Help choosing a Telescope (£1500 - £1700 budget)

[shieldsy82]

Hello,

I'm looking to buy a telescope and wondered if I could get some advice please I've got a cheap Celestron, which let me look at jupiter, the moon etc and I was delighted with what I could see.

I'd like to upgrade, but at the same time get started with Astrophotography. I've got a £1500 - £1700 budget and already own a Astro-Modified 1000D.

I know I need a decent mount, so considering a Celestron Advanced VX or HEQ5 Sky-Watcher.

Regarding the actual telescope, I'm looking at a SW Evostar 80ED with flattener or a WO ZS 71mm. Would this be a good choice? I know the aperture is important for AP. Would I still be able to look at the planets (even if not photograph them?)

Will I get away with a 9x50 finderscope for autoguiding?

I'd welcome feedback or suggestions on alternative setups.

Thanks!!

[ronin]

If you intend any visual use then the ED80 is I would say the better of the 2 scopes.

The HEQ5 Synscan is £750 so that leaves about the same for a scope.

If you were willing to blow the lot on an alternative then consider the ES 102 Alu Essential.

It would be the rest of the bubget but you get a 102mm f/7 triplet.

[Uranium235]

Does the budget include the mount?

For 1700, you could probably get the HEQ5 and a WO GT81 (with reducer) and maybe have change for a guiding setup. The SW80ED is a very nice telescope and barlows quite well for planets, but if your attention should ever turn to DSO objects, then you might find it a little slow when using a DSLR at a native f7.5 (or f6.38 when reduced).

Whatever refractor telescope you go for, it must have a proven & working matched reducer/flattener. Both the 80ED and GT81 have matched reducers/flatteners available. Getting something thats matched and working from scratch will save you time and money further down the road when you end may up trying two or three different correctors for a telescope with no matching corrector (a frustrating experience).

Im not sure about the ES 102, I have a question mark over the glass used (and its mating element). So unless there are some pics out there in LRGB detailing some big, blue stars - then its a bit of an unknown quantity in regard to RGB performance. (just Googled it and there are absolutely no images from it)

Oh, forgot to mention - another proven 80mm is the Altair EDT80, which also has a matched corrector - very well made, fairly quick, and they take great pics.

http://www.altairastro.com/product.php?productid=16493&cat=270&page=1

and if youve got deeper pockets:

http://www.altairastro.com/product.php?productid=16481&cat=270&page=1

TBH, for planets you might be better off getting a newtonian telescope, it packs a much bigger punch in the way of focal length per £££. Thinking about it, you could probably get both designs if you are canny with buying your mount (ie: getting one 2nd hand - leaves more for the optics).

If it were me choosing... i'd be torn between the WO and the AA, but the AA might win out on the fact that it has threads on the focuser for attaching various bits and bobs with no slop. But, for a value-for-money refractor, the SW80ED is hard to beat.... tough choices... but nice choices

[Owmuchonomy]

Does the budget include the mount?

For 1700, you could probably get the HEQ5 and a WO GT81 (with reducer) and maybe have change for a guiding setup. The SW80ED is a very nice telescope and barlows quite well for planets, but if your attention should ever turn to DSO objects, then you might find it a little slow when using a DSLR at a native f7.5 (or f6.38 when reduced).

Whatever refractor telescope you go for, it must have a proven & working matched reducer/flattener. Both the 80ED and GT81 have matched reducers/flatteners available. Getting something thats matched and working from scratch will save you time and money further down the road when you end may up trying two or three different correctors for a telescope with no matching corrector (a frustrating experience).

Im not sure about the ES 102, I have a question mark over the glass used (and its mating element). So unless there are some pics out there in LRGB detailing some big, blue stars - then its a bit of an unknown quantity in regard to RGB performance. (just Googled it and there are absolutely no images from it)

Oh, forgot to mention - another proven 80mm is the Altair EDT80, which also has a matched corrector - very well made, fairly quick, and they take great pics.

http://www.altairastro.com/product.php?productid=16493&cat=270&page=1

and if youve got deeper pockets:

http://www.altairastro.com/product.php?productid=16481&cat=270&page=1

TBH, for planets you might be better off getting a newtonian telescope, it packs a much bigger punch in the way of focal length per £££. Thinking about it, you could probably get both designs if you are canny with buying your mount (ie: getting one 2nd hand - leaves more for the optics).

