Is this a good choice for my first telescope

[bazanders]

Hi all

Been interested in astronomy for years but never got round to buying a telescope until now. I have read dozens of articles over a period of months and decided to go with the Celestron Nexstar 8 SE.

I know this is expensive for a first telescope, and most people say dont spend alot on your first telescope etc, try binoculars first and so forth. The thing is i want to get half decent photographs of nebula and other Deep space objects, which obviously require tracking, do members here think this would be a good choice?

Regards Barry

[Tinker1947]

Not sure this can be polar aligned, maybe somebody that has one can say..??

[CelestialHaz]

Hi Barry,

I'm sure there will be many responses to your question. I'll add my 2 pence worth, the Nexstar 8se is a good setup for visual planetary observing. The scope is very popular, I have one too. However the mount with this setup is what's called an alt/as mount in that it moves up n down and left n right to put it in simple terms.

For astrophotography, especially deep space objects you will need long exposure photos and so you would have to track the object for a length of time and this requires you to have an equatorial mount which follows the curve of the Earth's orbit and will hence let you track properly. Tue C8 which is the scope you get with a Nexstar 8se setup has a small field of view which isn't ideal for large deep space objects but is good for planets and small deep space objects.

You need to have a small focal ratio telescope to allow for deep space imaging.

I would highly recommend you do some more research before spending to ensure you get the right scope and mount which is just as important if not more than the scope itself

Hope the helps

Regards

Haz

Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk

[John]

Welcome to the forum Barry.

The Nexstar 8SE is a great observing scope but the alt-azimuth mount is not suitable for deep sky imaging. To be honest an 8" schmidt-cassegrain is not the best for that either.

For that sort of imaging I believe (I'm not an imager myself) the recommended starting point is small ED or apochromatic refractor on a sturdy equatorial mount such as an HEQ5 or similar.

Of course the above is not so good for visual observing and here we have the conundrum - there is no scope that is good at everything !

[Chris]

I would go for an HEQ5 and any Apochromatic refractor with a short f/ratio e.g f/5 for imaging, the celestron you mentioned would be an excellant scope for purely visual observations though.

HTH

Chris

[DOBBY]

As Taliesin & John have said...Alt/Az is not suitable for deep sky work.

An HEQ5 Pro or NEQ6 would be a good mount... with either an apochromatic refractor or...if you want to do some visual as well... skywatcher 200Pds newt.

[bazanders]

Many thanks for replies, must admit i was taken in by the simplicity of this telescope, coupled with suposed example images of DSO,s, will look alot deeper into this,will probably go with the HEQ5 mount, havent decided on the scope yet. Unfortunately where i live in Cumbria there are not many clubs, nearest being 34 miles away in Kendal. I have decided to go there as they have a meeting this Friday. They are giving a talk amongst other things on equipment so will be worth it i feel.

Forgot to mention total budget for this(not including camera) is £1500 max, is this achievable for what i want to do?

Thanks Barry

[Catweazel]

Forgot to mention total budget for this(not including camera) is £1500 max, is this achievable for what i want to do?Thanks Barry

Yes! It certainly is

[rowan46]

It's a great scope, big enough to see most things, portable enough to be easily usable. Its good enough to webcam image and take lunar shots with a dslr. But you cannot image dso's with it. Even if you put a wedge on it the tracking isn't accurate enough for such a long focal length. If imaging is the way you want to go get a heq5 and small apo refractor. the nexstar isn't a great imaging system but it does make a very good visual system.

[TimH]

Another possibility is an astrotrac Astrophotography Made Easy - Home and a telephoto lens for deep sky. I dont have an astrotrac but the reports are worth reading. Its portable. I have used a 200mm F/4 lens for deep sky objects set in a wide field guided with an LXD55 mount and modded Canon 20D with pleasing results.

I typically use 10 x 2min exposures (RAW) combined in DeepSky Stacker and processed in CS2

[bazanders]

Im definately going with the HEQ5 Pro mount, and leaning towards the skywatcher 200Pds with goto for flexibility and ease of use (whole lot £1049 from bristol cameras). From what i gather the images wont be quite as good as with an apo refractor, i can live with that for the greater flexability as long as i can get fairly decent images with the skywatcher.

One last question if people dont mind regarding the camera, do people think its worth getting it modded (Canon EOS 550d) i dont want to do this unless it will give massive returns in image quality, as its going to render it pretty useless for other uses from what i gather. Oh and has anyone dealt with bristol cameras and are they reputable?

Many Thanks for responses to date

Barry

[Rigel-7]

If you fancy a bit of photography have you looked the mak newts such as the skywatcher or the explore scientific. Take a look at this threads photos.

[bazanders]

WOW I thought i had made my mind up but you might have just changed it. Takes me over my budget by about £5-600 (thinking of the skywatcher)but i never ever thought you would get them sort of results in this price bracket. Any thoughts on the camera mod?

[rowan46]

If you are going to spend this sort of money for imaging. I would suggest this book it's very accessible for beginners and tells you the sort of kit you need and more importantly why. If you get the book it may save you a lot of money in the long run. forewarned is forearmed so to speak.

First Light Optics - Making Every Photon Count - Steve Richards

[bazanders]

Have ended up chosing this in the end: Explorer 190MN DS-PRO NEQ6 Pro GOTO Mount found here:

Explorer 190MN DS-PRO NEQ6 Pro GOTO Mount | Telescopes | Rother Valley Optics

Camera EOS 600d

Must admit got quite a few conflicting views regarding camera, but having seen plenty of photos taken with this camera think im happy, reviews for scope seem really good.

Thanks for input

Barry