Opinions/advice needed on moving up a level.

[Coastliner]

Hi All

I have a Nexstar 4se and a DSLR, and having used these for a while I feel the need to upgrade my kit to move in to more serious astrophotography.

I need to do this in stages for financial reasons, my idea for a first step would be to buy an accurate go-to EQ mount in the £500-£700 range and mount my 4" Nexstar OTA on it, to benefit from the superior tracking that the new mount will give me - the Nexstar mount isn't that accurate at tracking for long exposure. I would hope that I could mount my DSLR on the mount as well, for wide field stuff using either my 18-55mm kit lens or my 70-300mm zoom.

Is this a good idea?

And do you have any recommendations for a decent Go-To mount?

Thanks,

Neil.

[nmoushon]

If you are wanting to get into serious AP then the mount you really can not skimp on. My suggestion would be to look for a second hand HEQ-5. They cost about 400 or so used. If you really want to future proof yourself then I would look for a EQ6 or NEQ6, but those will be a bit pricer even second hand but I think should still fit in your budget.

The other thing that I would suggest though is that you stick with the cheaper HEQ-5 and also buy yourself a new telescope that is a better fit for AP. Your Nexstar id very very slow at F/13 and is not ideal for AP imaging at all. It would be pretty good if you are wanting to do planetary imaging but not for deep sky imaging. But with the 400 or so spend on a secondhand HEQ-5 that leaves you with a good chunk that would allow you to buy a small secondhand refractor that would suit your AP needs much much better.

I would also recommend buying the book "Making Every Photon Count". This will really explain why your current scope would not be suited for deep sky imaging and what is need to start into AP.

[Coastliner]

nmoushon, thanks for that, I understand what you are saying about my f/13 OTA, I intended to upgrade the tube after I'd learnt how to handle the mount.

I already have the book you mentioned, it is excellent.

I was wondering about saving my pennies for one of the new Celestron Evolution 8 scopes, but I guess I would then need to buy one of their wedges for another £3-400!

They sell the Heq5 Pro Synscan here for £800 ($1400 USD).

I will give it some thought!

Regards,

Neil.

[Jim Steele]

http://www.astroboot.co.uk/bargain-zone.html

They have a NEQ6 here for £749, pretty decent mount so I've heard