Looking to upgrade

[Connect2space]

Hey guys, I'm back after a several month absence from astronomy - (unfortunately college has been quite frantic and has taken up a lot of my time) but I've managed to get back into astronomy (starting off with some pictures of Jupiter and it's moons just about 30 minutes ago) however this raised a problem, I'm using a Sky Watcher, Sky-Liner 200p, a dobsonian telescope which is probably the worst type of telescope for some serious Astrophotography (which I want to get into) as I'm a college student and will hopefully soon be getting money if I can find a job, I will be looking to upgrade to something a bit better for Astrophotography, I'm looking for some ideally which isn't too expensive but ideally something which is better than my current setup.

Thank you guys, it's great to be back here with such a great community!

[TrixieLoyalist]

I don't know anything about AP really other than that it's pretty expensive if you want to do more than take registax'd pictures of the planets using a webcam or quick exposures. For a start you require a sturdy german equatorial mount like a Skywatcher HEQ5 or maybe a Celestron Advanced VX both are around £700, then you want something like a small 3 inch apochromatic refractor which are also fairly expensive, you need a CCD or DSLR too although that can be the least expensive of these major components. All added up it costs like £1-1.5k.

This seems okay for starting to get serious with AP http://www.firstlightoptics.com/pro-series/skywatcher-evostar-80ed-pro-heq5-pro.html you'll want the focal reducer/flattener for that scope too, but if it were me I'd buy a small William Optics scope and the HEQ5 Synscan separately.

Hopefully someone more knowledgeable takes notice of your thread and gives some advice.

[swag72]

If you want to take AP seriously then first of all buy the book Making Every Photon Count, available in the book section of the FLO website. Read it once.... twice ....... and thrice before spending a single penny. Then think about what you need and why and then read it again just to check!!! This is an imagers bible which will stop you making expensive mistakes by buying the wrong it.

You can not go wrong with an HEQ5 and ED80 - This is the basis for many peoples imaging rig in one form or another. It's all about the MOUNT .... MOUNT .... MOUNT. Did I mention that the mount is important?   Try and pinch the pennies on this part of the rig and you will regret it. This is the basis of the imaging rig and if you are doing long exposures in DSO imaging then you NEED a good mount.

Have a look in the imaging section at people's images - They generally say what kit has been used and that will give you some ideas as well.

Most of all, be prepared for a massive learning curve and frustration along the way. It's a great hobby..... when it goes right! LOL!

[ronin]

How seriously "into" astrophotography?

You can start "simple" say iOptron SmartEQ, WO ZS 71, that would be £800 and there are less expensive scopes at the same size,

You are limited to something like 90-120 second exposures depending on the polar alignment.

That is easy, the problem is the next step.

If you add guiding, or a better scope (80mm apo) then the mount is too light for the extra bits,

So besides the extra bits you need a new bigger mount.

So from "simple" to better is a big step and a bigger chunk of cash.

The better is likely a £1000 mount and £1000 scope plus say £500 for guiding, so step 1 = £800, step 2 = £3000.

If the simple setup is going to keep you happy then great, it is not overly expensive if however the better setup is intended where do you start?