What to buy with a windfall?

[Parallax]

I have just discovered that I am due a fairly substantial tax refund (you don't hear that very often) and I was thinking of buying the SynScan Pro upgrade for the EQ5. BUT... I am pretty sure that I am near the limit of the mount's load capacity, with just the Explorer on it, leaving no margin for a guide scope later on. So do you think that I would be better off splashing out on a HEQ5 SynTrek (or even the HEQ5 Pro SynScan)? Or should I forget guiding for the moment and continue with the EQ5 + upgrade and get a Canon instead of my webcam?

Oh, decisions decisions! Why couldn't I have had this money BEFORE I bought my current setup?

Any thoughts greatly appreciated.

Steve

P.S. I was thinking of using an ST80 as a guide scope.

P.P.S I get similar tax refund next year also!

[barkis]

If I were you, and you're probably glad you're not, I would give serious consideration to the mount. It is without doubt to my puny mind anyway, the most important piece of equipment in any astronomers arsenal.

If you can look ahead to what you eventually would like to achieve in your astronomy, then in every scenario you can imagine, the mount will figure prominently in it. Build everything around it. That's my twopennyworth.

Ron.

[blinky]

Got to agree with Ron there, I had an EQ5 and the bets thing I did (Astro Pgotography wise) was to upgrade to the HEQ5. It's a substantial improvement and you have the option to upgrade to GoTo later if you wish

[centroid]

Steve, with imaging, the 'corner stone' in the equipment chain, is the mount.

cheap scope + good mount, can = surprisingly good results, expensive scope + cheap mount, most likely = frustration and poor results

Therefore, buy the best and 'beefiest' mount that you can afford, and you'll be pretty much 'future proof'.

Dave

[Parallax]

Thanks guys.

A bit of a no brainer then. I think that I'll go with the HEQ5 SynTrek with the possibility of going down the EQMod route. This will probably mean that I need to upgrade the laptop as well. Money doesn't stretch very far does it - that's only 2 items and I've nearly spent it all already!

Thanks again for your input

Steve

[MikeP]

Steve,

EQMOD, ASCOM and many planetarium programs will run on a modest laptop.

Mike