is it possible to fit a goto mount to my 8inch dobsonian

[paul j]

Hi all,im new to astronomy and only owned my scope 2 week and i love it,but i been looking at the astrophotography photos on here and there terrific,i really want to get into this,i realize its not easy but im eager,im buying a canon 1100d camera tomo but my question is is it possible to buy a goto mount for my scope and if so are they very expensive? or would i be better of buying another scope altogether? ive read that if i bought any other goto scope under 400 then i wouldnt be able see as much as my dobsonian?

[Tribal-Wolf]

Best bet would be to fit your tube onto a EQ motorised mount. I have an auto tracking dob and it's ok for a webcam but long exposure with a dslr would probably be asking a lot. The other problem is weight, a dslr is heavy so it would make the dob node heavy and unbalanced. I have to ask though, why buy a dob if you wanted to get into astrophotography?

You could buy a different scope and sell your dob, judging by ebay prices they don't loose much money.

[paul j]

to be honest i didnt have a clue about astronomy,i just assumed it was buy a fairly decent sized scope,point it at a planet etc fit camera on and press the button.i now realize this isnt the case and i bought the wrong scope for the photography side of things.

[paul j]

no disrespect to other astrophotographers out there i honestly didnt realize, you see the pretty photos in the books and i naturally assumed when i looked through a scope i would see similar , yeah gulible or what :-) im learning though, like say ive only had my scope 2 weeks and maybe astrophotography too complicated for me and it could be huge waste of money,i hoping to go to a astronomy club tomo night maybe i see exactly how hard and whats involved and it prob put me off altogether,i guess taking my first photos of the moon tonight got my brain ticking overtime haha

[umadog]

You have a nice telescope for visual observing. Leave it be: it will not be worth converting it for AP. As you say, go to a club and learn about AP. It's much more involved than you would think and requires specialised kit.

[Sam]

I was in a similar boat when I first started. I bought a 8" dobsonian scope and got lots of joy out of it for the first month but wanted to do more and got sick of having to nudge it to keep up with the planets, that was the fault of Mars at the time. I bought a HEQ6 to mount the tube on and this made a big difference, it was then I decided I wanted to get into imaging. What I should have done was got the biggest and strongest mount I could as soon as I transitioned from the Dobs mount. Anyway I ended up with a EQ6 syntrek, I should have got that instead of the HEQ5, never mind you learn these things as you go. So my advice to you is that if you are serious about imaging then get the biggest possible mount you can for your 8" scope I would recommend going straight to the EQ6 pro or syntrek that way you have factored in getting a bigger scope eventually, or a different combination etc.

[Tribal-Wolf]

To start with you could try webcam AP.