Perfect for a Beginner

[MeSeany]

80ED DS pro plus EQ3 goto.

Please do not tell me that the HEQ5 is the min because I already know this but cannot afford it as yet.

Id also love to hook up a camera to my pc so I can view the planets etc on screen.

[Thalestris24]

Hi there's a video astronomy section here (down below under 'Science'): http://stargazerslounge.com/forum/123-video-astronomy/

Um there's not much to see of planets at the moment. If you haven't already done so, do download Stellarium and you will be able to track the location / visibility times of planets and dso's. If you enter your scope and eyepiece/camera details it will show you the size you'll see objects at with the ED80.

Louise

[ollypenrice]

It's a good start. I'd rather see the planets live, though. When you look at the excellent fast frame camera planetary images that are posted you must remember that they don't look like that as they are captured in real time. You are looking at very highly processed and stacked images. Saturn at the eyepiece is better, in my view, than Saturn through a video camera. If you have issues with eyesight then maybe not.

Olly

[Scott]

As olly has said, the pics you see here are far superior than what they look like when capturing. Possibly, the cameras used for video astronomy will look better but I've no idea.

Best to look on the video astronomy forum. They'll set you right .