Starting equipment

[deadmeat30]

Hi all,

After browsing the forums for a while, and looking at what route i want to go, Ive been looking at some options. I looking for some observing but also heading down the imagery route too.

I originally looked at a Dobsonian, like the Sky Watcher 200P. But with wanting to do some photography, its doesnt seem the best fit as i would be looking to change pretty quickly.

Now im thinking down the lines of something that can get me started, but be expanded on.

So the question is the options.

Would a Skywatcher Explorer 150P-DS OTA with EQ5 Pro GOTO be a good place to start?

Thanks for the help in advance.

Regards,

Alan

[brrttpaul]

the 150 or the 130 pds are good but try and get a HEQ mount the mount is the most important

[souls33k3r]

First thing you need to ask what is it that you want interests you imaging. Is it the lunar and planetary or is it DSO's(Galaxies and Nebulaes)?

Depending upon which route you want to head, below are my suggestions

1) For lunar and Planetary, the longer the focal length and the bigger the aperture the better. Mount doesn't really matter much

2) For DSO's you need a wide field of view so the smaller the focal length, the better. 800mm seems to be the favourable choice for many (for example Skywatcher ED80). But the crucial part is the mount and how well it tracks the night skies. Rule of thumb for DSO imaging is that spend you best part of your budget on a mount and get a sturdy one.

I personally started off with the same dilemma, thought about buying a 12" dob but soon changed my mind to a Celestron 8SE on an alt-az mount which I then knew wouldn't be a good mount to begin with and now I've ended up with a NEQ6 Pro mount with 8" EdgeHD OTA

[deadmeat30]

Thats for the advise paul and souls33k3r,

Yeah think ill take a look at what each can produce photowise and go from there. Im luck enough to be out in the countryside and just near Newstead abbey, so little light polution.

Am I better investing most my budget on a decent Mount, and the playing catch up on the OTA as i progress?

[brrttpaul]

Depends what you want to do really, I went down the astro landscape route so bought a decent widefield lens and a star adventurer, trouble is once you start god knows where you,ll end up, for me I bought a HEQ5 mount 2nd hand with a skywatcher 150 scope ( i was after the mount the scope was an added bonus). I am now in the middle of buying a CCD OSC 2nd hand then my next thing will prob be an equinox 80. in bewtween all that I bought a leisure battery a laptop various cables etc its a money pit but love every minute of it

[deadmeat30]

Ive been looking at some 2nd hand gear. I have a budget of about £500, so that will clearly go further that brand new. It needs to be semi portable as ill be carrying it about 500 metres to my planned location.

[deadmeat30]

Ok so having a think. I've been having a little think about the route to go. Looking at my options, I first thought down the star adventurer route. Little device for some wide field photos, looking at that though is nearly £300 alone. Add to that a tripod, another £100ish. So then I thought....why not just mount the camera on a HEQ5 or EQ6 tripod. Both have the tracking function and would let me add and upgrade scopes down the line. It would be a large initial outlay, but surely a worthy purchase as it will last my needs as my interests develop.

Any thoughts on this idea would be welcome.

Regards,

Alan

[ollypenrice]

Ok so having a think. I've been having a little think about the route to go. Looking at my options, I first thought down the star adventurer route. Little device for some wide field photos, looking at that though is nearly £300 alone. Add to that a tripod, another £100ish. So then I thought....why not just mount the camera on a HEQ5 or EQ6 tripod. Both have the tracking function and would let me add and upgrade scopes down the line. It would be a large initial outlay, but surely a worthy purchase as it will last my needs as my interests develop.

Any thoughts on this idea would be welcome.

Regards,

Alan

Very good idea. 

Olly

[brrttpaul]

Its good I have done it myself but you lose the portability (which I would sacrifice to have the HEQ5 mount)

[deadmeat30]

So you think the HEQ5 would be the better purchase?

[deadmeat30]

Ok well won a EQ6 tripod of ebay for a good price, So now might actually be in a good position to get a Star Adventurer for starters, unless i can find a NEQ6 top half for a good price to add to it. Will keep my eyes peeled!

[cjdawson]

The point about getting the best mount that you can, is for several reasons.

1. better tracking of the night sky.

2. less suseptable to local vibrations.

The two things work in tandem to allow you to take a great image.  The ability to track the night sky is key to being able to get pin sharp stars.  The worse the tracking, the more things will drift and the more you'll get frustrated.  Whilst adding an autoguider will help to improve the tracking, the better place that you start from, the less likely that the auto guider will be making corrections - in a perfect setup, an autoguider would not be needed at all (no scope is perfect, so the best you can do is make it work less)

Local vibrations can cause problems.  What I mean is then a gust of wind causes the scope to wobble, when someone walks near the scope, and the vibrations travel through the ground and cause the scope to wobble.  When the camera shutter opens and causes the scope to wobble.  I'm sure others can think of many more scenarios that cause scopes to wobble without you actually touching them.  Whilst some can be mitigated - using mirror lock for example - others need to be lived with.   The better your mounts ability to dampen out the wobble, the more stable the image will appear.  For DSO Astro photography, the fewer vibrations that you have to content with when focussing, and taking the images better.   So a higher quality mount always wins  as you'll be able to take longer exposures and ultimately capture more detail.