New Telescope Time!

[Casus belli]

Its been nearly a whole year since I last bought a scope and I'm feeling a little twitchy. Theres a windfall coming my way shortly and Mrs Cb (God bless her!) is allowing me to go mental.

So I will.

I want to get into astrophotography. Trouble is I don't know that much about it. Money is no real problem (within reason) I've looked at forums, looked at suppliers until I'm blue in the face. My "astronomy" folder in my "favorites" list is on the point of going critical if I add another link to it.

First buy will be the camera. I'm leaning towards the DSLR side of things A modded Canon 350 seems to be favorite ATM. I was looking at this site to provide it.

http://www.dslrastromod.co.uk/products.html

Plan A is to get the camera and try it out on the ETX 90 before buying the Scope.

The scope. The problem is they all look so scrummy. Theres several out there that I could fall in love with. But I'm leaning towards the Meade LX90GPS 8" Problems are I'd prefer to go through FLO who don't carry that range and the price. I'm willing to pay it if its a good scope.

Theres also the Celestron Advanced Series C9.25-SGT (XLT) (and what a naughty temptress she is) Again expensive and does look a little more complicated on the set up side.

I could go on (and on and on...) but its those two that catch my eye.

I cannot have a permanent set-up so am I aiming too big? Will I need loads of extras? Any pitfalls that any of you know about?

Any advice would be greatfully received.

[FLO]

Plan A is to get the camera and try it out on the ETX 90 before buying the Scope.

I wouldn't, the ETX90 would struggle, to put it mildly.

I'm leaning towards the Meade LX90GPS 8"

For imaging, the mount is all-important, that is where you should concentrate your thoughts (the LX90 mount isn't well-suited).

Problems are I'd prefer to go through FLO who don't carry that range and the price. I'm willing to pay it if its a good scope.

FLO can offer the full Meade range, feel free to contact us for advice

Theres also the Celestron Advanced Series C9.25-SGT (XLT)

The C9.25 has an excellent reputation for planetary and lunar imaging but it is a thoroughbred and quite demanding.

Any advice would be greatfully received.

Buy the biggest/best mount you can afford, then start with a short-tube APO refractor.

HTH

[Kai]

I suppose the first question you should ask is "What do i want to image ??"

If you want to image Dso objects then i would look at a Short tubed Apo like Steve says,but if you want to image the Planets or the Moon then the Sct's are a very good choice (If its planets you want then i wouldnt use the Dlsr)

But as it is said so many times on the Forum ,make sure you get a decent mount that will not just hold the scopes you have now But also the scopes you may get in the future.

[Casus belli]

Yup, DSO's are my main interest.

I did wonder about a Williams optics APO, having read good things about them and seen some very impressive results. I'd shyed away simply because I know nothing about refractors.

Ah well looks like my favorites folder is about to take another bashing. Any physicist wanting to study black holes close up may get a chance of a lifetime shortly.

Any thoughts on camera's anyone? I'm leaning towards the dslr route simply because it seems easier. My laptop isn't the best (in fact its a real cheapo) and may struggle with the demands of astro imaging

Add to that the sheer amount of ccd camera's available and I'm afraid that the price of some of these things make my Scottish soul scream.

Anyway I'm going to think long and hard about this. Its getting close to the close season up here for astronomy anyway so I'll have a couple of months to make my decision.

So everyone if you have any input at all please add it. I really value the expertise on these forums.

Steve, expect a phone call from me in the fairly near future. You'll know its me from the incomprehensible Scottish accent and by the fact that I scream every time money is mentioned.

[Eclipse]

Hi Causus, I am going through a similar dilemma - on what scope do I invest my lump sum. I really have a short list of 3, WO Megrez 90mm or102mm, and the Stellarvue 102 mm.

Any thoughts from anyone else would be welcome - like is the Stellarvue worth the extra.

[FLO]

You'll know its me from the incomprehensible Scottish accent...

That's ok, I've had some practise speaking with Jamie and thumbless :idea1:

[Whippy]

Having gone pretty much gone through this process already, I'd concur that the mount is where you need to spend the money, HEQ5 or EQ6 really are your main contenders here. You can have the best cameras and optics but if your mount can't track properly then your images are not going to be up to much.

An ED80 will do you nicely and personally, I went with a CCD camera because I'm not actually that interested in photography itself so for me I'd rather get something that's specifically designed for the job rather than getting a DSLR. Have a look at the Atik range of cameras, they offer good value for money and can and do take superb images. For the actual imaging, you don;t need a serious laptop as all you'll be needing to run will be image capture software and perhaps something else for guiding. A friend of mine gave me her OLD laptop and it does the job.

My theory is spend the money now and it'll allow you to 'grow' into the gear without having to constantly upgrade and in the long term, spend more!

Tony..