New scope

[mrstraighty]

I plan on buying a new scope soon. My interests are looking more at deep space objects as opposed to the planets. Plan at some point to do some astrophotography also. Plan to spend around 1250. I am not well informed enough to make a descision. From my research I am looking towards a 6" Celestron refractor, 12"XTi Orion, and maybe a used Meade 8" 200X. Any knowledgable input would be appreciated.

[pel]

If you want to do Astro photography at some point on the same setup, I'd suggest the setup below. I'd be very jealous too :-)

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/pro-series/skywatcher-evostar-80ed-pro-heq5-pro.html

[mrstraighty]

Well now I have 4 I'm looking at. Thanks

[pel]

Good luck.

[damnut]

HI There,

Well at least you do not have the uk clouds to contend with. Some great scopes in your list, but as you are dso and astrophotography minded, it more or less excludes the ones in your list. The 12" xti would be a formidable observing scope !!

You may be better served by purchasing a really solid mount that will take different scopes and still be suitable for astro photog work, so an neq6 and an apo refractor .

I have a 6" meade refractor and recently sold my 10"lx. Personally can't wait to get another big cat!..

Good Luck with your choice.

[mrstraighty]

HI There,

Well at least you do not have the uk clouds to contend with. Some great scopes in your list, but as you are dso and astrophotography minded, it more or less excludes the ones in your list. The 12" xti would be a formidable observing scope !!

You may be better served by purchasing a really solid mount that will take different scopes and still be suitable for astro photog work, so an neq6 and an apo refractor .

I have a 6" meade refractor and recently sold my 10"lx. Personally can't wait to get another big cat!..

Good Luck with your choice.

Well I guess when I mention the photos, I am more likely to be content with mounting my camera to any scope and mainly taking photos as a logging of objects I've seen as opposed to publishing the photos. Trying to decide if the clearness of the smaller refractor will override the aperture of the larger dob? I've read with frequency" aperture aperture aperture!" I assume the dob will see deeper but less defined? This is where my ignorance comes in. Will a smaller refractor magnify more than the larger dob. Does the focal length/diameter equation hold true for all scopes regardless of type? Will an object through a 6" refractor be close to the same as through a 12" dob or will it be smaller and more refined?

[damnut]

Hi There,

If for visual then that lovely xti would be my choice. Things will not seem closer/ bigger in a larger scope, what you get is more light gathering. So you see more detail, hence some of these super pics take hours of exposures.

A big sct has a long focal length so you can use big eps to give the space walk effect, and with a focal reducer you can make it 'quicker', rarely needed to use the findercope, 30mm 80 deg fov just gave awesome views.

You can have a bit of fun here ... http://www.12dstring.me.uk/fov.htm click on switch to visual view to choose your ep. To vary the view play with scope and object choice.

Cheers

[damnut]

also try this ..... http://www.stargazing.net/naa/scopemath.htm

Mag = focal length of scope / focal length of eyepiece.

You always loose a bit of contrast with having a secondary mirror, but I yen for my new sct 12" .

Cheers