Time for a telescope upgrade!! Need advice please!!!

[mystarrymessengr]

Hi all 

I really need some advice on my next future telescope purchase. As of last week I thought I had it all figured out, but now doubts are creeping into my mind. 

A year ago I sold on my 6 inch skywatcher reflecting telescope on an EQ-3 mount. I had this telescope for about 5 years and really pushed it to it's limits. I have managed to do some brilliant (although amateur) astro imaging and really saw some cracking sights in the night sky. I sold my 6inch reflector as I wanted to start improving with my observations and my astro-imaging. I have had my sights set on an EQ5 mount with SynScan for some time now and I am pretty certain thats the mount for me and my budget at present. 

My difficult decision is which scope to put on it. This is where I need some advice and guidance  please. 

My budget is around £1000 and I live in solihull in the west midlands. My night sky isn't exactly dark and is definitely what they call an urban night sky environment. 

I had been looking at the

• Skywatcher Evostar 80 ED Pro as i quite fancied working on some more wide field shots  in my astro imaging. However with the diameter of the main objective lens being only 80mm, i am worried that visually it won't render objects that impressive through the eyepiece such as the planets and deep sky objects. I am used to seeing these objects through a 6inch reflector. 
• I have also been looking at other 80mm scopes such as the william optics gran truismo but again the aperture does worry me for general visual observing.

I had thought about maybe going down the schmitt cassergrain route and came across the Celestron C6 6 inch OTA only which I thought could be good on an EQ5 mount, but then I read that it's only compatible with a celestron mount. Is this true?

I have also been considering sticking to the reflector world and simply going for an 8inch reflector which I know would give impressive views visually and would allow for some astro-imaging from time to time.

I guess this is the junction I am currently stuck at. I really want to dip my feet into the  ED refractor world, but know that I can get lots more aperture for price in the reflector world. I am happy to take a risk with the ED 80mm, but I also don't want the visual observations (which I would be doing more of) to be a bit of a let down.

Please please please can any experienced observers and imagers out there please get any advice on the following scopes mentioned, and what you may suggest would be a good option for my budget £1000) and my location here in the west midlands. 

Thanks all 

Ben 

[Stevp]

Hi Ben,

I cant really offer advice but having similar thoughts myself about my next upgrade i'll be looking forward to what others have to say.

Cheers

Stevp

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[John]

Ben,

An ED80 is a great imaging scope but won't set your world alight for visual use. An ED80 AND an 8" newtonian would be a nice pairing - one for imaging and one for visual.

......I had thought about maybe going down the schmitt cassergrain route and came across the Celestron C6 6 inch OTA only which I thought could be good on an EQ5 mount, but then I read that it's only compatible with a celestron mount. Is this true?

No - the Celestron C6 optical tube can be used on any mount which accepts a Vixen / Skywatcher dovetail bar. 

I've removed your other post by the way - it was a duplicate of the one above and we don't really want two duplicate threads running at the same time.

[VikN46]

I have the EQ5 pro Synscan and I love it I also use a SW 150P DS and find it is (for me) a great all rounder but for me more on the imaging side. But I have seen some fab views both visually and through the camera, I thought about the SW 80 ED and I will get it at some point but for now I love my set up and couldn't be happier. However it is very much down to individual expectations and everyone is different.

I hope you fine something to suit your needs

Feel free to look at my recent pics ( I am a total amature !) using above set up link in sig below

[ronin]

Catch is for visual you are looking towards a 200P but for imaging a good 80mm ED/apo refractor is hard to better.

So what you need a bigger smaller reflecting refractor scope. :grin: :grin:

[barkis]

Ben, why not turn your thoughts to the future, just to mull things over.

If you are contemplating Imaging as an undertaking  some time hence, why not start your preparation for that eventuality now,

and go for the NEQ6 mount, which is almost a must for top class imaging.

With the EQ8 mounts now in the market place, there should be a number of NEQ6/ EQ6 Mounts in the second hand market place now, and your £1000 budget

Might just stretch to acquiring a mount, and the  ED80 Apo.

 Of course The Dark Side requires just more that mount and telescope, but hey, what a good start you will have made. The NEQ6 will take a Mak/Newt 190 when you graduate that far .

Just a suggestion Ben, worth some though.

Ron.

[RichM63]

An ED80 is a great imaging scope but won't set your world alight for visual use. An ED80 AND an 8" newtonian would be a nice pairing - one for imaging and one for visual.

Sounds like a plan and CAN be achieved within your budget providing you are OK with using a laptop as well.

SW 200P on EQ5 £415

SW ED 80 Pro £349

Sub total £764

RA/Dec drives £90

AstroEQ to link laptop to drives £90

RJ45 cables £15

USB cable £15

Total £974 :)  (change left over for self congratulatory beer or two).

You then control the rig using CdC or Stellarium/Scope, or HNSky.

Job sorted.

Just one thing with the EQ5, if you do go for one, add in a second heavy 5kg balance weight, for some reason the new ones I looked at only had the one.

With 2 + a 200P balance is much better with the weights approx middle of the support and I find that it is more vibration/wind resistant.

[mystarrymessengr]

Brilliant advice everybody. 

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply to my thread. 

I should know better really than to expect one scope to solve all observing needs. haha. 

I think after much consideration I will go down the ED 80 route as I am really interested in dipping my toes in the wide field astro imaging world, whilst at the same time doing a spot of lunar and planetary work. 

I know that the ED 80 will never be fantastic for distant deep sky fuzzies, and that's where I will either have to purchase a good sized reflector for my EQ5 or simply stick a large DOB for visual observations. 

Thanks all 

Ben