jtf_ie

Thanks All, Some great points and info here. Its really helped me to think about what I really want. This has really gotten me thinking about possibly only buying one scope. I hadn't really considered a Dob because one of the reasons I wanted to get the Mak was because of its compact size compared to the newt. And I don't have a huge amount of space and so I wanted to just have one mount to deal with, etc. However, perhaps a better option for now would actually be to keep my explorer 130 and just buy a dovetail so it can be mounted on the HEQ5. That would allow me to buy the HEQ5 mount with the WO ZS73 (or perhaps the SW Evostar 80ED) for for about my budget. I could always buy the Mak later when I can afford to add more.

Thanks All, Thats a great question and honestly I had to think about the answer, but I guess it is correct. I’ve viewed Andromeda and the Orion + running man nebulae through the explorer 130 and while I’ve been blown away by the experience, it’s mostly by the idea of what I’m looking at rather than the view itself, but seeing the detail on the surface of the moon, the clear bands on Jupiter and the rings of Saturn have been more visually impressive. Plus I think the kids (aged 9, 6 and 3) will get more from seeing that detail, at least initially, than they will from understanding that they are looking at a galaxy millions of light years away. Also, I assume if I wanted to look at Andromeda I could always put a eyepiece in the refractor and use that visually also? Thanks!

Hi All, New member here, looking for some advice. I purchased a Skywatcher 130M (my first scope) in August this year and I have caught the Astro bug! Therefore, I am considering upgrading my equipment early next year (March/April) and would really appreciate some advice. I am already a hobby photographer, so naturally I wanted to attach my DSLR (Canon cropped sensor) to the telescope. Having done some online reading I have realised that visual astronomy and astrophotography are very different disciplines. I have 3 kids, so it is important for me to be able to continue to do visual astronomy (both for mine and their benefit), but I also want to start getting into some astrophotography. Therefore, I am actually considering buying 2 new telescopes, one as an upgrade for visual (and perhaps planetary / lunar photography) and one to get started on some basic DSO astrophotography, as well as one new mount to support both (not at the same time). For now, I will use the Canon DSLR that I already have for imaging and will not start with autoguiding (but would hope to introduce that later). Unfortunately my budget is quite limited at aprpox. £1500 and obviously I would like to maximize the value and experience I can achieve with that budget. I have already reached out to First Light Optics for advice and they were great with giving me some solid information, but for obvious reasons did not really provide any personal opinions. I was considering the following options and would love your opinions on these as well as any other alternatives you might suggest: Option 1: Mount: Skywatchter EQ5 Pro Goto Visual: Skywatcher Skymax 127 Mak Imaging: William Optics Zenithstar 73 II + William Optics Z73 flattener (approx £1550) Option 2: Mount: Skywatcher EQ5 Pro Goto Visual: Skywatcher Skymax 150 Mak Imaging: Skywatcher Evostar 72ED + Skywatcher 0.85 reducer flattener and EvoFrame camera rotator (approx £1540) Option 3: Mount: Skywatcher HEQ5 Pro Goto Visual: Skywatcher Skymax 127 Imaging: Skywatcher Evostar 72ED + Skywatcher 0.85 reducer/flattener and EvoFrame camera rotator (approx £1525) As you can see Option 1 favours the Imaging scope, Option 2 favours the Visual scope and option 3 favours the mount. Some additional questions: Does anyone know anything about the Skywatcher EQM-35 mount? It has a slightly higher payload capacity than the EQ5 and is very slightly cheaper, but there seems to be a lot of skepticism generally online about the quality with most people still recommending the EQ5, but without any real evidence for that. From what I understand, the ZS73 his a much higher build quality than the Evostar 72ED and the Evostar is consider a "semi-APO" while the ZS is a true APO scope. However, the ZS73 is twice the price. S0, what are the real tangible differences in results between the two? Similarly with the skymax 127 vs the skymax 150. I understand that aperture is everything, but what would the real different in the quality of the view be? Also to consider here is that I bought an upgraded eyepiece and barlow for my existing scope. These could be reused with the skymax 127 (since its got a 1.25" focuser) but not with the skymax 150 (2" focuser), so I would probably end up spending even more on additional eyepieces/barlow. Finally, It seems no matter what mount I look at someone always suggests getting the next one bigger! Given that all of the scopes above are within the capacity of the EQ5, does it really make sense to sacrifice the quality of the telescopes to get a bigger HEQ5 mount? Thanks for reading this long post and I look forward to your advice! Feel free to tell me which option you would choose or suggest additional options. The only caveat is that the £1500 budget is already a stretch, so any options that go much beyond that are not a real option for me at the moment.