Still a Newbie - apologies

[SpuddyMcFuddy]

My questions that I asked 2 years ago have changed somewhat, but I am officially about to make my first purchase now -- my wife has given me some money towards it, that's as an endorsement as any!

I would like to produce some astro-photography. I know this is expensive and I don't expect to produce fantastic imagary, however I would like to produce respectable images. As far as I am aware, the larger the telescope the better so I have been looking at the Explorer 200P (EQ5) on Rothervalley. Would this be a good telescope to use or would it be simpler to go for a smaller telescope with Goto such as the Skymax 127 SynScan AZ GOTO? Initially I would either only be able to afford the telescope, but if I got the Explorer 200P then eventually could I add the Synscan GOTO Upgrade Kit, also from Rothervalley to turn it into a Goto telescope.... and make my life easier!

Thank you for any advice.

[eddy]

As a new person to photography as well, as far as i know these are the kind of rules or way to go:

Small refractor, preferably an APO or ED style

Good mount (EQ5 with drives produce some reasonable images and guiding can be added)

The idea being, a) keep the weight down as much as possible and accurate tracking or upgradable to a guiding setup.

Sorry its not much help, but like i said, im pretty new as well! But thats what i know/learnt along the way

[DOBBY]

The Alt/Az will be of no use to you if you intend long exposures of DSO's...you will need an EQ mount with some form of tracking

[Catweazel]

Hi, small APO would be the best bet, but it's more expensive; you could try 2nd hand; that's what I did. The other option might be to look at a Skywatcher 150P DS on a EQ5, which would be less weight on the mount than a 200P, and ideal for AP