Which scope to buy?

[SteveRob]

Hi guys n gals,

I have had my current scope for a few years, I'm wanting to progress with my hobby, I am by now used to using an eq mount so I have no fears using one, budget could be a bit of an issue at the moment.

Depending on what options you can give me I think my budget may stretch to about £400, though it could be a while before I could stretch to that.

My main priorities are :-

Planetary and DSO's which will be my main focus .

Webcam for basic imaging - I know nothing about using/adapting a webcam on a scope, could be fun!.

A scope that is quick to setup in my garden.

Any ideas please.

Cheers

Steve

[ronin]

As I see you list a Nikon DSLR that means I would guess ideas of longer exposure imaging, other then just an avi file of planets and then stacking these frames.

That in turn means a reasonable mount say EQ5 at least and dual motors as a minimum. Now an EQ5 is £240 without motors so you are going to have to consider £300 for just the mount.

That is just about the budget gone and you have not upgraded the scope.

The 150P is a step up but not a significant one, the 200p is a good step up but that is at the top end concerning weight for imaging. Although you can get the 200p on an EQ5 for £415 however you may need to change the focuser to get an image at the camera and you could also need a coma corrector for imaging on a DSLR, you would need to add motors.

I think you are going to have to decide what it is you want to do ultimately (DSO'a and planets means everything other then the sun), then most likely get a suitable mount first and use the present one on whatever mount, then purchase the scope.

[SteveRob]

Hi Ronin,

Just to throw a spanner in the works, I only listed my DSLR thinking at the time that it would be an option, I have read various threads on here that suggest that the camera of choice would be a Canon and with a CCD sensor not CMOS as in the Nikon, what I am saying is that I will not be using the Nikon but would like to use a webcam instead.

If it proves that is too much hassle I would revert back to just observing only (lunar, planets and DSO's). I did ask in another thread about the weight limit of the eq2 I have at the moment with the Konus on it, with the hope that it would take a bigger aperture/heavier OTA, the replies I got told me that the eq2 was at about its limit. That changed my whole approach and you guessed it - aperture fever took over.

Sorry if the post is a bit confusing, basically ease of setup and use, observing only lunar, planets and DSO's are the first considerations and then maybe webcam if practical.

Thanks for your input, I should have prioritised it better, you have certainly made that simpler.

Cheers

Steve

[66mikeg]

as a first step why not get a suitable web cam and use your current setup, I think your mount has a RA drive which should be OK for lunar and planetary work, registax software is good at aligning images from .avi videos.

[SteveRob]

Hi 66mikeg,

Yes my mount has an RA drive, the 1.25" focusser is also driven, my main concern is I have never done any imaging before, I think a webcam is probably the way to go - but then the ? is which one, it will most probably need modifying - on that basis I don't want to be spending too much in case I make a mess of any mods having no experience at all of using a webcam let alone modding one, any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

Steve

[bomberbaz]

In the search box type cliff xbox webdam mod, loads of great info there on web cam imaging. Trouble is its 60 odd pages ling :-D.