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Hi from Gävleborg, Sweden, and question on scope.

awesome_john

By awesome_john
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awesome_john

awesome_john

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Hi there!

Just discovered this forum, and it seems amazing!

I have a beginners scope, Astromaster 114. Now I want to upgrade and have about 818£ to spend on a scope and some extra for accesories. I live in a city with light pollution, but I also have a summer residence where there are aboslute no light pollution.

I observe the solar system and special happenings like comets (looking forward to Pannstarr). I also do some variable and double stars, or at least try. I think I will go into some spectroscopy. I also like to keep an eye at the sun. Oh, and another thing! I would love to photograph sometimes; the solar system and special happenings, like Pannstarr that is coming now. No fabolus things, just want to record special things like comets, conjuctions and transits. Would like to photograph stars I keep an eye on too.

Now.. what scope should I buy? I like reflectors, have never used anything else, maybe it is time for it? I've been looking at Dobsons, Meade lightbrigade and SkyWatcher skyliner. Good price, large apperture, easy to handle. What worries me is how difficult it may be to keep objects centered and follow them without having to move the scope every one second. Then I am also worried about photographing stuff with it, I beleive it is difficult without GOTO?

Another scope I have looked at is the more expensive refractors with ED, like SkyWatcher Evostar ED, William Optics and Astro. They sure demand money, but I have a pretty good astronomy-account, if it's neccesary I may spend up til 2000£, but max 818£ - 1000£ on the scope and the rest on mounts/accesories.

Then we have Celestron C6 or C8, Nextstar 127 SLT, Nextstar 6 or 8SE, Meade ETX 125, Explorer 200PDS, Celestron C8-NGT.. as you may see I don't have a clue what to choose.

Hi again and thank you for all help you will give me =)

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VigdisVZ

VigdisVZ

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Hi and welcome.

Do you have a local astronomy club? I would recommend seeking it out.

Some things to consider: The Schmidt-Cassegrains all have very high focal length and that limits their flexibilty since you get a very narrow field of view for when viewing larger objects. The best bang for the money is a Dobsonian reflector, and unless you plan on taking up astrophotography (in which case the mount is more important and more expensive) you want as much aperture as you can easily manage.

Send me a PM if you want to talk in swedish.

Edit: Ideally youre looking at atleast a HEQ-5 and a ED80 refractor to start out astrophotography. The starting cost is higher since you need a good equatorial tracking mount for taking any kinds of long exposure pictures. The ED80 also has a wider field of view (shorter focal length) and will allow for better pictures unless you want to take really close up stuff (that's usually harder since the atmosphere limits the magnification and makes it blurry). The ideal visual tool is a Dobsonian reflector (this however cannot really take pictures, simply put).

Good to have you on board.

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Iddy

Iddy

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Welcome to the SGL.

You're lucky that you're form Sweden. Couple of my buddies are from Sweden, and they tell me you guys have one of the best skies for stargazing! Good luck and I'm sure you will find a lot of helpful things on the forum. I'm new here myself, and I've been absorbing all the info here as much as I can. Need a Matrix like upload in my brain somehow... :D

Enjoy m8

Iddy

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awesome_john

awesome_john

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Hi and welcome.

Do you have a local astronomy club? I would recommend seeking it out.

Some things to consider: The Schmidt-Cassegrains all have very high focal length and that limits their flexibilty since you get a very narrow field of view for when viewing larger objects. The best bang for the money is a Dobsonian reflector, and unless you plan on taking up astrophotography (in which case the mount is more important and more expensive) you want as much aperture as you can easily manage.

Send me a PM if you want to talk in swedish.

Edit: Ideally youre looking at atleast a HEQ-5 and a ED80 refractor to start out astrophotography. The starting cost is higher since you need a good equatorial tracking mount for taking any kinds of long exposure pictures. The ED80 also has a wider field of view (shorter focal length) and will allow for better pictures unless you want to take really close up stuff (that's usually harder since the atmosphere limits the magnification and makes it blurry). The ideal visual tool is a Dobsonian reflector (this however cannot really take pictures, simply put).

Good to have you on board.

