Need help to choose......

[Doc]

I need help Guy's....

This xmas hope to get a new scope but cannot decide what to get.

What I love is star hopping, finding these double stars, galaxies etc so would I appreciate Go-To...

But due to the rubbish british weather do we get enough time to sit and star hop, woud a Go-To be better.

Also do I really need to track the stars as photography is something I cannot see myself doing as yet. So should I go for apperture.

The scope would very rarely go to dark sites so portability is not really a problem.

My contenders are:

A really big Dobsonian say one made by Discovery in the region of 15". A big beast but imagine just searching through Leo and all those galaxies pop out at you.

Or

A Celestron 9.5 CPC a great scope for tracking and Go-to and maybe eventual sub 20 secs exposures.

What do you lot think.

I will have in the region of 2200 pounds is there anymore to consider..

Mick

[Whippy]

Over 2 grand? Blimey...

Personally, I'd get an EQ6 with GOTO mount and whatever OTA tickles your fancy. Dobs are great in terms of aperture-per-pound but a 15" scope is a fair old lump to move about even if it's in and out of the garden.

Tony..

[barkis]

Well to my mind, a Dobsonian Light Bucket is an uncomplicated grabber of celestial wonders. If you can afford say a 16" f4.5, you will be in heaven. You will have queues of people at your garden gate when the word gets out.

Now, back to reality. Whilst I kid you not on the merits of the above, there is no doubt in my mind, you, will change yours, and your ambitions will begin to stir. Before too long you will want to capture some of those glorious sights, it's almost inevitable.

You have to learn how to find deep space targets, as only one of them is naked eye, and that's the great spiral in Andromeda.

As I said, when you have them in the eyepiece of the big scope, it is breathtaking, but you have to find them first, and that can be a time consuming learning process.

Wait and see what other guys say though, I am only giving you my take on it.

Good luck though, whatever you decide to do.

Ron.

[MikeP]

Mick,

As you investigate, you'll find that a fair percentage of your money will need to go on a good mount. Many people on this forum use an EQ6 Pro and I'm yet to hear any real criticism. If you went for that, it should last you for a long time, but it will eat up close to £1,000 for a new one.

Everyone will tell you aperture is king, which it is for light gathering, but it certainly isn't for set up and tear down and certainly not for portability. Having said that, you may disappointed with what you can see if you don't buy a big scope. I have a 10" Newtonian and I don't recommend it - I spend a lot of time on kitchen steps trying to get to the eyepiece, but Newtonians are cheap per inch of aperture.

If you want to take piccies of some sort, a large aperture is not necessarily helpful. Others on this forum can explain that better than me, but it is true. Loads of great pictures have been taken with ED80s which cost under £300 new.

Finally, a camera. I've just spent over £1,000 on a new CCD camera. Obviously you can get cheaper, but it all needs to come out of your budget. You will also find that software for imaging can cost and the bits and pieces of plumbing to connect together the components quickly adds up.

So, my advice (purely personal and very biased) is to get something along the lines of ... an EQ6, a big cheap Newtonian on a dobsonian mount plus some rings to mount the OTA on the EQ6 and an ED80. Depending on what is left, you'll need the imaging stuff - not my area of expertise (not that the rest is really). Use the ED80 on the EQ6 for imaging, look through the Newtonian, mounting it on the EQ6 whenever you feel like using the GOTO. When you get to the point of having a bit more cash, buy a big SCT to replace the Newtonian and mount that on the EQ6.

Good luck with your deliberations.

Mike

[FLO]

With a budget like that, why not tick all three boxes: A planet killer, an imaging and a light bucket.

Perhaps a Skywatcher Skymax 127 OTA, an Evostar 80ED PRO on a HEQ5 and a Meade 16" Lightbridge.

Actually, that'll probably take you a bit over budget but there are other combinations...

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

If you dont intend to travel to dark skies you might be better off starting out with some imaging gear. I know you said that you're not into it but I got into it through realising that the stuff really is there once you've goto'd to it, you just can't see it. I was convinced that my goto was telling fibs until I stuck the DSLR on the 'scope and saw a real proper galaxy show up. I changed over to a visual setup without reaiming the 'scope and saw nothing at all. That convinced me that imaging is the easy way to get to see these things, as visually there is nothing to see.

I do my imaging from a nastyly light polluted back yard, so you might have a better sky than me, but if I had a dark site I'd still be imaging as it extends the range of stuff that you can detect by so much its almost scary.

Think long and hard about your proposed new toys, its a lot of dosh and you have a fair while to ponder, then make the wrong choice and spend too much like the rest of us.

You could do worse than spend some of it on a shed as well, if you have somwhere to park it.

Kaptain Klevtsov

[Doc]

Cheers guys you have made my choice really easy now

I have had my Tal for quite a while now and really yearn to see more but as kaptain pointed out most of these DSO are hard to spot even in a light bucket and really only show their beauty when photographed.

And I'm very proned to changing my mind and getting bored, so I bet I would end up wanting to get into photography.

2200 pounds is a great amount of money thanks to some shares that mature in January I will have to really ponder this, but after loads of reading I'm erring on the side of a EQ6.

As you said I then have the correct mount that gives me the versatility to go for a big OTA or small Apo for astrophotography.

In essence kills two birds with one stone.

Just one question to Eq6 owners is it easy to polar align as my Tal is blumming hard.

Mick

[Whippy]

Just one question to Eq6 owners is it easy to polar align as my Tal is blumming hard.

Mick

Ah, the joys of polarscopes . Makes life so much easier....

Tony..

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

Just one question to Eq6 owners is it easy to polar align as my Tal is blumming hard.

Mick

Takes all of a minute to get near enough for 90 second exposures with a 1000mm focal length and a DSLR.

Kaptain Klevtsov