Maksutov OMC140 Any good for imaging

[treebeard51]

I have a 10 year old Orion Optics UK OMC140 f14 with motorised Vixen GPDX EQ5 mount. Want to have a go at photography, especially deep sky. Should I persevere with scope I have or change for large reflector like a Altaire 8" f5? Probably going to use Canon 450/500D and keep Vixen mount. Any thoughts and suggestions much appreciated.

[RikM]

If you are mainly interested in deep sky imaging you would do well to change to a small ED refractor with a reducer/flatner. The long focal length of the larger scopes is their downfall unless you have a titanic mount.

[ronin]

OK for planets, not OK for DSO's.

Besides something like f/5 you also need a short focal length, an 8" f/5 is not short.

The longer the focal length the greater any tracking errors are exaggerated.

[treebeard51]

IIf I go down the refractor route there appears to be a huge price difference between models. Is it the old lesson of you get what you pays for. I would imagine Chinese optics have a lot to do with this. What is the quality like on these?

[RikM]

IIf I go down the refractor route there appears to be a huge price difference between models. Is it the old lesson of you get what you pays for. I would imagine Chinese optics have a lot to do with this. What is the quality like on these?

The Skywatcher ED80 is a corker. Have a look through our deep sky imaging section for example of what it can do.

For deep sky imaging the most important piece of kit is the mount. Your vixen will be fine for a smaller scope. The camera is next on the list. Low noise and high sensitivity are required. Newer DSLR's are pretty good, cooled CCD's are better. Optics come last. For ease of use and good results, short focal length, fast focal ratio, small physical size and good colour correction are what you want.

[treebeard51]

ED80 looks nice and £349 for just the tube looks a bargain. I dont think I can go down the route of cooled CCD as the wife would not be amused !! Is the noise factor now a great a problem as it used to be, now that we have powerfull processing packages?

[astrofox]

Keep the Vixen mount but also take the advise of those posting before me. F15 is really too slow for photography.

[treebeard51]

What are your thoughts on an Orion Optics Europa 10" reflector focal lenghth 1200mm f ratio 4.8 ? Would sit nicely on my Vixen GP DX mount.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

The little maksutov you have is a very good planetary imaging scope. If you get an 80ED you will certainly be able to start imaging on that mount.

[ollypenrice]

Its the F ratio rather than the focal length per se which clobbers the Mak as a deep sky imaging scope. Exposure time goes as the square of the f ratio. 5 sqared is 25, 14 squared is a rather alarming 196. At its remarkably low price it's hard to beat the ED80 with flattener reducer.

http://ollypenrice.smugmug.com/Other/Best-of-Les-Granges/22435624_WLMPTM#!i=2277139556&k=FGgG233Olly