Obsy users - what scopes are you using for mainly observing?

[fondofchips]

I am in the process of building an observatory & would like to know what types of scope you are using in your observatories. I think my budget will be around £500 - £800 (OTA) depending on how much I’ve got left over when the obsy is finished. So if I could use the EQ5 head for a while before buying a heavier mount that would be better. The pier mount should make it easier to use the EQ5 head with a higher payload.

Quite happy to purchase secondhand & wait if necessary for the right scope.

I currently own a Lyra Optics 100mm F11 refractor on a EQ5 mount which I have bought as my first/mobile scope as a keeper, as I’m well pleased with it.

Eyepieces - 8mm & 13mm Baader Hyperion, 9mm plossl, 25mm Celestron, & 32mm Bresser, (2” Revelation Astro star diagonal), mentioned here as I would like to put as much money into the OTA as I can afford.

So I have the option to use this scope or something else as my observatory scope. Initially it will have to be the Lyra for financial reasons but I want to plan what scope I’m going to use in the obsy full time.

I’m only observing at the moment but may dabble in astrophotography when the obsy is up and running.

As far as targets go I am looking at nearer objects first planets etc. working my around the night sky & gradually increasing the distances of the objects I am looking at.

Obsy scope area is 8ft x 8ft, no problem with dismantling the scope but better if it can stay on the pier all the time. I’m aiming to have the obsy up & running when Comet ISON passes.

Which leads to another question that is puzzling me a little, will I need extensions for the pier to use with different types of scope?

Your help would be much appreciated.

[malc-c]

I have a sw 200P on an HEQ5 in my observatory. I opted for this scope (originally on an EQ5) as it's a fairly good all rounder. Being f5 and 200mm it's quite fast for the faint dso's, and with a decent barlow lens performs OK for imaging / viewing the planets. As I'm in a fairly LP town I've opted for imaging with a dslr, hence the upgrade to an HEQ5. Be warned, if imaging is going to be your passion then there is no real cheap option. By the time you have a guided set up you can kiss goodby to £1500 - £2000 for a basic set up similar to mine. I would suggest you look at the mount 1st, and get either an HEQ5 or EQ6 and use that with your current scope for now, then consider a replacement OTA at a later stage.

As for the pier, if you switch to a reflector you may have a problem if your pier is high to cater for the refractor's eyepiece position so you may need a set of steps to view objects through a newt.

[nameunknown]

200 newt astrograph, HEQ5 pro and steps (see signature). The supplied 25ml eyepiece is good for general looking around. I initially added:

• An extension pier so that the scope sits very high up and gets lots of sky
  
• red dot finder (cos with the newt that high up getting to the sighting scope was a pain)
  
• a variable eyepiece
  
• 2-inch Barlow
  

Now, I have lots of AP kit etc. But in the early days I had a great time with the basic set-up finding my way around the sky, planets and some DSO's

P

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[fondofchips]

Thanks for the quick & informative replies. I know that I will have to upgrade the mount, just won't be able to do that & buy another scope for a while after completing the obsy. Inching my way towards the Dark Side it seems, though Every Photon Counts book is cheap enough......