190MN or...

[Pint Of Stellar]

Firstly the heads up that this will be my first foray into serious kit buying.

I appreciate there's no 'scope that will do everything and on balance I think my time is likely to be shared between observing visually and diving in to AP. Primary interest will be on Messier objects etc rather than planets specifically.

So, having read Every Photon and done some research I'm now down to what I think might be my shortlist and wonder what the learned folks here think might be the pros and cons of where I'm at.

The choice of mount is the NEQ6 Synscan.

Choice 1 for OTA is the 190MN and Choice 2 would be an SW Evo 80ED Pro as well as a 250 or 300 P-DS reflector

Both of the above work out around the same kind of price. Additional items of course will be for guiding (ST80 plus QHY5), eye pieces etc but I figure (rightly or wrongly) that these additional items are standard irrespective of the choice taken.

Camera for AP is a canon 600D

Is there any reason one choice would be better than the other and given the context above am I missing anything obvious? (budget approx £3k in total)

[nmoushon]

You've certainly done your homework and have made some good starting choices. The mount will be great for either set of scopes. For the different in the scopes:

Firstly I would not go with the 300PDS. That thing is huge! The NEQ6 will handle it just find but it will be a sail. The slightest wind will knock it around and botch your subs. Plus at 1500mm FL that will be very difficult to guide with especially if this is your first time venturing into AP. The 250 PDS will be similar but not as bad at catching wind. Though at 1200mm FL it will still be a a big learning curve to guide with. It doable just remember that you might have some troubles at the start. Theres nothing wrong with the ED80. Its a very common starting scope. This will be very easy to get started with in AP. Also remember to budget for a field flattener/reducer for the ED80 and a coma corrector for the 250/300pds. 

The 190MN is a fantastic scope and there are several people on here that will praise it also. At 1000mm FL it will be a better starting point to guide with versus the 250/300pds. The ED80 still trumps all on ease of guiding but the 190MN is a decent secondary. I would pick this over the 250/300pds any day. The only down side is the FL. You will be able to capture most of the Messier but might have to do a mosaic or two for a couple of the larger objects. 

My suggestion would actually be to start with the ED80 only. Mod a 9x50 finderscope to take the QHY5 and guide with that. (Thats what I use with mine and have gotten 15min subs with it easy on my HEQ5) This will give you give you a great easy start into AP. Both for guiding and just plain ease of use. Will also give you a wide FoV for the larger object on the Messier list and some of the even larger ones that arent on the list. Like the Heart and Soul Nebula. Then wait and save up a bit more and take the plunge for the 190MN. You can then use the ED80 to guide with when your using the 190MN and vice versa. Will eliminate the need for the ST80 all together. You could also look into guiding with an OAG also. This will improve the accuracy of guiding and allow for longer exposures at longer FL. 

[Xplode]

MN190 is a good scope, but i think there's too much fiddling with it to get it very good for imaging.The ED80 needs a better focuser to be a good scope, optics are excellent for the price.

10" and 12" newtonians with steel tube larger than 8" isn't something i would recommend for imaging because the steel tube flexes.

For the budget you have i'd recommend a TS 10" f/4 or f/5 carbon newton with a GPU coma corrector (for f/4) or Baader MPCC (for f/5). This will be awesome for imaging and great for visual too.

A newtonian with carbon tube is much lighter and stiffer than steel, holds collimation better and doesn't expand with temperature so focus doesn't. A good upgrade for the scope would be carbonspider and Moonlite focuser, but might blow your budget?

For guiding you can use a finderscope and if you choose that instead of ST80 i'd recommend the QHY5L-II, it's more suited for short focal length guiding than QHY5-II.

Make sure to buy a good losmandy dovetail for larges scope, small vixen dovetails will flex.

One thing to note is that any upgrades you choose for the scope when buying from TS won't cost the amount you see on their website because you won't have to pay for the original part

For the NEQ6 you might want to buy Syntrek version instead of Synscan if you won't be using the synscan handcontroller.

[Pint Of Stellar]

Thanks for the food for thought guys.

To add a bit more from my thinking - the reflector and refractor option was for me to have the ED80 for AP and the 250 for visual (mainly) and with the PDS variant, if it were still enough (in terms of wind) it would double up as an secondary/alternative for AP with the prime imaging scope being the ED80. 

With the 190MN, my thoughts were that the learning curve would be steeper but would be a great compromise single scope doing both tasks (visual and AP) reasonably well.

[nmoushon]

Thanks for the food for thought guys.

To add a bit more from my thinking - the reflector and refractor option was for me to have the ED80 for AP and the 250 for visual (mainly) and with the PDS variant, if it were still enough (in terms of wind) it would double up as an secondary/alternative for AP with the prime imaging scope being the ED80. 

With the 190MN, my thoughts were that the learning curve would be steeper but would be a great compromise single scope doing both tasks (visual and AP) reasonably well.

Oh well if you are intending to have the 250/300 be for visual then thats a different story. It would still catch the wind and wobble but visually it wont be that bad. They still wouldnt be suitable for a secondary option to AP. 

I've seen some good images from the 190MN. Not sure what youd have to do to as Xplode is saying. But for your budget no matter what scope you get it could use some improvements. All these scopes could use an improved focuser but it isn't needed. If all you are going to put on it is a DSLR then you should be ok. It wasnt until I put on a heavy CCD and filter wheel on my ED80 that my focuser couldn't handle it properly. It worked like a charm when it was only my 450D. 

[Pint Of Stellar]

Thanks again - might see if I can either stretch the budget or add to the budget or maybe just wait until the next 10% discount day and get the ED80 and the 190MN and start saving for a CCD camera. 

[g0ibi]

I have a MN190 and an ED80 Pro,saved hard to get them! Both are worthy in there own way, I am guiding with a finderscope/guidescope and a QHY5 on an overworked HEQ5. When we eventually get some clear sky I will be get back on the learning curve with the modded 1000d.

You won't go far wrong with either scope!

Cheers

Ron