors, goto, and the ali tripod vibrations can be mitigated with anti vibration pads and placing a bit of weight such as a power supply on the tripod spreader tray. I had an EQ3 Pro in my old obsy for a while and it wasn't a bad mount considering the price  

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/reflectors/skywatcher-explorer-130p-ds-eq3-pro-goto.html

I'm not sure i want to try my hand a astro DIY just yet...ask the misses, my DIY track record isnt great!

Another option would be to go down the Skywatcher Evostar 72ED DS Pro route with a SW Star Adventurer?

At least i'd would be able to dual purpose the Star Adventurer for timelapses etc using my mirrorless camera?

Thoughts?

So would it be better to invest in the 150PDS and manual EQ5 and then add power functions once I've saved up the funds?

I'm guessing it is still possible to take passable DS photos without power controls? Maybe not as good as tracked, but still suitable?

Thanks.

Costing it up, I think the 150PDS and EQ5 GOTO might be a bit out of my price range....especially since its my first beginner telescope.

Are there any alternatives around the £400 - £500 mark? Such as maybe the Celestron Nexstar 130 SLT?

Hi Community,

Sorry if this question has already been asked and I haven't seen it.

I'm a complete beginner into the world of telescope astrophotography.

Having spent time outside with a tripod and a zoom lens/APS-C camera getting some nice photos, I'm looking to up my game and move onto the next step.

My birthday is coming up so I'm hoping for a Skywatcher Explorer 150PDS with an EQ5 (if the budget permits!) mount.

My question is, for astrophotography do I need to get the EQ5 pro GOTO or will the manual EQ5 mount with minor adjustment knobs work just fine?

Ideally, I'd be focusing more on deep space photography rather than close planetary observation.

Thanks in advance 😃.

Sam