I will not go into serious astrophoto, but I would like to take simple images of the solar system and special happenings, like the comet Pannstarr. And I would like to take images of double/variable stars that I keep records on. I will not photograph DSO.

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Erquy

Erquy

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Welcome.

On advice, I can only recommand what I know, I have a MAK, skymax 102 (f12,7) Alt Az goto. As you don´t seem very familiar with SCT or MAK below my comments

Really great as grab&go, compact, light weight, quick/easy install, nice goto function (if you want to take it to your summer house while not having much space with family in a car), really good package for the budget. Can easily accept low/medium quality EP with good results (as compared to f<6-7 which may then require more expansive/sophisticated EP, something to think about on overall budget). Some says SCT/MAK are a bit better in heavy light polluted areas (can´t confirm, no comparison and in my case I have a good seeing). No issue about collimation. Good to have a powertank (I have a SW 7aH) -valid for any goto, motorised anyhow-

Excellent and most likely best of any for planets at same aperture (incl. photo -I get better/smilar results with my DSLR taking AVI´s than many other on larger aperture newtonion with webcams); weak for DSO (both visual and photo, but still feasible on bright objects -and I am only a new beginner, started 2 month ago, I did not know anything about astronomy and astrophoto before!). I regret a bit not to have gone for the Skymax 127 (but I already streched my budget to get the 102)

The main issue as I see regarding astrophoto for DSO is the mount/tripod which is not that strong (at least with a stronger tripod/mount, it shall still be possible to take 20-30sec exposure time, and simply take a lot of them -I can use about 80-90% of the picture at 15 sec exposure, but then down to 50-60% usable subs if I go to 20-30 sec, too sensible mount/tripod, even before seeing normal trails as expected from Alt/Az).

Check my gallery, you see what you can get with that small Az/alt goto scope on both planet and some DSO ( 1 st shot ever in case of Orion and M31 for me in the gallery as we speak, so better shall be feasiable, for jupiter, the nice ones are my latest and not that bad for such a small scope). Regarding astrophoto, count also budget for this (in my case I had anyhow a DSLR, canon ESO1100d which is working also good for AVI/planets, so simply Tring and adaptor to add on, but you may need to go for webcam or astro ccd camera to get best of it)

If you have the budget, I would recommand a 6 or 8 inch SCT or MAK on a EQ goto if you look for a compact size and mainly planets (visual + photo). I see a lot of nice DSO astrophoto on 6-8 SCT with focal reducer on EQ mounts (like the C6 or C8-SGT XLT), making SCT/MAK then well all around for a compact size using such focal reducer (personally if I upgrade, I will most likely go for such optio nlike the C6 SGT XLT with a focal reducer 6,8, compact size is important to me). If you don´t need a compact size nor "excellency" for planets , then you have for sure many more choices at lower price, more all around (but then not "excellent" in all sides, need to make choice between excellency in visual or photo and/or excellency in planet or DSO) and you will find a lot of topics on various other options.

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kerrylewis

kerrylewis

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Welcome John

I have just bought a 9.25" Celestron SCT which I am very pleased with. I already have a HEQ5 mount and they make a great all round combination.

it depends what you are most interested in. I like the planets and refractors are supposed to best but large apertures are very expensive which is why I got a SCT

Kerry

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awesome_john

awesome_john

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This is difficult. As I say.. the solar system and stars. No interest in DSO. Want to image a little. Hrrmm.. difficuuuuuuult!

If I say this: The solar system, no DSO, no photographing, just observing.

And if I say this: Double and variable stars, no photographing, just observing.

And finally: DSO, just observing.

I have been thinking on the Celestron C6 on a Bresser Exos 2 mount with a engine for tracking, no GOTO.

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JonDoe

JonDoe

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Hi John welcome to SGL, cant help you myself but from reading above you have had some great replies already,

for a bigger response you might want to consider posting in the "getting started and equipment" thread.

good luck

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Mr Spock

Mr Spock

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Hi, welcome to SGL :)

I can't speak highly enough of the C9.25/EQ6 combination I have. It's a dream team ;) That will spend 2k. If I had less to spend, I'd probably go for a 200P on a HEQ5 - heaps of performance and maximum value.

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