Upgrade time

[redneon]

Last Christmas my wife bought me the Celestron AstroMaster 114EQ scope and I've had a lot of use out of it over the past year and a bit. I've bought a few new eyepieces and a motor drive etc. but I think I've had everything out of the scope I can and want to upgrade to something a bit bigger. To be honest, I live in a heavily light-polluted area and I don't think a 4.5" reflector can cut the mustard so I want to upgrade to at least a 6".

I'm planning on selling my current scope with the motor drive and perhaps eyepieces but I don't have a massive amount of money to play with. Perhaps around £300 at a push if I sell my current scope as I'd then have to buy another motor drive too at around £70. I want to stick with an equatorial mount as I recently bought a DSLR and have been playing around more with astrophotography.

I've heard a lot of good things about Skywatcher scopes so the ones I'm thinking of at the minute are the 150P or 150PL. I'm not sure which of these to get, though. Or even if these are the right ones to go for. As I understand it the 150PL would be better for looking at planets as it has a slower focal ratio but the 150P is better for deep sky objects. Would there really be a big difference either way in these scopes, though? I think the 150P has an f/ratio of f/5 and the 150PL is f/8.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

[todd8137]

how did this track with the motor on it ?did you try take in any video or pics with it ?my daughter as a 90mm goto scope and i was looking at some thing like this ?

[redneon]

The 114EQ? When it was polar aligned properly it was great. I took a few photos.

Here's one I took of Jupiter via my SPC 880 webcam: http://i.imgur.com/Z5y4u.png.

Here's one I took of the Pleiades when I was testing out my new DSLR last week: http://i.imgur.com/fgDRq.jpg. I just mounted the camera on top of the scope so it's not actually using the scope as a lens. I haven't tried any prime focus stuff yet as I'm quite new to astrophotography.

There's no post processing on either of them so I could probably tart them up a bit but I'm quite happy with them as they are.

The mount isn't particularly solid, however.

[ChrisThePuma]

I would sell it ASAP - there will be lots of people (beginners) wanting new scopes after the stargazing programs on the beeb so high demand at the moment.

[redneon]

Yeah, I'm planning on selling it pretty much immediately. I'm not going to get the new scope until March (as it's a birthday present and my birthday is then) but I can go a few months with just a pair of binoculars

[sabana]

Unfortunantly the best way to overcome light pollution is to move away from it. That being said, if that is not an option than you can minimize it using certain filters which block the wavelengths emitted by most street lights.

If you live in the middle of a large city, you will probably be fairly limited in your observing to planets and the sun. In this case you may want to invest in an apochromatic refractor (such as the skywatcher Ed 80). If you are in the suburbs you may still be able to catch glimpses of a few deep space objects and I would recommend a 6 inch or 8 inch newtonian reflector...many people are very happy with 8 inch schmidt cassegrains with astrophotography setups.

You should by used as it is far cheaper and you get more bang for your buck. Be preprared to spend no less than £250. An 8 inch schmidt cassegrain goes for about £800, an skywatcher ED 80 goes for about £300 used.

First Light Optics - Skywatcher Evostar 80ED DS-Pro Outfit

[redneon]

Oh, I don't live in the middle of a large city. It's not THAT bad. On this light pollution map I'm in an orange/yellow area when I zoom in. I think it's because I live sort of equidistant between Rotherham, Barnsley and Doncaster with Sheffield not too far off.

We're looking to move in a couple of years abut as my wife is current expecting our first we're not in a position to move just yet

[rwilkey]

I would go for the slower focal ratio, better for detail on planets etc, you can still do deep sky stuff though, f/8 sounds good.

[redneon]

That's kind of what I'm leaning towards, if I'm honest. My current scope is f/8.5 I believe so I'm used to quite a slow focal ratio.

I'll probably stick my current scope on eBay tonight or tomorrow for collection only (I reckon it would cost and arm and a leg to post/courier) and then assess it when it's sold and I know for sure how much money I have.

I'm going to sell my motor drive with the scope as it's an EQ1 drive and the scope I will certainly be a better one. Should I sell any of my extra eyepieces with it too? I got a 10mm and 20mm erecting eyepiece with the scope but neither are brilliant. I've also bought 32mm and 6mm Plossls and a 2x Barlow. It looks like both of those Skywatchers come with a few eyepieces and a Barlow anyway so I could get rid of the ones I have but if the ones supplied with the Skywatchers are as bad as the ones supplied with my Celestron then I should probably keep my eyepieces, perhaps...

[rwilkey]

Keep the eyepieces you have bought as they will be much better quality, let the ones that came with the scope go with it. The 32mm and the 6mm plossls are great eyepieces that can be used with any scope.