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DaveBolton

By DaveBolton
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DaveBolton

DaveBolton

Posted
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Hello occupants of the Lounge! I thought it would be rude to hang around without introducing myself…

I am Dave (from) Bolton and I am almost a complete novice at this hobby so lets see if I can get through this without any schoolboy errors.

The night sky has always held a fascination for me but the last time I did anything about that was at the time of the Apollo landings. Yes, I go back that far – in fact I just about even recall Telstar going aloft and then the Gemini program before Apollo. Back then, when I was allowed to make schoolboy errors because I was one, I had binoculars and then a quite small telescope. I also recall maps of the moon being in my possession courtesy of a competition that I won.

Various hobbies have come and gone since then but astronomy (phew – bullet dodged) has always been on the back burner for some reason. My main hobby over the last twenty years or so has been photography and I have earned about 20% of my annual income through that over the last few years, mainly in stock photography. It’s that interest that is dragging me in this new direction and a mix of visual and astrophotography is the direction I want to go.

Over the last six weeks or so I’ve been scouring the magazine stands and then this forum for advice. Ebay is also getting a healthy dose of looking at so I can gauge prices but this seems to be a bad time to try and get established and buy my first decent telescope I fear. The time of year and the BBC can be thanked for that, I suppose.

I’m planning on spending under four figures total, but not that far under. I don’t mind second hand equipment and I’m not in a rush. I think the best bit of advice I have read on these forums is ‘decide what size telescope you want and then buy one size bigger.’ The Skyprodigy 130 briefly held my interest but I hear you that its expensive for what you get, although I may come back to it. My current target is the Celestron 8SE but I can see me compromising with a 6SE. I’m not sure about Meade. I’m currently thinking goto is a ‘must’.

So that’s where I am and I think I’ve taken enough of your time.

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DOBBY

DOBBY

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Hi Dave... & welcome to the forum

For DSO photography you need to start with a sturdy EQ mount with tracking or Go-To...then see how much is left of your budget for a 'scope.

A skywatcher 200pds on HEQ5pro might be over the budget...but well worth a look

First Light Optics - Skywatcher Explorer 200P HEQ5 PRO

falls into your budget...just

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Nosivad

Nosivad

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Hi Dave and welcome. For planetary or lunar photography, i.e short exposures, then the 6SE or 8SE would be good. For deep sky(or space) objects then a driven equatorial mount is needed as exposure times will be considerably longer. I am a purely visual observer so my 6SE is fine for that purpose.

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Cunhaval

Cunhaval

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Hi, Dave from Bolton from another Dave from Bolton (though no longer resident!)

Welcome to SGL :D

+1 for Dobby's comment - if you are interested in astrophotography, spend the serious money on the mount, not the scope. You can do a lot with a heavy-duty EQ mount and a modest scope, but it is MUCH more difficult the other way round.

Also, you will find U.K. Astronomy Buy & Sell considerably more useful than E-bay, which frequently tends to have some ludicrously high prices for astro equipment.

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Mudskipper

Mudskipper

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I have just taken the time to read your original post a bit more closely. I am not too far away and I have a couple of scopes you can have a look through if you are not able to do so through a club. I sold my Meade scope ('nuff said). I have had a couple of Celestrons which have been good (the keeper is now over a decade old) but I am now a Skywatcher fan.

I know how hard it is choosing your first scope. PM me if you fancy a grabbing a brew and hearing my totally biased opinion in more detail.

Dave

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jasondh

jasondh

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Hi Dave & Welcome. I'm in Chorley so not that far away.

I went for a scope with a budget around that of what you are taking about. I went for the best visual scope I could get and ended up with a 10" GOTO as below. A little cheat with the GOTO but I do love it.

I am a keen photographer too so it was perhaps only a matter of time before I started thinking about astro photography.

It must be said that the scope I have chosen is not perhaps the best for imaging so I would seriously consider your options before you buy and look closely at what others have achieved.

I am wondering if I might at some point in the future sell my scope and look to buy something different to start taking photos.

I have to say though that I do love the visual astronomy with my scope and it was important to me to get something that might be good for my children to enjoy too. There is a little setup time with my scope but I think anything more might be prohibitive for my kids and they would go inside complaining of the cold and being bored.

Good luck with your choices.

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DaveBolton

DaveBolton

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Hi Dave... & welcome to the forum

For DSO photography you need to start with a sturdy EQ mount with tracking or Go-To...then see how much is left of your budget for a 'scope.

A skywatcher 200pds on HEQ5pro might be over the budget...but well worth a look

First Light Optics - Skywatcher Explorer 200P HEQ5 PRO

falls into your budget...just

That all seems sound advice, Dobby, and having looked at the setup you mention there I am tempted to stop faffing around and press the 'buy' button.

That plus the required power tank @ £100, set of filters for about £50 and the obligatory copy of Turn Left at Orion @ £20 takes the whole package to about £1150 which is achievable if I breathe in slowly. Am I forgetting anything? I'll mull it around for a couple of days yet while I wait for an 'in stock' email from another seller who were doing the same Skywatcher set-up at £150 less but, of course, it is out of stock! Yes, well, I can sell then cheap too when I haven't got any in!

Everybody, thanks for the welcome on board!

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