Sky-Watcher 127

[dash]

Hi all, had my scope for a week now, happy with the viewing, seen Venus, Saturn & Mars what I am wondering and should have asked this before I purchased the scope is how effective is the Sky-Watcher-127 at deep space astrophotography, it has the synscan so will be able to track on a EQ3, this will be once I purchased a power source and figured out how to use it, I would like to get images from areas like M81 & M82 would that be possible?

[RikM]

The f/11.8 and 1500mm focal length of the Skymax makes it very far from ideal for deep sky astrophotography, even more so on an EQ3. For deep sky AP you really need fast f-ratio (f/4 - f/8) and the longer the focal length, the more stable and accurate the mount needs to be. Something like an ED80 would be a very much better scope for that sort of thing.

[dash]

The f/11.8 and 1500mm focal length of the Skymax makes it very far from ideal for deep sky astrophotography, even more so on an EQ3. For deep sky AP you really need fast f-ratio (f/4 - f/8) and the longer the focal length, the more stable and accurate the mount needs to be. Something like an ED80 would be a very much better scope for that sort of thing.

Looks like my xmas list is starting already, that won't please er in doors, still for starting off this gives me a good point for the planets and allows me to get use to alignment etc.

thanks for the response

Paul