mid-range DSO imaging scope?

[rocketandroll]

Hi all

Ok, same question I think I asked about a year ago, wondering what new products may have come to market or what ones people have personal experience with?

Essentially I am looking for a scope I can use for DSO work that gives me a longer focal length than my WO Meg 72 but is still fast and will give good results with my DSLR and eventually with a CCD when I invest in one next year.

The Meg with the FR2 reducer/flattener comes in about 345mm fl and f4.8 I believe.

I am looking for a scope or scope+flattener/reducer combo which is tried and trusted and which delivers something in the 500 - 600mm focal length range at F6 or faster?

For now lets say budget is up to £2K but would prefer to be closer to £1K if it was achievable without loosing too much optical quality.

Thoughts?

Ben

[nmoushon]

You could look into the SW 120ED. Its 900mm FL so F/7.5 w/o reducer. Is your 500-600mm FL what you want the base FL to be or what you want it to be after its reduced?

[ollypenrice]

Second hand TeleVue 85 with flattener reducer? They are unfashionable and well mede. 480mm FL, F five point something.

Olly

[rocketandroll]

Cheers olly!

I guess that'll just come down to FINDING one :-)

Have been thinking further about things the last week and to be honest I am now veering towards getting an entire new rig for a LOT more money over the next year.

I need a new mount anyway as I don't have one... NEQ6 is the minimum which I think should do everything I want it to... going to get a CCD anyway as that was always the plan, I'm keeping my current scopes but... what's the old saying about 'the scope you use the most is the best value' or something like that.... well, I am now looking at something serious in this mid-range area that will cover most of what I want to do for the forseeable future, until i get tempted to go a bit longer FL again... when i say serious, I am looking at the Officina Stellare Veloce RH200 or a Tak FSQ106 with the reducer both of which get about where I want in focal length at f3 to f4 thus helping with my overall lack of time to commit to imaging for horribly long periods.

Maybe that needs a new thread? :-)