What telescope to buy that enables long exposure photography

[scottphillips]

Hey guys,

Could anyone help? 

I am looking to purchase a telescope that enables me to take long exposure photos of galaxies, nebulae and clusters !
 

What setup/telescope would i need as i have been confused with the options of a GoTo, to an equatorial mount etc i would like a straight forward answer and maybe a link to the perfect package for me haa !

My budget for a telescope is around £400-£500 

Thanks

[lensman57]

Hey guys,

Could anyone help? 

I am looking to purchase a telescope that enables me to take long exposure photos of galaxies, nebulae and clusters !

What setup/telescope would i need as i have been confused with the options of a GoTo, to an equatorial mount etc i would like a straight forward answer and maybe a link to the perfect package for me haa !

My budget for a telescope is around £400-£500 

Thanks

For long exposure DSO imaging the most important bit of the equipment is a driven and guidable equatorial mount without which no meaningful DSO imaging could be done. Perhaps a used SW EQ5 Pro. These turn up at times for about £250.00~£350.00. As for the scope you'd need a fast ED and regretably these are not cheap an alternative could be a newtonian such as SW 130PDS . A DSLR is probably your best bet for a starter camera . I think that you may need to revise your budget as there areother necessary bits and pieces that are required for imaging.

A.G

[riklaunim]

No cheap equipment will allow easy, Hubble alike DS imaging. You must be aware that for example DSLR imaging with a basic setup or a lens on an equatorial mount will be lower in quality and will require a lot of processing to make it look "good".

On a low budget you can try some cheap EQ mount for DSLR (with drivers) and do widefield imaging with the DSLR and a lens (no telescope). Short focal length will allow you to avoid guiding (which needs money).

[Tinker1947]

A mount for long exposures is a costly item, then there guiding, yet another scope ST-80 and a CCD/DSLR to fit in it, a HEQ5 is about as low as you would want to go, short focal length scopes track better than long focal length, galaxies due to the small size will require  a longer focal length something like a Skywatcher Newt 200mm, its not a cheap part of astronomy, the mount being the most important part, GoTo is a must have.... 

[scottphillips]

Ok thanks guys !! Any links I can look at to see what scopes/mounts/prices I'm looking at ?

[daz]

FLO - banner at the top of every page

[RikM]

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/skywatcher-star-adventurer/skywatcher-star-adventurer-astronomy-bundle.html one of these and just mount your camera and lenses on it.

or one of these http://www.firstlightoptics.com/skywatcher-mounts/skywatcher-heq5-pro-synscan.html plus one of these http://www.firstlightoptics.com/pro-series/skywatcher-evostar-80ed-ds-pro-ota.html with one of these http://www.firstlightoptics.com/reducersflatteners/skywatcher-85x-reducer-flattener-for-ed80.html and one of these http://www.firstlightoptics.com/startravel/skywatcher-startravel-80-ota.html with one of these http://www.firstlightoptics.com/guide-cameras/starlight-xpress-costar-cmos-autoguider.html to guide it.