Best scope under £300 for planetary imaging

[Space Cowboy]

I'm fairly sure that was on a HEQ5 Pro, so not something even remotely within the OPs budget  I had quite a few attempts at it on my EQ3-2 and whilst it was possible to get good subs there were far too many thrown away due to trailing.  My EQ3-2 is quite old and well-(ab)used though.  That said, I'm really pleased with the image scale and I will be giving it another go with either the 127 Mak or even the C9,.25 on the NEQ6 to see how much longer I can get the exposures.  It is a bit of a masochist's game and something of an experiment just to see how far I could push things contrary to generally accepted wisdom.  I spent an awful lot of time on it and threw away shedloads of data that wasn't good enough

I'm genuinely surprised you can get the necessary increase in focal length with a 3x barlow and extension.  I'd estimated that the extension would be hideously long if you wanted to get out towards f/30 using an OTA with a native f/5 focal ratio.  Different game for the QHY5L-II though, as the pixel size is so much smaller.  It's one of the really nice things about the newer CMOS cameras with the smaller pixels.  I actually quite liked using a barlow and extension to get a sufficiently large multiplier because it meant I could take several steps before I fitted the camera and re-centre each time.  These days with the C9.25, ASI120MM and filter wheel I'm struggling to get a decent barlow with a small enough multiplier, which is an odd place to be in really

James

Granted a 3x barlow plus extension wont get you over f30 (some barlows respond better than others to an extension) James but realisticly only Mars needs that kind of focal ratio.  Regarding centering the object ready for the webcam I've always used a cheap zoom eyepiece which has a very narrow field of view so once I've got that nailed on the object with my barlow I know the cam will have it on chip too. For sure having to swap eyepieces complicates matters.

Just shows what can be achieved with a high quality mount, looks like I need an HEQ5 for my skymax

[Permafrost]

Sometimes you don't need a mount lol.

[Permafrost]

Hard to find a non vignetting camera these days... If anyone has a good idea on one let me know!

[riklaunim]

Hard to find a non vignetting camera these days... If anyone has a good idea on one let me know!

Use prime focus imaging (or solid projection setup) and there will be no vignetting

[Permafrost]

Im doing afocal it's fun with some eyepieces. I might try prime. What kind of quality cam though under 500$