Need some help for my £1500.00 budget

[jimboliana]

Hello everyone,

This is my first post after reading lots of information on the net and I need some help on choosing my first scope, I have a budget of around £1500.00 but I find their is too much choice!!!

I do want to get into Astrophotography so would not mind getting a set-up to get me started or should I not start 'trying to run before I can walk'? Should I get a scope that I can see DSO to start with then progress or should I start by getting the mount and scope and then build on that?

I can read the sky a little and I was looking at second hand gear on eBay as well as you can get more for your money

I was looking at a couple of Meade products ETX LS-6 (only 30sec exposures) LX-8 (not sure about the multi-mount, some say it is not suitable for long exposure photography?) Seen an older Meade LX200GPS-SMT with AutoStar II for my budget w/o wedge

SkyWatcher Explorer 250DPS but it is a big thing, not that portable 

Any help/suggestions  would be grateful

Jim

[Astro Imp]

A good outlet for second hand gear is Astro Buy and Sell:- http://www.astrobuysell.com/uk/

Would be images are always pointed at Making Every Photon Count for a good overview of what's needed and why. Suggest you read this before spending money on equipmet. http://www.firstlightoptics.com/books/making-every-photon-count-steve-richards.html

[rowan46]

I would get this

 http://www.firstlightoptics.com/books/making-every-photon-count-steve-richards.html

it tells you all need to know about deep space astrophotography. what sort of equipment is best and more importantly why/

as to a scope i would get this 

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/dobsonians/skywatcher-skyliner-150p-dobsonian.html

It's absolutely hopeless for photography but you are going to need something to look through once you have your camera and everything set up.

Welcome to sgl by the way

[Bizibilder]

Yes - get Making Every Photon count and then maybe go for an ED80 APO (£350)on an HEQ5 (£630) or, better (future proof) an EQ6 (£840).  You would still have change for a DSLR body (£200 approx here:  http://www.camerapricebuster.co.uk/Canon/Canon-Digital-SLRs/Canon-EOS-1100D-Body  ).

But get the book first - it is well worth the £20 and explains the what and why most clearly.

[John]

Definitely get the book first ! 

There are so many options it's just so easy to go down blind alleys and find your budget vanishes followed by a chunk more.

Imaging the night sky and observing it require very different approaches in many ways so very often folks have at least a couple of scope setups, one for each purpose.

[ronin]

Good equitorial mount, HEQ5 or EQ6, both the goto option for finding and later guiding, and a good apo triplet, trouble is £1500 very likely is not enough. That is if you use a DSLR but a reasonable astro ccd would give better overall results, add another £500-800 for this.

If you first purchase something for visual you will then need something for astrophotography, the equipment has the same names but is in reality is somewhat different.

Find a club with an astrophotography section and pay them a visit. The Letchworth club has one but a fair drive from Chelmsford (40 miles) they meet at Watton at Stone (pub). However the information obtained could be easily worth the trip. Probably one closer but you would have to search it out.

[ollypenrice]

Very few systems can be satisfying both for visual and deep sky photographic astronomy. This http://www.firstlightoptics.com/reflectors/skywatcher-explorer-200p-heq5-pro.html can do both but would be much better with an upgrade to the NEQ6.

Personally, I'd go for the HEQ5 with a small refractor for imagng and have some cash left over for a Dob.

AP is all about the mount so I wouldn't be looking at Meade.

Scour the deep sky imaging boards here and elsewhere and see what people actually use. And, yes, read Steve's book.

Olly http://ollypenrice.smugmug.com/Other/Best-of-Les-Granges/22435624_WLMPTM#!i=2266922474&k=Sc3kgzc

[jimboliana]

Well thank you very much everybody for your input, it has made me think a lot and I will get the book ordered 

As you all say, need to do more reading!