which kit is essential 1100 CGEM

[tarotmac]

any suggestions for a list of required accessories for an 1100 CGEM i'm getting in may. I will be doing mainly planetary AP to start and moving on to deep sky later, but will also be observing planetary and deep sky from the start.

list of essential kit please ie eyepiece size, filters etc

[rowan46]

Eyepieces and filters are such a personal thing and you need to get some scope time to see how the scopes optics interact with your eyes. then you need to think about what sort of budget you have to spend. The good thing about sct's is they are pretty forgiving of eyepieces so you don't need the best. Good eyepieces will work almost as well so that may save you a bit of money.

I got by on 3 cheap eyepieces with my sct ( I only have 3 now) I never used filters, although a polarising filter for the moon may be handy.

My best advice is look through your scope first get some ideas of the limitations of the eyepieces you have, then buy. Some good advice was said on another persons post about astro gear which went something like "only upgrade when you can see the limitations" It's good advice and if i had known it when I first started it would have saved me a few pounds towards what I really needed. There's a heck of a temptation to throw money at our hobbies when we first start them save your pounds till you really need them. You will grow out of the supplied eyepieces and that's the time to upgrade.

[Dunkster]

Essentials: dew shield, arguably a dew heater, a power source and a clear sky

As rowan says, there is an almost endless list of accessories to get carried away with, and it's wise to familiarise yourself with it and learn what you would get most value from first.

Do you have a telescope and any accessories already?

[tarotmac]

thanks for the advice, no scope at the moment, did have a cheap childs scope not much good realy very frustrating, so looking for list of essentials like dew heater, focuser etc

[John]

As has already been posted, the choice of potential accessories is immense and the choice of which ones to get often down to personal preferences.

The only items you might want to consider as "must haves", assuming you get a basic eyepiece or two with the scope, would be some dew control equipment such as a dewshield and / or a heater dew band. SCT's are very prone to attracting dew to the front corrector plate so something to counter this is a "must" from the start I feel.

Other than that, get the scope and get some experience using it before jumping into the wonderful world of further accessories

[Dunkster]

No need for a focuser for visual, it has one built in to the design But you can always add a Feathertouch or similar later.

Regarding EPs, given the UK weather, get one in the 14-17mm range (200x - 165x), super wide or ultra wide angle if you like that kind of thing (I suggest you go to a local club/society meet to experience for yourself), maybe a 24mm or so for lower magnification and if you wish for the widest possible view (about 1 degree), then you'll need a longer FL to achieve that, for example, a 40mm super wide angle. If you go down the ultra wide (or even super wide in the longer FL) route, you'll also need a 2" diagonal to hold them.

[faulksy]

a great add on is the baader steel track focuser no more mirror shift when you fit on of these babys. and as said you will need heaters for sure