Dan Petzen

Sorry for the time it took to respond. I've had a bit of a busy period. Thanks for sharing your experience in regards to this. It helped a lot. However, every time something is cleared up, something new has to be investigated. I know what I want now, but there are loads of options. I called the company that sold the RC for advice and they walked me through loads of options, but suggested I joined the local astronomy organisation before making a decision. So I'm going to the first meeting tomorrow and am planning to join them at a dark site outside town in a week and a bit. Thanks for your reply!

I'm guessing this has to do with the focal ratio. I should have spent more time on this rather than just jog my memory. OK, I've fine tuned my wants and needs according to reality, and I think that the Cassegrain still comes out on top. I'm a bit nervous of leaving all planetary astronomy behind, as that is all I know, but the Cassegrain should still be good for small deep sky objects and if I feel up for trying on large deep sky objects, then I can always try my luck with focal reducer. I've never used a wedge, so that is very useful information. Obviously, the people selling wedges won't mention any issue with them. The OTA's are quite affordable, so if I can get hold of a reasonably priced equatorial mount, then perhaps that is a better option. I'm going to do a bit of research into this. This is an optional project. I still remember all the nights I've been standing there shivering by my telescope. The idea has a certain appeal 😉

I spent days trying to decide on my first 'serious' telescope that I hope will keep me busy for years to come, but I'm more out of touch with the telescope market than I thought - and could really do with some help. Short version: What 8"-10" reflecting telescope (Cassegrain) would give me most for my money if the primary purpose is astro-photography of (initially) planetary objects, but more importantly deep sky objects (long exposure)? Longer version: Two fairly different telescopes have survived my scrutinisation: Meade LX90 ACF 8", because: I can (barely) afford it ACF will make it suitable for AstroPhotography A wedge will allow me to use it in equatorial mode or A 8" Ritchen-Chrétien with a CEM25P mount, because: It'll ruin me, but I can afford the budget version: https://www.astronz.nz/shop/item.aspx/astrophotography-telescope-package/251/ It's perfect for AstroPhotography The mount is capable of long time equatorial exposures straight off the bat You get much more aperture with the LX65 and some Celestron models, but there always seem to be trade-offs with Alt-Az mounts, optics or other things. Background: My only telescope for the last 15 years has been a Meade ETX-90 UHC. I used to live in London, but the electronics didn't survive the move to New Zealand some 5 years ago. As such, I've done virtually no astronomy at all over the last 5 years. I now really want to get back into it and I want an upper-medium range telescope for AstroPhotography. I thought I knew my way around telescopes, but the last few days of research has proven otherwise. It has been incredibly frustrating. I really need help here. I took most of my pictures with a Kodak (yes, Kodak) digital camera on a fiddly mount. I eventually got a Meade Deep Sky Imager Pro CCD, but really struggled to get it to work very well. I never managed to get any deep sky images. I think it was partly the small aperture, the FoV (the brighter object tends to be a bit bigger), Alt-Az mount (I had stack images to get any results) and my own abilities. I've not even started looking into (or figuring out how to afford) an imaging solution, but any advice here would be much appreciated, even though I may not deserve it yet, as I haven't done my homework ;-) I would really like to get to a point where I can do deep sky imaging from my desktop in my house (or, if possible, from my van). My plan is to build a little structure/platform for the telescope, so that I can set it up, align it, and then control it remotely (wired or wireless depending on what's available). Most things are incredibly expensive in New Zealand, so I need to get this right.