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Best GoTo Scope under £300

scottphillips

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scottphillips

scottphillips

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Hey guys, made my mind up and I'm going to upgrade to a GoTo scope !!

Now all the celestron nexstar scopes are out of my price range but I am looking for a decent scope with GoTo for under or up to £300

If anyone could suggest the biggest aperture scope for this price or even one that you have used before that was in this price range

Any help would be great thanks

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Ruud

Ruud

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That's going to be difficult!

Maybe you could use your current telescope on a new mount like an iOptron SmartStar-G Cube GPS GoTo AltAz. It will carry 5 kg max (probably 3 kg realistically). I've seen it advertised for €275 including legs (at Robtis).

It has GPS. That's very convenient. You won't have to tell it your time/date/location.

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John

John

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I only have a travelscope 70 right now which was great when I started out but no good to me now !! Ok so could you suggest maybe the best scope around this price and then the cheapest GoTo stand so that I can kind of stretch my burget a little ?

I think there is a big step up in price to get to a GOTO scope with an aperture of more than 130mm even if they are bought separately. Your budget would need to streach to £500+ I believe.

130mm is going to be a substantial performance step up over your current 70mm.

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scottphillips

scottphillips

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Ok thanks for the help I'll look into the 130mm one you linked and hopefully get that soon !!

Last question, I think my next step after this would be to start some serious astrophotography of more of the deep sky objects rather than planets which I can do with my current and 130mm

I've heard a lot about an equitorial mount being needed to stop and star trails and maintain polar alignment but is there any other way I can get a scope and mount able to provide me with the ability to take long exposures because the equitorial mount seems to tricky for myself to set up and with the uk skies not much time is on hand

Thanks for your help

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Ruud

Ruud

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I like the idea of the 130mm much better than my own. It comes with telescope, and the telescope is a great deal better than the one you already have.

But an AltAz mount is not a good mount for astrrophotography. On an AltAz mount the field rotates, which limits you to short exposures, 15 seconds or so.

Visually, the scope should give you some very pleasant views, and you can always try it on the Moon and planets with an inexpensive webcam (if you're handy, because you'll have to modify it to fit the scope).

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Dave In Vermont

Dave In Vermont

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Regards the need for equatorial-mounts if astrophotography is planned, and this scope/GoTo/price is what will be the likely candidate, you might consider video-astrophotography. This form can be done and done well with alt/az GoTo mounts with a fast reflector at F/5. I'd suggest you hunt up some information on this subject. These forums right here would provide a good start. A good search-engine will find a vast amount of material and forums out there dedicated to this quickly-rising genre of observing & imaging.

Video-Astrophotography is only recently coming into it's own. Vast improvements in the gear for this has reached an exponential-curve upwards. And in our push-button culture of twitter, I-pad, apps. and the rest - it has been said that video-photography is how the next generation will be doing their astronomical observing. Luddites, myself inclusive for a greater part, will cringe at this possibility. But I think it's going to turn out to be spot-on correct. The lure of seeing those "faint-fuzzies" one hunts for with eyepieces in black & white & shades of grey - suddenly transformed into a rainbow of colours - may well prove too irresistible for tomorrow's video-amateur-astronomers' to bother themselves with high-priced eyepieces.

Darn ol' reality!

Clear & Dark Skies,

Dave

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Charic

Charic

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Scottphillips........hi. Take your time and assess your requirements. Astrophotography is not cheap, and clearly not so easy to set up. You mention difficulties you may have with an EQ mount system. Any difficulties will soon be overcome with practice. But EQ systems require accurate setup and alignment for every session. Plus dont expect Hubble quality images from planet Earth?

The £300 you have can get you a good amount of aperture from an 8" telescope which will allow you to see more, however, unless properly mounted to an EQ system, not suitable for astronomy, but for visual observation, you cant beat the power and quality you will achieve from an 8" reflector telescope on the easy to use, Dobsonian mount. You just sit the thing on the ground and start viewing, no special setup or alignment issues. With the 130 your looking at, you will get much less optical performance for your money, because of the small aperture, and half the money spent on the GoTo. You can't get the best of a sturdy system and larger aperture without more money. Depending where in Wales you reside, i know there are some good dark skies. For visual use, spend that money on a decent 8". If you want to still proceed with astrophotography, take your time and choose your equipment wisely

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scottphillips

scottphillips

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Thanks for that, yeah I have been looking at 8 and 10" scopes but I decided I wanted to have a GoTo mount either way so getting a smaller scope to start on a GoTo mount to get used to it then I can upgrade the scope as I progress hopefully

I understand astrophotography is expensive and I'm not looking for Hubble images right now I mean I can get good images of saturn, jupiter with just my iPhone at the moment so I mean I just want to improve they quality a touch with a decent camera !! Obviously the long exposures will come after I get used to the scope/camera etc but that's a while off yet

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Charic

Charic

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nice one.......at least your mind set on your requirements.

Always remember, our replies are  just opinions, sometimes gleaned from experience, but whatever the replies, they should one way or another,  help you and others to better make your own decisions. Its helped for me, the only thing I never applied was to try everything first before any commitment, due to where I live (lack of retailers) and my hesitation to join a local  Astro group. That hesitation is solely down to health & safety reasons, there MUST be a minimum of two members present. That doesn't suit my need or requirement, I want to go as and when  and at whatever time I like.

As for my own equipment,  I'm very happy with my signature setup, and would recommend anyone looking into starting  visual astronomy to follow the same equipment route.  For my old eyes at present, it all works just fine, with no fuss of setting up or storage issues.

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happy-kat

happy-kat

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EBay see if you can buy an xbox webcam very cheap £5. Though depending on laptop OS might have driver issues with any older CCD webcam.

Other members have used an ASDA webcam again £5 or the rather nice Phillips ones but they are more expensive as have not been made for years. There is a great webcam modding thread.

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Caldwell14

Caldwell14

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I would go for a Celestron Nexstar SLT 102 refractor, surprising good set up for the money. The 3 star method work very well and all in all there really is the minimum fuss about looking after or running the gear and you will get super wide views and at 7.5fl CA won't kill ya

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