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150 pro Mak vs C8 or 8se

knobby

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GuillermoBarrancos

GuillermoBarrancos

Posted
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if the intended use is just planetary and moon,why not think about refractor with a nice long F ratio? cooling time:none,storing issues :almost none and your mount will be perfectly happy with it.

Planets are bright and do not require massive apertures.Did a quick comparison between my 14" dob and my 90mm F14.4 (1300mm) refractor and on the moon frac gave much crispier views then my dob as for dob it was by far too bright.Even my wife said that the frac is better on moon. 

Still. When it comes to planetary imaging, the SCT is still the weapon of choice by many.

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cgarry

cgarry

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Planets are bright and do not require massive apertures.

For planetary imaging aperture is very important.  More aperture gives more resolving power and brighter images (for the same image scale).  Brighter images allow shorter exposures and therefore faster frame rates.

Cheers,

Chris

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  • 3 weeks later...
Luke

Luke

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I've done a bit of lunar imaging with 80mm and 120mm refractors and an 8 inch SCT. There's no question that when conditions are good, the SCT resolves a lot more detail. Also, when I start pushing the focal length a lot with the refractors using Barlows, the image gets too dark and I have to increase the gain and/or gamma (or really slow down the frame rate), which creates more noise in the image and makes it harder to sharpen up the image during processing.

I love imaging the moon with all of those scopes. The 80mm gets a lot of use as it's so practical and I like full disc shots. A 9.25 might not be best if, say, you wanted full disc shots all the time and didn't want to tile, the moon probably won't fit in the frame! I've now got a zoom lens for my DSLR so that I can start doing some of these fancy wide shots of the moon and clouds! :smiley:

So I guess it comes down to what you want from this scope!

I'm happy with my 8 inch SCT because it can get some high detail on the moon, it's decent on planets, more than good enough for me to dabble with, it's super compact and doubles as a very portable, mini light bucket that I can even use on a giro mount.

But I would not expect it to match the performance of a 9.25 inch SCT on great nights, which from the piccies I have seen, looks a great compromise between size/weight/cost and its resolving power. I read a book a while back on planetary imaging and most of the folks mentioned that were at the top of their game seemed to be using 9.25 inches upwards, though one of the imagers was using an 8 inch reflector as far as I remember.

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GuillermoBarrancos

GuillermoBarrancos

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the c9.25 is sold on a cg5 which is more or less the same mount, its no ideal but it will work for visual, the 9.25 is a classic scope and worth the extra

The C9.25 will do fine on both the New Advanced VX Mount from Celestron and the HEQ5 Pro. Planetary photography on these Mounts with that OTA should not be a problem.

Long exposure however, that´s a different matter.

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knobby

knobby

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Cheers chaps... I won't be changing my mount as I'm trying to keep it grab and go able... Ish :-) <br />

As much as I'd love the 9.25, that and the extra counterbalance weights are going to make it a fair bit heavier I think.<br />

I keep going back to the idea of the C8, I guess I'll try to grab a look through one and compare it to my 150 Mak.<br />

Easier said than done though! <br />

Thanks again everyone

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  • 2 weeks later...
Macavity

Macavity

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I own a MAK150 and a TS / GSO 8" / F4 Newt. The former is reasonably "general purpose", but a bit "under-powered" visually. The latter is fiddly to collimate imaging-wise! I have an observatory with an HEQ5. These days swapping scopes gets a bit tedious. My main interest is smaller-chip VIDEO Astronomy. I sense the Celestron 9.25 has a lot going for it. I have a fair bit of experience with (extreme!) focal reduction. lol. But seriously, I have always felt that Celestron SCTs might have better fitted my purpose. Native mode for Planetary work *and* F10 --> F3.3 reduction for video imaging. "Aperture rules"... It's a NINE+ inch scope after all. Tempted to "sell everything" (my kingdom?) for a C9.25 ... at some stage!   ;)

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GuillermoBarrancos

GuillermoBarrancos

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I own a MAK150 and a TS/GSO 8" / F4 Newt. The former is reasnably "general purpose", but a bit "underpowered" visually. The latter is fiddly to collimate imaging-wise! I have an observatory with an HEQ5. These days swapping scopes gets a bit tedious. My main interest is smaller-chip VIDEO Astronomy. I sense the Celestron 9.25 has a lot going for it. I have a fair bit of experience with (extreme!) focal reduction. lol. But seriously, I have always felt that Celestron SCTs would have better fitted my purpose. Native mode for Planetary work, F10 --> F3.3 for video imaging. Aperture rules... It's a NINE inch scope after all. Tempted to "sell everything" for a C9.25 at some stage!   ;)

The 9.25 is a fantastic Scope! Both for Planetary work and long focal length DSO work.

It´s definitely a Scope that is on my own wish list, but I will probably go for a APO frac first and get the SCT at a later stage.

Decisions... decisions... lol.

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GuillermoBarrancos

GuillermoBarrancos

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My head hurts... If I flog the eq5 and get the 9.25 and an HEQ5... This is getting expensive... And heavy :-)

Expensive maybe. Heavy.... nahh.  The HEQ5 Pro Mount doesn´t weight all that much more than the EQ5 tho. It just has better motors and larger payload capacity.

The 9.25inch OTA isn´t too Heavy either. Around 9kg. Hence, why the HEQ5 Pro can support it easily for both Visual and planetary imaging.

My New NEQ6 Pro Mount. Then we start talking about Heavy. 16kg for the Mount + another 7,5kg for the tripod. Hehe. :grin:

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knobby

knobby

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I think I've pretty much made my mind up?

keeping the EQ5 as it works (my luck I'd get an HEQ5) and it would be one with thick grease or pack up on me...

going to stick a C8 on it!...

or a 9.25 :-)

Thank you all for your help in my decision, I do appreciate it.

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GuillermoBarrancos

GuillermoBarrancos

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Its more when focusing, the image moves off the sensor when changing focus direction... The mirror tilts slightly as focus direction changes... Not sure I'm explaining this very well?

Yes I know. I had the 8inch SCT before and did a lot of Solar and planetary imaging with it. So I know all about the flop.

But it wasn´t really an issue for me really. I just developed a technique to work with it.

When I focussed the image, I did it together with the Remote in my hand to keep the Object centered during a "flop" moment.

You get so easily used to working like this, that it doesn´t warrant a 250-300 bucks investment for a focuser upgrade.

Now if I would have started to do long exposure DSO work, then I would have definitely considered the Upgrade.

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gcraib

gcraib

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I was reading the first page and skipped to the last page to wade in with my comment (sorry was too impatient to read about your aperture fever heading towards a C14!)

Was just going to say that the C8 is brilliant, I've only used it once but it has given me the biggest and brightest view of Jupiter and that was with the std 25mm EP!

I have a 5" mak and jumped to a C8, was also tempted on the C9.25 but you have to draw a line somewhere.  Same as you I did not want a heavier mount.  At least not yet. ;)

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