What Scope to get ?

[daveangie0110]

Please help

​Beginner here ! 

I currently have a 6SE and will be upgrading my scope soon but i am torn between a 8SE a CPC800 a Advanced VX8” SCT, or the Advanced VX8” SCT on a HD Wedge but the Advanced VX8” SCT and Advanced VX8” SCT on a HD Wedge look harder to use then the 8SE and the CPC800 is this true ?

I am very very slowly getting into doing some AP but I don’t want a telescope just for AP, but I want the best of both worlds, the CPC800 looks easier to use then the Advanced scopes, do you think I should go for a CPC800 and take pictures of planets and maybe try and do some pictures of DSO and then when I am more confident in AP upgrade next year ?

I have seen some pictures on forums people have taken with a CPC800 and they look very good.

Many thanks

[Langy]

That's a bit of an empty post, perhaps details about budget and what you intend to get from a scope long term,

[rowan46]

visually you will see the same whichever you use so it really is down to the mounts. If the cpc is portable enough for you so will the vx. If I was just doing visual and planetary imaging I would probably get the cpc however as you do see long exposure imaging in your future I would get the vx8 and rather than spending the extra on the edge I would save and get an ed80 to image with as it will be much easier to learn with I assume you mean edge hd rather than hd wedge as you don't need a wedge for a vx  mount

[ronin]

All those scopes are SCT's meaning slow so DSO imaging will be difficult.THe

8SE and CPC are on an Alt/Az mount, making DSO's close to impossible, the field rotation and focal length will combine against you.

A wedge tends to cost a lot and ultimately it performs the same role that an EQ mount does.

Before getting an 8SE or CPC check that they will work on a wedge. I seem to recall mention that newer software identifies the mount and as the 8SE and CPC are both Alt/Az then they may not be manually altered to act as if on an EQ (wedge). It may not have been Celestron software but you do not want to find out after buying the items.

My advice would be simply stick with the 6SE, if you want to dabble with imaging get a webcam, take it apart, remove the lens from it and go planetary imaging now. Reason is that you will see as much with the 6 as the 8(whichever 8) and you can go planetary imaging anyway.

A scope not solely for AP would mean something like a 6 inch ED or APO which are very costly. There is really little overlap between a good visual and a good AP scope, the criteria are just different. I have a reasonable scope of AP, it costs about £900, a good one is closer to £2000 and they are around 80mm dia, not what you want to hunt dim DSO's visually.