EQ6 + 10" Imaging Newtonian?

[Skuber]

Hi all,

I've just come into a little money lately, and I've purchased an NEQ-6 pro (which I'm very happy with).

I am now considering acquiring a 10" newtonian astrograph - either the Skywatcher Quattro, or the Orion US 10" Astrograph (recently reviewed in Sky at Night magazine).

Do you think my shiny new NEQ6 be able to take this for imaging, or will it be overloaded?

Thanks for your thoughts.

[pete_l]

Do you think my shiny new NEQ6 be able to take this for imaging, or will it be overloaded?

Marginal.

An earlier post about the 250mm puts its weight at about 14kg [ ref: http://stargazerslou...d/#entry1139763 ]. When you add on the excess clutter of a guide scope and an imaging camera there's maybe another 5kg of load.

The NEQ6 is rated at about a 25kg payload for visual use. Cut this is half, or possibly 1/3rd (do ya' feel lucky?) and you're looking at an imaging load of 13-17kg.

Personally I'd go for the 200mm. Although you'd gather less light - therefore needing more subs to get the same sized image of the target with the same signal::noise "quality"¹, you'd probably have fewer spoiled subs. Swings and roundabouts.

Oh, and don't forget you'll need a corrector. The Baader is about another £130.

[1] The 8-inch has a smaller focal length, so the DSOs you target will be smaller on the final image. Since both Quattros have the same focal ratio, the brightness will be the same, but concentrated in fewer pixel of the actual target DSO. To get an image taken with a 200mm to have the same target-size AND brightness, you'd need to magnify the image and crop the surrounds AND take more subs to get the brightness/signal:noise ratio to the asme as an equivalent image from a 250mm.

[SamAndrew]

My NEQ6 has no problem with the Quattro 10S + st80 guide scope, camera, correcter etc.

I personally went for the 10" as it was my main visual scope as well,

The 8" will give you a greater field of view, and there have been a number of times with the 10" and a DSLR where I've wished for a few extra arc minutes of view.

[Skuber]

Thank for the feedback guys.

I've got my little TMB80 (FL=504mm ) which does me well for wide field images, so I was thinking of the Newt to pick out some smaller objects like galaxies.

Think I'll go for the 10" and see what happens

[SamAndrew]

For galaxies the 10" is excellent

[laser_jock99]

Hi all,

I've just come into a little money lately, and I've purchased an NEQ-6 pro (which I'm very happy with).

I am now considering acquiring a 10" newtonian astrograph - either the Skywatcher Quattro, or the Orion US 10" Astrograph (recently reviewed in Sky at Night magazine).

Do you think my shiny new NEQ6 be able to take this for imaging, or will it be overloaded?

Thanks for your thoughts.

How about one of these:

http://www.telescope...info-BC187.html

I'll let you know if the EQ6 can handle the load in couple of months when I've used it in anger (I've only had the scope a couple of cloudy weeks....). As it is I had to purchase 10Kg of extra counterweights and use the extension for the first time ever to balance the beast. Seriously though its a big scope on the edge of my handling abilty, let alone the mounts capacity. Any amount of wind and I'll be loading up something smaller for the session!

As pointed out- you'll need to budget for a decent coma corrector for imaging - which could be nearly as much as the scope..........

12" Revelation Astro F4 beside an 8" F6 Newtonian

[FarSide]

You could easily have a set up of a 10" with a lower apature as a piggyback for wide field views. IMO there is no point buying a 8" and then wishing further down the line you'd have bought a 10" or a 12". The piggyback scope will be cheap to install later for wider field photography.

[Skuber]

Wow, that Revelation is BIG!

Not sure I'd be able to smuggle that one past the wife!

[dph1nm]

The Cape-Newise has a folded light path does it not? So a normal 8" f6 would presumably be about the same length as a 12" f4.

NigelM

[daz]

My EQ6 holds my 12" f/4 no problem - but no guidescope, as I use an off-axis guider.