If it were me choosing... i'd be torn between the WO and the AA, but the AA might win out on the fact that it has threads on the focuser for attaching various bits and bobs with no slop. But, for a value-for-money refractor, the SW80ED is hard to beat.... tough choices... but nice choices

I've just gone for the AA 102. The flattener arrived yesterday. I can vouch for its adaptability and build quality. Just need the chance to use it all now. First light suggests Jupiter is stunning using my 8mm Baader at 5mm.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[shieldsy82]

Thanks so much for the help so far!

Nice choices indeed! I'd love to get my hands on a second hand HEQ5, but they seem to be like gold dust!

Whilst I understand that I should spend as much as possible on the actual telescope, I'm worried that if I blow all my budget on just this and the mount, then I may miss something important and the budget doesn't have a lot of movement unfortunately.

[m37]

I'd love to get my hands on a second hand HEQ5, but they seem to be like gold dust!

Cough cough. Classifieds at the moment. Cough ahem etc. PM me if you are interested.

Chris

[m37]

Oh and the WO GT-81 is spectacular. After some teething troubles of my own making I can confirm that my astro modded 1000D into the suggested reducer and the GT-81 produces a very flat field. Like totally pin sharp right the way across and NO colour problems at all. Seriously, it's amazing and the focuser could support a chieftain tank. I can't find fault. And I have OCD.

Just make sure you use mirror lock or you might get some false trailing and mistake it for curvature. 

[Alien 13]

I do think that most of the WO scopes are a better package than the skywatcher equivalents much better focusser that can cope with lots of weight and fast.

Alan

[TrixieLoyalist]

I have no experience in AP but what I do know is playing with budgets (PC builds) to squeeze, so what I would get is these

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/pro-series/skywatcher-evostar-80ed-ds-pro-outfit.html

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/skywatcher-mounts/skywatcher-heq5-pro-synscan.html

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/reducersflatteners/skywatcher-85x-reducer-flattener-for-ed80.html

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/guide-cameras/starlight-xpress-lodestar-c-colour-autoguider.html

All together it's £1763 so a bit over but not by much, as I'm a complete novice and no where near starting AP it's probably a bad idea to listen to me  but budget games are fun so I couldn't resist .

[shieldsy82]

I'd love to get my hands on a second hand HEQ5, but they seem to be like gold dust!

Cough cough. Classifieds at the moment. Cough ahem etc. PM me if you are interested.

Chris

Check your PM's   

[shieldsy82]

Also....

All the help is appreciated so far. Thanks! 

I've also been offered a Altair Lightwave 80ED and iOptron ZEQ25GT at a very good price. Any thoughts on this combo?

[m37]

No experience of these but as general advice I would say check for a matched flattener being available for any scope you want to image with a 1000D. Big chips will show up that curvature. The R&P focuser seems like a great feature. Mine is so much better than the equivalent crayford.

For mounts in general, checking the payload is one of the most important thing to think about. The maximum payload is usually for visual use only, higher accuracy for imaging means you should only use up to a half (although some say 1/3) of the maximum payload. Find out if quoted limits take the counterweight into consideration too.

The optics on that scope look OK and similar to the growing number of 80ED doublet refractors; doublets are, as a rule of thumb, a bit more prone to colour problems than triplets with the same glass although triplets typically cause more curvature. Although obviously this all varies greatly between scopes as there are many other variables at play.

The best advice I had when shopping around for a scope was to search the internet and forums for examples of images using a scope. This will usually indicate what is possible as far as colour correction etc.

Also certain combinations are 'tried and tested'. For example, I was set on the HEQ5 as being a well known commodity but for scopes I almost went for a Skywatcher 80ED doublet as there was loads of opinion, help, support and positive reviews (and great images) from a well know and well tested scope.

Just take your time and ask, ask, ask!!! This stuff can be very expensive and you don't want to rush into anything. I'm no expert but these are all things I asked about and went through in great detail!

Chris