Hi, beginner here.

[pointlessgecko]

My name is Laurence , i am sure you get loads of crys for help from newbies and here is another one! Sorry!

I have always wanted to take up stargazing but never really made the jump into buying a telescope. However i have recently started to want a camera and to start taking awesome photos, i thought why not combine my interest of astronomy with photography and get a telescope and camera to do astrophotography!

I wanna do everything in the right order, at little cost (to begin with). So firstly i am gonna get to grips with a telescope, before looking into astrophotography. I wanna learn how to 'see', set up, adjust telescopes etc before taking photos, i also cant afford a camera yet!!

I understand that as a beginner it is natural to begin looking at the moon, and planets and moons of the solar system. I have been advised that it may be in my best interests to buy a telescope second-hand with a higher spec, than one new with a lower spec.

I dont want to bore you and ask you the typical question of what telescope do i buy, i have a vague idea of what i want, and am on the look out for second-hand ones, i just thought maybe if i found a used telescope for a particular price i could post the info on this topic and you could advise me. Also is there any websites people typically go on for used telescopes?

Thanks

[malc-c]

Lawrence, welcome to the forum.

There are several posts like yours of late, and using the search function, or browsing through them may help answer some of your questions.

Whilst there is always going to be an exception to the rule, generally imaging through a telescope isn't cheap. But that depends on your goal and where you see yourself in several years time. You can get away with using the most basic of telescopes often referred to as a dob. This has a simple mount, but will give you the most aperture for a given expenditure. This will be fine for taking video of the moon and larger planets such as Jupiter and Saturn via a bog standard Phillips webcam and processing the frames in free software. However if you want to start taking decent images of the fainter deep sky objects then you are going to need an Equatorial mount, and one that is driven. Having gone through this process I would recommend you have a long hard think on your options as either way it's now going to get expensive.

Ok, I can only base my suggestions on reflectors as I've not owned one of the decent refractors such as an ED80, but in order to get good images under typical UK skies an f5 scope is a good all rounder. Skywatcher offer a 150mm and 200mm f5 reflectors, and having that extra 2" makes a lot of difference. If you look through a few posts you'll see that a lot of members list the Explorer 200P in their signatures, as it is a popular scope. Next to the mount. Get an HEQ5 or if you can afford it, an EQ6. I suggest this as it will cover you for any upgrades you might get at a later date. They also have the highest precision motors in any of the Skywatcher mounts. Sometimes these come up on the market second hand, but not as often as they used to, especially the EQ6's. New you're looking at around £970 - £1000 ( First Light Optics - Skywatcher Explorer 200P HEQ5 PRO) but this may work out cheaper than spending £400 on something now, which you soon grow out of, or you find limiting in its performance, and then sell at a loss to fund the upgrade to an HEQ5 / 200P combination later.

Camera's - if you are hoping to go down the digital SLR route then Canon cameras are the preferred choice for astronomy. The 1000D / 1100D seem well recommended, but secondhand 350D / 400D / 450D etc are all capable cameras. I picked up a secondhand 400D from a local shop, boxed with spare batteries, lens and case for less than £250

Hope that helps

[pointlessgecko]

Thanks for the info, it does certainly seem that the 200P dob is a popular choice. I am on an extremely tight budget so will maybe wait to see if one of these comes available second-hand.

Astrophotography is a interest but not a necessity while i am unable to afford. I was thinking on starting by doing afocal astrophotography to begin with. And possibly doing for a compact camera such as a LumixG or a Nex 3/5.

I want to start by just getting to grips with seeing. Learning the telescope and maps etc. Am i right in thinking that for moon + local planet imaging an EQ mount is absolutely necessary?

[Chris H]

Buy and read this book First Light Optics - Making Every Photon Count - Steve Richards

[Spikey]

I want to start by just getting to grips with seeing. Learning the telescope and maps etc. Am i right in thinking that for moon + local planet imaging an EQ mount is absolutely necessary?

You would be quite correct an EQ mount is not necessary for imaging the moon or planets and Alt/Az mount of some description will be just fine. Deep space objects are different and usually require much more accurate tracking due to the long exposure nature of the photography required to capture them.

[pointlessgecko]

Buy and read this book First Light Optics - Making Every Photon Count - Steve Richards

Thanks for the recommendation. Looks like a great book and one i will buy when i look into getting into astrophotography. For now, i just need to get my head around stargazing!!

[malc-c]

I want to start by just getting to grips with seeing. Learning the telescope and maps etc. Am i right in thinking that for moon + local planet imaging an EQ mount is absolutely necessary?

As I stated, you can use a simple £40 web cam kit and a dob or Alt/Azi mounted scope and start imaging the moon / Jupiter and Saturn. The point I was trying to make was that you need to asses what direction you want to go so as not to waste your money.

What is your budget ?

To put things in perspective, when you stated

However i have recently started to want a camera and to start taking awesome photos, i thought why not combine my interest of astronomy with photography and get a telescope and camera to do astrophotography!

this to me suggested you wanted to get these sorts of results (or better as I'm still a beginner when it comes to imaging)

If so then that was my bases for suggesting £1000 worth of kit. I started looking at 4" scope on an alt/az mount for around £300. But I wanted to take pictures with a dslr camera. Following advice from guys here, that lead me to a 6" scope on an eq mount... which later changed to a 200P on a EQ5 goto mount which was at the time the limit of what I could afford (and double the original £300 budget). However as I needed to go for longer exposures and that meant guiding, needed to upgrade the mount to an HEQ5 shortly afterward. I could of sold the EQ5 to recover some cost, but I didn't, and now have a small grab and go set up (see my signature). Now in hindsight I could of saved myself a lot of hassle and expense if I had stretched my budget that bit further and got the 200P on an HEQ5 pro in the first place.

My advice, google for your local astronomical society, pop along to one of their observing events and look through what they have on offer (with stargazing live happening next week there will be loads of events on). Then make up your mind what direction you want to go in and then make a purchase. For a first scope I would always recommend purchasing new as the thing will come with a warranty and gives you that satisfaction should something go wrong.