Is this the right scope?

[cold war kid]

Hi all.

I'm new to astronomy and I'm getting very confused about what scope I need to buy to start me off.

I went into a local (ish) shop yesterday and had a chat with the guy in there about what I need and he ended up recomending a skywatcher explorer 130p synscan az goto as the one that fits my requirment and budget.

Basically I want one that has goto, is good in light polluted areas and will allow me to dabble in astro photography when I get to grips with using the telescope and learning about the stars.

All was well until I joined this site and started searching it's contents for relevant threads that I could learn from. However in one of these threads somebody mentions that the explorer 130p isn't suitable for photography but doesn't explain why. Is this right? I was very specific in the shop that it had to be suitable for photography and the guy even told me which adaptor I would need to take photos with my Nikon DSLR.

So was the original advice good or not. I went out of my way to visit a specialist shop to get good advice and if the advice was good I'll go back there and pay a little bit more to a helpful shop rather than just gooling the cheapest price I can, but if they where just trying to sell me what they wanted to I'll steer clear.

What do you people think?

My budget is aroung £350 tops and I was hoping to get an mc scope but the explorer is a reflector. The guy seemed to think at that price range a reflector would be a better bet.

Also if £350 is an unrealistic budget I suppose I could borrow a pair of binoculars for now and save up but I'm keen to get going with a scope if I can.

Thanks in advance.

[Craig20264]

Welcome to the forum, I'm sure someone will be along shortly with the advice you require.

Love to help but just a beginner too.

[Ian123]

Hello and welcome to the forum.

Astrophotoraphy can get very expensive quickly from what ive read on the forum.

Of course you can do simple webcam capture but for imaging it all comes down to the mount. CG-5 is the least you need i think.

For the time being i would suggest learning you way around the sky first and enjoy your new scope whichever you choose.

[umadog]

The reason that scope isn't good for AP is because it has an alt/az mount rather than an equatorial mount. You need a good equatorial mount for long-exposure astrophotography. The guy at the shop should have known that. (BTW, Google any of these terms of they sound like jargon.) You need to be aware that getting even mediocre quality AP images is rather hard work and can easily get very expensive. For this reason, we generally advise beginners to start off with visual observing and branch out into AP as interest levels, experience, and savings allow. If you're really keen on AP then by all means go for it, but know that you will need to do a lot more reading and research before you buy kit for it. With visual, on the other hand, most reflectors of about 130 mm and larger would be an adequate starter scope. A 200 mm would be a reasonable keeper scope.

As for light pollution: no scope is really of much use in light polluted conditions. Bigger aperture helps. Light pollution filters help (particularly when used with larger aperture scopes). Video astronomy helps a lot (but then you're no longer purely visual). GoTo may help but may not be necessary: it's a personal choice. The main thing that helps is having a portable scope which can be transported somewhere dark. Dark skies are more important than the telescope: do not underestimate this.

[brantuk]

Welcome to the forum Kid

The 130P is very capable, but on an alt/az mount and with such a small aperture, you won't be taking long exposures of dso's. Galaxies and nebulae are very dim and larger apertures are preferred. And the alt/az mount will produce star trailing.

It's a great beginners observing scope and you'll see plenty of the brighter dso's with it. You'll also be able to put a webcam on it and get very reasonable shots of the moon and planets.

But for dslr photography you want a highly stable and accurate equatorial mounted scope like (at least) a 6" reflector, or a short tube wide field appochromatic refractor.

If it were me I'd either save up a grand for a more realistic imaging system, or stick with visual while you learn the skies and earn some pennies then upgrade to imaging later.

Meantime get a book like "Making Every Photon Count" - it'll tell you all you need to know about imaging in a very easy to follow format.

Hope that helps

[Grunthos]

I suppose I could borrow a pair of binoculars for now and save up

A very sensible thought. This is a route that many people have followed. Loads of fun and discoveries to be had with a decent binocular.

Now, which binocular (and books and planisphere to go with it)?

That's another thread!

[mallorcasaint]

The 130p AZ GoTo is a great starter scope and you will be able to get some good webcam planetary images but as was said before, for anything else you'll need an EQ mount. I had great fun with my 130p and enjoyed the ease of the GoTo but like most on here I have now moved on and upgraded.

[John-TW1]

Curiously, I think your astrophotography ambitions might not be too thwarted. You mentioned the blight of light pollution, which has a levelling effect as below.

You can get up to about a 30 second exposure on ALT AZ before field rotation sets in and affects the picture. This will result in trails around the edge of the field. What you can do is stack loads of images on top of each other. Have a look at the FREE program Deep Sky Stacker.

An equatorial mount is best overall, but where light pollution is an issue you are limited in exposure anyway. I am in SW London where even with an EQ mount I need to limit my Nikon to 30 seconds, before the field is swamped with an orange glow. The saving grace is that with Deep Sky Stacker you simply add up all the images. Dont worry about field rotation in a succession of images, the program takes care of it, too, by rotating the images before stacking.

Dust and cloud nebulae are a different matter to stars, as their low surface brightness may be more difficult to tease out, but you should be able to get M42, a binocular comet and M31 registered at least and star fields will be quite amazing. I think there is even a mosaic feature in DSS.

And you are less likely to be disappointed as at least with a GOTO you are more able to find things in the first place!

Have fun! And post the results!

[carastro]

I agree with the above comments. I started off with a good GOTO telescope on an Alt-Az mount, and it was great for learning the sky, and doing Moon and planetary imaging, but I have had to replace the whole lot now I am doing Deep Sky imaging. £350 will not buy you what you need for DSLR imaging even 2nd hand.

So you have to decide which direction you are going in.

a) Buy the recommended Alt/Az scope for now and enjoy the skies, and do Moon and planetary imaging, with a webcam (not DSLR), then buy the correct kit for Deep sky later.

Make do with binoculars until you have enough to buy an imaging rig.

You'll need an Equatorial mount capable of guiding.

CG5 GT, HEQ5 (for example)

Possibly a small refractor such as an ED80, or similar will kick start you.

However be warned, you will also need to spend a lot more on the accessories required to do guiding, such as a guidescope and camera, and cables, laptop, dewheaters, etc etc.

Astro-photography is not a cheap hobby.

Carole

[cold war kid]

Thanks for all your replies so far. It's certainly given me food for thought. I think I'll hold on for a while and read a few books before diving in.

[WayBig]

You can get awesome planetary images with an alt az scope though....i'd recommend spending time observing, learning the sky, seeing a variety of objects before deciding what floats your boat and whether you want spend the time and money on deep sky photography