Newbie needs help

[paulcunny]

Hi all

i have had an interest in the stars for sometime now, but have little knowledge of telescopes, and am looking to buy one within the nect week or two!

i have been looking at the skywatcher heritage 114p virtuose and the skywatcher heritage 130p, and was wondering if anyone had one of these?

as a noob, i'm not looking to spend alot of money yet, maybe if i get really into it?

i also would like to get into astrophotography, i understand it takes time to master, but wondered if the 114p is any good to hook an SLR upto & track stars/planets/moon etc?

amy info would be greatly appreciated

Paul

[ronin]

The 114 Virtuoso is an inexpensive start for visual. It really is not appropriate to astrophotography.

The mount is Alt/Az is the main problem also the mount is not really capable of much more then the OTA that is atached, adding a DSLR is going to be a bit heavy.

The scope is fast at f/4.4, so you will need to check collimation at regular intervals and for good images a scope that fast would need a coma corrector. Be aware the Virtuoso is not a goto.

Ultimately for astrophotography you need an equitorial mount, with motors at least. The mount needs to be an EQ5 as a likely minimum and you could need to step up to an HEQ5 fairly soon. The reason for the HEQ5 is to me a bit odd.

If you buy an EQ5 with goto that means you can add guiding, that generally means guide scope, guide camera, and an assortment of extra bits. All extra weight that will likely overload the EQ5. So an EQ5 with goto allows expansion which makes the EQ5 too light.

Unfortunately astrophotography is not really a case of grab an inexpensive visual scope, stick a DSLR on it and it all becomes an astrophotography system. The two aspects are different.

[jonathan]

I hear good things about the Heritage 130P, if you look at the collection here I think the AstroMaster 130EQ or the Skyliner 150P would also be great to get you started for visual, however the astrophotography part will be limited to the EQ mounted ones with motor drive for exposures only slightly longer than if you just have your camera stationary on a normal camera tripod, even then the exposures would need to be quite short due to the inaccuracies of a mount at this price level.

[RichM63]

From reading your post and after a quick check on current prices to get an idea of budget I'll say that neither of the 2 choices will handle a DSLR for AP.

I have a 114 Orion I think, in a box, that came with an EQ1 mount. I bought this purely for spares and as a prop for my grand children.

The mount has been canibalized for use with my binoculars, and is far too feeble to handle even the supplied telescope, let alone adding a camera.

The following is what I have currently set up.

An EQ3-2 with dovetail and ball head for use directly with a DSLR and a start into wide field AP.

The EQ3-2, will handle a 150P telescope and an attached webcam for capturing Lunar and Planetary video to be post proccessed into a single image. This is possible without any motors but a sensitive hand is required + patience.

It will barely, read won't, handle, telescope + DSLR.

The EQ5 will handle a smallish telescope + DSLR but is at the limit for the mount when adding guide scopes etc. Partially overcome by beefing up the mount with 15kg of counter weights (opposed to the suplied 5kg) and stripping and adjusting the worm gears etc. Then adding in other bits n pieces, see sig'.

This is a 'sport' that can eat money quietly. Whilst the 2 telescopes you mention will be OK for getting started with visual observing and giving fantastic WOW type viewing nights they will not give you much satisfaction if you try AP.

It's all about understanding the limitations of the kit, wallet, and certainly in my case, brain.

If you already possess a DSLR + lenses, another option is to spend on a mount only and start with widefield AP, there are some fabulous results and learning the processes will not be wasted if you then get bitten by the bug.

hth

[AndyWB]

I have a 130p and would happily recommend that over the Virtuoso. I just don't think you need tracking, and the 130p gathers quite a lot more light.

That said, it is not good for photography. As others have said, really, you need an Equatorial mount, rather than a Dobsonian. The only exception that I've had a little luck with is the Moon, just taking afocal shots through the eyepiece. Even that's fiddly, and would get old pretty quickly. E.g. - an iPhone shot of the Moon...

Edit: If I might recommend, start with visual only (which is much cheaper), and if you want to get into Astrophotography later, then save up and get a dedicated AP setup. They have quite different requirements anyway (Astrophotography is, I understand, more about the mount than anything else)

[jonathan]

Yes, that's another thing about visual vs photo, with visual you will see with your eyes (with and without the scope) and enjoy finding objects, pure astrophotography is all about going straight to an object (so having goto or knowing the sky like the back of your hand is a bonus), computerised tracking and guidescopes and perfect collimation and polar alignment and drift alignment... not to mention the many hours waiting for the camera timer to finish capturing all the images then further hours processing them on the computer afterwards to get that one final image.  I don't know how to do most of those things but as a visual astronomer I don't really have to, just thinking about them makes my head hurt.  Of course, you can easily dabble in photography as already mentioned, I started out with the idea of taking photos too but the sheer amount of technical stuff and cost of the equipment just blew my mind.

[Carina Lass]

Such a difficult subject.

I think your idea of a tabletop Dobsonian may be okay for a bit of fun on your verandah on summer nights.

I don't really see it as a set it up and sit outside in the middle of winter.

If you're in town, the light polution will hack you off pretty promptly too. Wigan isn't known for it's lack of sodium lighting; which will cast a glow over your view (and your mood eventually).

A six inch dobsonian starts to come to terms with the sky and allows some learning of the major portions of what's out there.

But any scope that is used in a light polluted area is going to need a goto or pushto system as searching the sky for stuff is downright frustrating when you have LP.

I reckon a visit to a star club - I'll bet there's a few up the road to the Lakes - would be a good ruse and allow you to see what the area can produce in the way of arial beauty and what other people are using to capture it.

Best of luck - and my the sky always be in your favour.

Failing that, you may just buy a canal boat and spend some time doing the five rise. It's a lot of fun. (It's what I do when I'm in UK)

[paulcunny]

Thanks guys, i have purchased a AstroMaster 130EQ! after doing a little research, it seems to be a good little starter! so i'll see how i go :-)

i often go away at weekends to the lakes, Scotland, Wales, so it will be going with me :-)

i'll leave th AP for now & just stick to visual, seems very complicated and way above my head yet!

cheers all

[paulcunny]

and that moon picture is awesome!