Astonomy 're-boot' project after a ~20 year hiatus

[AstroPhil]

Hello all,

This is likely to be a rather long first post so sorry about that ;-)

I am looking to get any general advice and thoughts from the collective here about re-starting my old astronomy hobby. First a bit of background: I have rather a lot of older kit: 8”/F6 Newtonian, Super Polaris mount, various eyepieces of course, OAG, 2 old SLR cameras (one so old it was made in West Germany!) and a rather fine pair of 11x80 vixen binoculars. I was quite active in the 90’s but unfortunately things have been quiet until ~6 months ago, as I have been traveling a lot and mostly living in apartments in cities (all over the place - London, NYC, Toronto, Montreal, Zurich, Munich…) but finally my OH and I have a house, and are back in the UK …and my folks are super pleased now that I have cleared out their attic after the best part of 20 years!!!

So, first up I have been looking to digitize my photography (I actually did okay with the SLR’s back in the day). I have started with a cheapish ASI185 camera to get me going, which works a treat, as well as a few updates to the newt, adding dovetails to the SP mount for easier take-down - so far so good. Can’t believe how good this ADM gear is. I’ve also been using an existing micro 4/3rd camera (Lumix GX1) which works quite well.

However, over the summer/autumn I’d really like to computerize the process of acquiring and tracking targets: I have paid my dues to the Norton2000 gods now and would like to look at more targets (and maybe - one day - even get some science out of the hobby) rather than spend ages try to find things. So, for phase 1 of my ‘astro-re-boot’ project I am looking at the AZ-EQ6-GT mount with great interest, coupled with EQDIR/EQMOD etc. I have been using Nebulosity with the ASI185 and I can see the potential. Probably this is overkill for a 8” Newt but I would like to future proof the setup if at all possible - the SP at the time was an expensive buy for the same reason but I have no regrets. However I do not have an observatory (yet!) so *some* portability is needed: albeit only a few metres thankfully.

Phase 2 of the project is to finally achieve the dream of owning a nice apochromatic refactor for wide field work - my pocket money was insufficient ~20 years ago but how the market has changed! (and my ‘pocket money’ for that matter…) Having said that I don’t want to break the bank and I see that the 80ED is widely praised on the forum as punching above it’s weight… but perhaps some more aperture (100mm?) is better? I’d value any opinions…

If all that goes well, phase 3 would be the expensive one, replacing the u4/3rds and ASI cameras with a proper CCD-based setup - I have my eye on the SE SX-694 bundle, and it’d possibly also need a better (remote) focus system (feathertouch, say) in due course as well. But, no rush.

My interests are reasonably diverse, but I do tend to concentrate on planetary and smaller DSO’s such as galaxies and globular clusters, but with a few of the larger targets thrown in - who can resist M31 after all? - of course (I’m a galaxy junkie basically). Probably I’ll add an SCT to the lineup one day but for the moment the Newt will be fine for planetary work, especially with the better mount. After reading through the forums the C8HD and C9.25XLT are both well reviewed… that’ll be a trick decision once day I am sure but for a small CCD chip it sounds like the C9.25 is hard to beat?

Phil

[Dave Lloyd]

Hi Phil, welcome. Lots of food for thought there.

[happy-kat]

Welcome Phil

I'm not technical enough to answer your questions but other members are, hopefully they'll see your post.

Do you know how much your newt weights and the imagining weight limit for the mount you have identified.?

[laudropb]

Hello and a warm welcome to the SGL.

[Neil27]

Hi Phil,

Welcome back to the hobby and also the UK.

Phase 1 - good choice, dependable mount (for the price) with reasonable tracking and the option to turn it into a alt/azi mount for 2 scopes - they come up secondhand for about £800 to £900 and are normally well looked after items. It is also an improvement of the great NEQ6 mount. One of the few times that a manufacturer has actually listened to feedback from users! It also uses EQMOD (or EQMAC - if you use mac computers as I do) a great free suite of software and is actively updated.

Another option is the iOptron mount, in particular the PRO version 2 which I believe sought to correct the issues with the first version, other users will chip in and give their feedback.

http://www.altairastro.com/ioptron-ieq45-pro-goto-equatorial-mount.html

Phase 2 - as good as the ED80 is it isn't a true apochromatic scope, but a very well corrected doublet scope but is still the weapon of choice for many wide field specialist and imagers, so again a good choice and coupled with a reducer will provide lovely wide field views and the potential for great images. If you want to go mad with your pocket money though there are plenty of other options:

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/esprit-professional-refractors/skywatcher-esprit-ed-80-pro-triplet.html

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/esprit-professional-refractors/skywatcher-esprit-ed-100-pro-triplet.html

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/borg-astrograph-telescopes/borg-89ed-f47-set-b08947-feather-touch-focuser.html

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/william-optics/william-optics-gt-81-triplet-refractor.html

Phase 3  - can't really comment on CCD cameras, I had a brief flirt with an atik 383, but at the time my personal circumstances were changing so I didn't use it. I'm planning on using a relatively cheap DSLR I already own to start my imaging journey and this may be a way to 'get back' into the whole imaging maelstrom! Coupled with an ED80 it would make a very impressive starter set up.

