Imaging/Observing Scope.

[RMcCallum]

Hello all,

Currently contemplating dabbling in AP and before you ask I have ordered "Making Every Photon Count - Steve Richards".

I was just wanting to do some prelim research and I was wondering about scopes. I have in mind the SW Explorer 200P and the SW 80ED, I understand the mount is the most important bit but for now I want to talk scopes.

Ideally I would like an allrounder, but I realise there's no such thing.

I have seen some great images from the SW 200P and was wondering whether it would serve me well as a scope for both 'having a look see' and AP. Or whether I should go with the SW 80ED and focus on AP?

[lensman57]

Hello all,

Currently contemplating dabbling in AP and before you ask I have ordered "Making Every Photon Count - Steve Richards".

I was just wanting to do some prelim research and I was wondering about scopes. I have in mind the SW Explorer 200P and the SW 80ED, I understand the mount is the most important bit but for now I want to talk scopes.

Ideally I would like an allrounder, but I realise there's no such thing.

I have seen some great images from the SW 200P and was wondering whether it would serve me well as a scope for both 'having a look see' and AP. Or whether I should go with the SW 80ED and focus on AP?

Hi,

I just read your post, I guess that you have noticed that there has been no response and perhaps for good reason, there is no such scope as an all purpose . So you need to define a few of points before going ahead. Are you interested in planetary or deep sky imaging? What is your budget? How often do you seriously think that you'd be able to take the scope out? Have you allowed for all the other bits and pieces that is required for imaging, in particular DSO imaging, such as imaging camera, guide camera, guide scope, filters, and list goes on? I am a novice but if I had to stick my neck out for naming an all arounder I'd go for either a 150 PDS, 200 PDS or if glass lens is your cup of tea a 120 APO ED. the 150 is the most economical as the mount requirement is modest HEQ5 Pro or even a an EQ5 pro will do, the other two need a the next stage so you are talking about £1100.00 for the mount to start and then you have to build the other bits and pieces. It can be done more cheaply but it all depends on how serious you are about imaging.

Good luck.

Regards,

A.G

[Gina]

NEQ6 Pro is £960 from FLO http://www.firstlightoptics.com/skywatcher-mounts/skywatcher-neq6-pro-synscan.html It's a great "future proof" mount for when you want to add to your kit, which, whatever you think, is inevitable.

This is essentialyl the top mount unless you're talking about silly money like a new car or two's worth. You would want that for the SW 200P for imaging. If your only interesr is likely to be DSOs you could get away with an HEQ5 http://www.firstlightoptics.com/skywatcher-mounts/skywatcher-heq5-pro-synscan.html with a SW Evostar 80 ED DS Pro. http://www.firstlightoptics.com/pro-series/skywatcher-evostar-80ed-ds-pro-ota.html

Anyway, I'm glad to see you've got Steve's book - that's the DSO imaging Bible

I wouldn't do anything about scopes until you've had a good think, read Steve's book and had a good read of the thousands of posts on here and had another good think. See if you can decide which sort of imaging you would like to try. Any imaging needs a good mount though (except very wide field), and like Steve says, that's the place to start. You don't actually need a scope if you're interested in DSO imaging - a reasonable DSLR such as the Canon EOS 1100D and lenses will get you started. Good luck

[Gina]

NEQ6 Pro is £960 from FLO http://www.firstlightoptics.com/skywatcher-mounts/skywatcher-neq6-pro-synscan.html It's a great "future proof" mount for when you want to add to your kit, which, whatever you think, is inevitable.

This is essentially the top mount unless you're talking about silly money like a new car or two's worth. You would want that for the SW 200P for imaging. If your only interest is likely to be DSOs you could get away with an HEQ5 http://www.firstlightoptics.com/skywatcher-mounts/skywatcher-heq5-pro-synscan.html with a SW Evostar 80 ED DS Pro. http://www.firstlightoptics.com/pro-series/skywatcher-evostar-80ed-ds-pro-ota.html

Anyway, I'm glad to see you've got Steve's book - that's the DSO imaging Bible

I wouldn't do anything about scopes until you've had a good think, read Steve's book and had a good read of the thousands of posts on here and had another good think. See if you can decide which sort of imaging you would like to try. Any imaging needs a good mount though (except very wide field), and like Steve says, that's the place to start. You don't actually need a scope if you're interested in DSO imaging - a reasonable DSLR such as the Canon EOS 1100D and lenses will get you started. Good luck

[Gina]

Drat - first it wouldn't save the post, now it's done it twice

[Tim]

The closest thing to an "All rounder" would be a C9.25 imho.

You can do visual, planetary, lunar, and DSO images, with none too shabby results. Can be used between f3.3 and f25+, will fit on a HEQ5 (but would be better on EQ6). Add in an 80mm refractor and you have it all

[wouterdhoye]

Hi,

there is a lot of truth in the saying " Jack of all trades, master of none" For astronomy thet's not different. I have to agree with Tim that a giid quality SCT is a good allrounder. Will not excell at much. A Good newtonian may be your best allrounder in your case f you want to combine deep sky astrophotography and deep sky observing. The newtonian will provide you with enough aperture for deep sky observing and a fast focal ratio (f/5 and lower) will halp in keeping exposure times down for imaging.

