Help, I have more money than I thought!

[xarcane]

Hi guys

Ok so I originally said I would spend About £450 on a set up. My wife said if I want to spend that sort of money on a 'Christmas Present!' on my self I would have to sell some items on ebay. Well it seems that people really want coats and bass guitars this year because I know have about £1000 to spend!.

So there I was ready to buy either

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/dobsonians/skywatcher-skyliner-250px-dobsonian.html

or

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/reflectors/skywatcher-explorer-200p-eq5.html

So the question is now, do i still go for the above or think about agoto mount for instance or even a bigger scope like the

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/dobsonians/skywatcher-skyliner-300p-flextube-dobsonian.html

MMMM 300 Dob!

Ideas please !

[rowan46]

It depends on what you want to do. If you are going visual get the largest dob you can handle comfortably. But if photography may interest you there's enough cash there for a heq5 and a smaller scope.

[JamesF]

Be aware though that if you get the 250PX you'll need to budget for some decent eyepieces. It is not kind to cheap ones.

James

[John]

Be aware though that if you get the 250PX you'll need to budget for some decent eyepieces. It is not kind to cheap ones.

James

Thats good advice. Decent eyepieces can easily consume as much as your scope costs again.

[nightfisher]

The important thing is to decide what astro path you want to walk, be it visual for deep sky and or solar system (lunar planets) or go for imaging set up, then spend wisely on equipment that best suits your needs...............good luck

[xarcane]

thanks for the advice guys, i do want to get into imaging so maybe the EQ mounted scope. then go for some good eye peices and some imaging equiptment

[rowan46]

If you want to get into imaging you are better off with the heq5 not the eq5 and 200p

[xarcane]

hmmm will think about the heq5 then

[bingevader]

But for AP would the PRO be better for tracking?

Cheers

[JamesF]

If I had £1000 and wanted to get into imaging then I'd probably buy a 200P dob to keep me going and then spend as long as it took to pick up everything required for imaging second-hand.

James

[Uhwaz]

EQ5 is not enough for 200P for AP ... I have that set up and its driving me nuts as you can get decent pictures but any gust of wind and sub is ruined simply cos 200P is too much for EQ5 to handle for AP

[JamesF]

EQ5 is not enough for 200P for AP ... I have that set up and its driving me nuts as you can get decent pictures but any gust of wind and sub is ruined simply cos 200P is too much for EQ5 to handle for AP

It's not easy, but it's possible. Have a look at some of Quatermass's images. That's how he started out.

James

[Uhwaz]

It's not easy, but it's possible. Have a look at some of Quatermass's images. That's how he started out.

James

Never said its not possible but if I knew what i know now i would never buy EQ5

SGL is here to offer adivce i always thought , so my advice would be to get at least HEQ5

Its very frustrating to get 50% of subs thrown away just cos of mount

[ollypenrice]

I would never base my choices on what the best achieve with a given setup. Tim images the deep sky at over 2.5 metres of FL on an NEQ6 and does so with exquisite results. My job is pretty much all about astrophotography these days and I wouldn't consider trying that for a moment. Tim knows something I don't know and hats off to him for sure. I follow the more common path of going seriously up-market on mounts to image at 2.4 metres.

For AP I would consider the HEQ5 'only just' for the 200P and would greatly prefer an NEQ6. The basic EQ5? No. Not a chance. To enjoy imaging it is mount, mount, mount or the rest is frustration.

Olly

[Velvet]

If doing AP with 200 then no less than HEQ5, preferably NEQ6 if that is possible. I gad 200p and EQ5 and had to upfrade to NEQ6. It is possible

but difficult as you are approaching max load limit for EQ5, and that is not a good place to be. maybe a secondhand mount? The mount

to me is the first and most important bit.

I have not regretted moving to the NEQ6, but had I got advice before i could have saved the cost of the EQ5

Hope you sort out what works for you and your budget

Velvet

[laser_jock99]

I picked up my first EQ6 second hand for £400. I kept me going for a year then I eventually moddeded it to full HEQ6 spec. All my scopes except one were purchased second hand on E-bay. If you know what you are looking for and are prepared to wait your £1000 will be enough to start AP. Knowing what I know now a good basic start would be an NEQ5 Goto mount + ED80 refractor.

[xarcane]

i was informed to keep away from ebay for scopes as they are a lot of damaged goods out there. but then again whats the likely-hood of a mount being damaged goods, i mean are they robust enough?

[JamesF]

Ebay is not the only option. There's also the classifieds section here, which you'll be able to see once you reach 50 posts, and the Astro Buy & Sell site.

James

[xarcane]

yeah i better get posting!

[xarcane]

oh just reached 51 posts!

[VigdisVZ]

+1 for NEQ6, that is if youre serious about imaging.

[xarcane]

sure am serious about it, i know that im a long way off imaging and need to learn the basics but i think getting the right setup from day one is important. therefore may be worth saving up for the NEQ6

[Moonshane]

not trying to put you off but processing and imaging are massive drains on time. I am a keen photographer but AP is a completely different way of imaging.

as a result I bought a large aperture dob and love visual astronomy.

if you have a DSLR and a telephoto lens or two then this and a good mount/Astrotrac could get you going on AP. you could also probably buy a decent dob (8-10" used) and that could be used for visual while the camera does its thing. just a thought but as I said, I am no imager.

[Moonshane]

e.g.

[xarcane]

so you can get some good images with a dob? i mean im sure you can but most people say to go for an EQ.