One thing of note though Phil, although the hobby has probably changed quite dramatically over the last 20 years one constant will always remain. It can also get very expensive very quickly so be prepared to have deep pockets and an a understanding partner.

Whatever you choose, welcome back to the hobby and let us know of your thoughts, decisions - we all love spending each others money!

 

[gingergeek]

Welcome back dude

[AstroPhil]

Thanks everyone! I'm taking it reasonably(!) slowly and - I hope! - thoughtfully for the time being.

@main_sequence - The Newt is not terribly heavy, perhaps 8Kg, but it can be windy here (I'm on the south coast, with the sea only 5 minutes away!) and the SP mount is certainly struggling, so I am eyeing up the AZ-EQ6-GT for that reason, as well as being good for a long time. I hope!

Neil: Yep, my pockets are getting worried... I especially like the look of the 100ED Esprit. But, I am likely to start with the cheaper ED80 to get back in the swing of things and to try some imaging - I was always drawn to that aspect rather than pure visual observation (the geophysicist geek in me!). I can always sell/upgrade later if things go well - and like you I plan on a DSLR in combination with other directions, mostly to save a bit of cash!

Cheers,

Phil

[happy-kat]

What about the 130p-ds cheaper still and lighter. There is an imaging thread dedicated to this telescope.

[AstroPhil]

Thanks, I'll take a look! ...hmmm and after reading so much on the forum about re-building AZ-EQ6-GT's I am getting nervous! But I suspect my OH will kill me if I pull the trigger on a Losmandy GM8 or whatever. Oh, well!

[gunfighter48]

On 5/2/2016 at 06:57, AstroPhil said:

Thanks everyone! I'm taking it reasonably(!) slowly and - I hope! - thoughtfully for the time being.

@main_sequence - The Newt is not terribly heavy, perhaps 8Kg, but it can be windy here (I'm on the south coast, with the sea only 5 minutes away!) and the SP mount is certainly struggling, so I am eyeing up the AZ-EQ6-GT for that reason, as well as being good for a long time. I hope!

Neil: Yep, my pockets are getting worried... I especially like the look of the 100ED Esprit. But, I am likely to start with the cheaper ED80 to get back in the swing of things and to try some imaging - I was always drawn to that aspect rather than pure visual observation (the geophysicist geek in me!). I can always sell/upgrade later if things go well - and like you I plan on a DSLR in combination with other directions, mostly to save a bit of cash!

Cheers,

Phil

I have a ES 100mm APO that's an excellent scope for the money. Very high contrast, sharp, detailed views. There's no color even on very bright stars. Give it a look also.

[AstroPhil]

Some quick shots with the "old faithful" 25 year old 8" Newt, and a new ASI185 that I am playing around with! So far so good. I did experiment with M13 but no joy ;-) That'll have to wait for a CCD and shorter FL scope in due course...! Suspect i need to colimate the newt better as well though (Cheshire eyepice on the way from FLO)

[t0nedude]

Hi and welcome back, the cheapest 80 ED triplet is the ES version, (Telescope House gave it high praise when I spoke to them recently and FLO do it now as well:

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/explore-scientific-telescopes/explore-scientific-ed-apo-80mm-f6-essential-refractor-telescope-with-hex-focus.html

Not bad for £507 and the 102 is £725.

I can't comment on how good they are personally as never used them, maybe someone who has can?

Tony.

[AstroPhil]

9 hours ago, t0nedude said:

Hi and welcome back, the cheapest 80 ED triplet is the ES version, (Telescope House gave it high praise when I spoke to them recently and FLO do it now as well:

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/explore-scientific-telescopes/explore-scientific-ed-apo-80mm-f6-essential-refractor-telescope-with-hex-focus.html

Not bad for £507 and the 102 is £725.

I can't comment on how good they are personally as never used them, maybe someone who has can?

Tony.

Thanks Tony. Hmm, that ES looks very tempting, I wonder how it stack up to the Sky-watcher? 725 is close enough to my budget such that I might be tempted to go straight to the 4" as well. Decisions decisions!!!

On a related note, the focuser on the ES: I wonder if is is essentially the same as the feathertouch version of the same size? The reason is that one day it'd be nice to motorise the focuser and I have been eyeing up this for the future: http://starizona.com/acb/MicroTouch-Autofocuser---Wired-P2715C745.aspx

There are no doubt other options I guess.. but it'd be nice to try and "future proof" the OTA as much as possible then I don't need to replace/upgrade the focuser. I see a phone call to telescope house and/or FLO in my future!!!