Opinions on telescope(s) setup

[mal-j]

Hi all,

I'll soon be looking to part with some money to equip my new (well second hand) observatory with a combination of telescopes. Let's say I'll have about £5,000, what would you do? Any comments gladly received.

I already have an 8" sct and a WO66mm refractor. I want to cover a wide range of observing options including visual and hopefully start getting into imaging (I have an old Starlight Xpress MX516 ccd and a Canon 1000D camera (unmodded)).

My interests are planets, DSO's (I'm particularly interested in bringing out fainter detail).

I've thought about a bigger sct and a 80ed refractor or even up to a 127mm. My observatory will take up to a 14" sct not that I could afford that!

Also out of my budget has to come a mount for the pier. I'm willing to buy secondhand for good equipment.

Thanks in advance for any comments.

Malcolm

[rowan46]

Your first priority is the mount, what mount you get determines the equipment you can put on it. how much of your budget is put aside for the mount? If you have to get an eq6 I would get it new not 2nd user you may be grateful for the warranty.

[mal-j]

Thanks rowan46. I was thinking of the new Eq8 which would use up half my budget and maybe used scopes.

[nicks90]

Let's say I'll have about £5,000, what would you do?

lucky you!

Sell the C8 and put that with your budget and buy an eq8 and a SW quattro f4 10" imaging newt and use the wo66 for guiding - would be a very cool setup. Combined with some 'holy hand grenade' nagler eps it would probably double up for some nice dso visual viewing too. Then with the spare change get a second hand F8-F10 frac for the planets.

So easy spending someone elses money

[mal-j]

Sorry for the late reply but I've been busy packing ready for the BIG house move next week.

Sounds like good advice nicks90, however as I'd like to use it for visual as well I'm wondering about the Sky-Watcher Explorer-300PDS. Then get a good refractor maybe a 4" triplet?