HELP ON CHOOSING A TELESCOPE

[concal]

Hi, i am new to astronomy and looking on buying my first telescope. I have been searching the net and i am confused with the different types/models etc...... I don't want to spend a huge amount of money on my first scope. My budget is no more than £350. I am a very keen photographer i currently own a canon 500d, and i want to make use of my skills as a amateur photographer, to take photos deep into the night sky. Any help, information and advice would be greatly appreciated..

[CGolder]

Hello , i am sure members would be happy to help in you search for a telescope.. but i am not very upto date with astrology.. dont those people use crystal balls?

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[MBJ]

to use a canon 500d for astrophotograpy combined with a telescope you will have to have a very sturdy mount to take the weight and also tracking motors or a goto system and im not sure your budget will get you what you need.for decent photos you will either have to have a good refractor or a decent size reflector of 150mm or more.

maybe the second hand route could get you close to what you want.

[rowan46]

I assume you have a good tripod and long lens maybe a 2nd hand astrotrac

First Light Optics - Astrotrac TT320X-AG

[CGolder]

Hello,

With the budget you have you could start off, a good tracking eq mount and a small ed refractor.

You could probably just about do it buying second hand

google astro buy and sell uk

A tracking heq5/ eq5 and a celrdtron ed 80 or z66 might just about be in budget if you very lucky

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[ollypenrice]

As the others have said it is all about the mount. If you can't track very accurately you can't do very long exposures so you can't get very deep. The tracking needs to get better and better as the focal length increases so starting with short FL camera lenses asks less of your mount. A fast F ratio means you have to expose for less time, so...short focal length + fast F ratio = camera lens.

The best budget mount is the HEQ5. That is an imaging mount ready to go but it exceeds your budget new. You could go for a lesser EQ mount but it will not compare in performance, though at short FL it will probably serve quite well.

You can do good stuff with camera lenses. This is a 6 panel mosaic with an 85mm prime lens; http://ollypenrice.smugmug.com/Photography/Widefield-images-including/ORION-FIN-V3-WEB/1169360248_zJFJG-X3.jpg

The deep sky images seen on here are mostly taken with expensive kit ranging from about £1,500 to £20,000. There are images done with less expensive gear but not that many.

Olly

[concal]

Wow thanks for all your help and advice. I do have a sturdy tripod as i have done a lot of long exposures. eg seascapes and startrails. The lenses i have are 50mm prime. sigma 10-20mm. tameron 18-200. Tameron 100-300 and canon 18-55. So am i able to get some decent shots of the sky with the equipment i have already? With the exception of a tracking mount.

[Squagnut]

Wow thanks for all your help and advice. I do have a sturdy tripod as i have done a lot of long exposures. eg seascapes and startrails. The lenses i have are 50mm prime. sigma 10-20mm. tameron 18-200. Tameron 100-300 and canon 18-55. So am i able to get some decent shots of the sky with the equipment i have already? With the exception of a tracking mount.

Yes, use a tracking mount and you'll get good sky images with what you have. But for closeup deep sky images, as Olly said, it ain't cheap or easy! I just spent £1,400 on a setup that is a fantastic observing telescope, but is an entry-level astrophotography rig - the list of accessories I now want comes to over £400.