Though things can vary if you want to image specific objects. if you're into small galaxies most you'd want a compund telescope as you'll need the focal length then. But i'd steer away from that as long focal length deep sky imaging can be rather hard. especially if you don't have the mount for it.

I think an 8 or 10" medium fast newtonian will fit the bill pretty well.

Kind regards,

[Tim]

Well an SCT will excel at Lunar and Planetary imaging and observing, and I personally have found the DSO images from them to be reasonable. If you use them at longer focal lengths then you have to apply yourself a bit more to accuracy of setup and guiding, but the short stubby tubes are more stable in the wind, easier to transport, hold collimation for months or years, are easy to keep clear of dew, and take up less space in the house/obsy. The Newtonians are very very capable scopes, I have two, but for ease of use and multi-tasking an SCT is hard to beat.

If I could only have one scope ( I have 8 in my obsy at the moment ) it would be an SCT, probably a C9.25. That said, I have on loan a rather swish large refractor (Skywatcher Esprit Pro 150ED) and am rapidly falling in love with it!

Here's a couple of images from my C11edgeHD SCT.

http://www.astrobin.com/users/timjardine/

Cheers

[nameunknown]

Like so many things in life it comes down to money and priorities. I have the 200pds/HEQ5pro combination and I'm happy with it, as are others I know. However, I'm a fixed-site astronomer with my own obsy. I suppose if you are going to move the scope around then the 80ED APO could be less trouble, as its essentially a beast of a telephoto lens (for AP fans who want a second job as a wedding photographer without the costs of travel).

In fact, I'm tempted to start a new thread - "why are astrophotographers so underpaid compared with wedding photographers, who have someone else pay to have them travel to and photograph close-ups of "Venus and Mars" that come out blurred, cost ££££ per print, and don't use stacking to prevent "Venus" looking like a blurry blob and "Mars" suffering from an aberration..."

Possibly a long title for a thread!

P

[ollypenrice]

Tim, you can't get F3.3 from an SCT on anything resembling a decent sized chip - can you?? I'll gladly be corrected.

I think that the 8 inch Newt is as close as you'll get to what the OP is asking for but, personally, I'd rather image with a refractor. When time presses you point a refractor at the sky, focus and shoot. WIth a reflector you do the same but.. hang on, ah! No. I just need to sort this out. What? Ah, it's not that it's this. Oh. Maybe not. Perhaps it's this. Ah, it's raining...

Olly

[Tim]

Tim, you can't get F3.3 from an SCT on anything resembling a decent sized chip - can you?? I'll gladly be corrected.

Olly

Well these days decent sized chips are a lot bigger than they used to be

I've used a C9.25 @ F4.5 or so with good results, using the 0.63 reducer with alternate spacing. This was on a 314 sized chip, but best results were from f6 to f7 range.

[IanL]

As someone who has been there and bought the t-shirt in terms of learning how to image with both an SCT and a refractor I'd steer any beginner in the direcion of an 80ED or similar:

- Cost: The scope is way cheaper than any SCT.

- Weight: Lighter than an SCT by a country mile, so more forgiving on a lower end mount, also easier to handle and transport

- Focal length: Short enough to make unguided imaging feasible, also a lot easier to guide, theoretically harder to focus but practically easier to focus due to lack of mirror shift, easier to frame due to wider field of view, easier to keep framed due to lack of mirror shift.

- Guiding: Easy to guide with a finder guider or cheap ST80, no moving mirror to cause differential flexure issues.

- Operation: No colimantion to consider, no need for a secondary focuser mechanism (whether factory supplied or after market), much easier to keep a small refractor lens clear of dew than the big corrector, less of a windsock (ok an SCT has a shorter tube, but when you add a big dew shield, which you will, the benefit is somewhat negated).

- Mount: Much more viable on a HEQ5 than a heavy, long-focal length SCT = cost saving.

As everyone is noting, there is no such thing as an all-rounder so to my mind for a beginner it comes down to a choice between wanting to do visual observing of planets and other small targets (SCT) and having a challenging time learning to image, or wanting to image a reasonable range of targets with a far less challenging learning curve and compromising on focal length (refractor).

The OP already has a 900mm newt, so already has something for Planetary/Lunar and frankly if I was wanting to get something better on that front I wouldn't choose an SCT but be looking for a longer focal length refractor.

Just my 2p's worth, but I started with an SCT (which I got years before imaging was on the cards) and after a year of battling it for imaging, moved to the 80ED which is proving a lot easier to get to grips with (apart from the weather).

[Shibby]

I wonder if you'd get different answers if you posted this in the observing forum? There's a clear bias towards imaging apparent in these answers

It's going to be a compromise and personally I think the best compromise is a newt. But one with an improved focuser e.g. 200PDS. You really want the aperture when it comes to visual and the newt will offer the best value on aperture, but also has a good focal ratio for imaging and decent optics if you get a good coma corrector and don't mind diffraction spikes.

[Gina]

If there wasn't a bias towards Imaging in an Imaging forum I think I'd be a bit surprised