newbie first scope

[chinamanuk]

Hi all,

I am looking at a

CELESTRON ASTROMASTER 114EQ

on ebay for 75 pounds, I will be trying to mount a 400d on it to take some night sky and may be using deep sky stacker to get some deep sky images. is this a good idea?

I am reletively good at photography and willing to learn

Benson

[mdstuart]

Well the key to taking astro photos is the mount. You need an equatoral motorised mount..Many of the smaller scopes like this one will often come with a motor but my understanding is they track but are not very accurate ...so you can get some pics of clusters and bright galaxies but you cannot get long exposures before the stars trail slightly etc.

But maybe getting something relatively cheap might be a good scope to practice on...Do check it has a motor to drive the EQ mount..

It might be worth getting something like a 127MAK with an EQ3/4 mount which will track better, be less cumbersome but of course thats more money..

There are loads of folk on here who will help you more than me as I am really a visual person..

Mark

[chinamanuk]

It comes with a EQ mount but not motorized. Is it possible to take many 10-20 second shots and keep moving the scope by fractions in between shots then stack it together?

[mdstuart]

No..without a drive you can only use a webcam which takes very short exposures and then stacks them which limits photography to bright planets...

I would wait and get a motorised scope perhaps a 127MAK...if you want to take some pictures...

Mark

[Steve Swancott]

PERSONALY I WOULDNT BUY OF EBAY BECAUSE YOU DONT KNOW THE CONDITION IT IS IN. FLO IS ONE OF THE BEST PLACES YOU CAN GET QUALITY TELESCOPES. BUT THEN AGAIN IT ALSO DEPENDS ON HOW INTERESTED YOU ARE IN THE TOPIC. THE 114 IS REALLY QUITE SMALL. AS A BEGINER THE SKYWATCHER 150 MIGHT BE A GOOD CONSIDERATION? HOWEVER IF NOT SURE WHAT THE MOUNT IS LIKE FOR AP...

WHAT I WOULD SUGGEST THOUGH IS TO GET USED TO THE TELESCOPE FIRST RATHER THAN DIVE STRAIGHT IN WITH A CAMERA, IF YOU DO PUT A CAMERA ON BEFORE YOU'VE HAD A FAIR BIT OFF EXPERIANCE FIRST YOU MAY NOT GET THE BEST RESULTS.

STEVE

[fountain]

PERSONALY I WOULDNT BUY OF EBAY BECAUSE YOU DONT KNOW THE CONDITION IT IS IN. FLO IS ONE OF THE BEST PLACES YOU CAN GET QUALITY TELESCOPES. BUT THEN AGAIN IT ALSO DEPENDS ON HOW INTERESTED YOU ARE IN THE TOPIC. THE 114 IS REALLY QUITE SMALL. AS A BEGINER THE SKYWATCHER 150 MIGHT BE A GOOD CONSIDERATION? HOWEVER IF NOT SURE WHAT THE MOUNT IS LIKE FOR AP...

WHAT I WOULD SUGGEST THOUGH IS TO GET USED TO THE TELESCOPE FIRST RATHER THAN DIVE STRAIGHT IN WITH A CAMERA, IF YOU DO PUT A CAMERA ON BEFORE YOU'VE HAD A FAIR BIT OFF EXPERIANCE FIRST YOU MAY NOT GET THE BEST RESULTS.

STEVE

The SW 150p eq 3-2 mount is not brilliant for any AP.

Ideally, in the same range, you'd want a motorised eq5.

I'm hoping Father Birthday will deliver one, or at least enough socks to trade in.

[JamesF]

DSO imaging requires long exposures, which really means a mount that can track the apparent movement of objects across the sky accurately. You really need a motorised mount for that, and a reasonably good one at that. There are ways to do it "cheaply", but not for the kind of money you're looking at spending on this scope.

To be honest I'd pass on the idea of DSO imaging, get a decent scope for visual use, spend some time learning your way around the sky and getting some experience, picking people's brains and so on and then have another think about imaging. Or if you can extend the budget perhaps there's a way to get you part way there so that you can add to it later on. Depends now much you can afford, really.

James