Help Me Spend My Money!

[PhotoGav]

I currently have a William Optics Star 71, a Celestron EdgeHD 8" and a SkyWatcher ED80. The first two are keepers. The Star 71 with its focal length of 348mm and the Edge 8" at 2032mm native or 1422mm with the reducer are both great and give me the two ends of the focal length spectrum. The SkyWatcher ED80 with 0.85x flattener / reducer, with a focal length of 510mm, has served me really well, but I would like to upgrade the scope to something tougher and faster. The thing that has let the SW ED80 down is the focuser, which struggles with my QSI 683 hanging off the end.

So, which is the best upgrade path?

A. Upgrade the focuser on the SW ED80 to a Starlight Instruments 2" Crayford (£439) or a MoonLite CF Crayford (£389)

B. Upgrade to a WO GT 102 with 0.8x reducer / flattener FL = 563mm, f5.5 (c. £1700)

C. Upgrade to an Altair Wave 102, FL = 715mm, f7 and add a suitable flattener / reducer to bring both FL & f down a bit (c. £1500)

D. Upgrade to another scope option that I haven't discovered yet and please don't say Takahashi 106 as that is what would be best, but at touching £4k, I don't think so for now...!

So, please let me know what you think of the focuser upgrade idea, will it be the perfect 'cheap' solution or would it be better to sell the SW ED80 and upgrade to an all round better scope that comes in around the £1500 mark.

I look forward to hearing your opinions.

 

[johnrt]

What sort of imaging do you predominately intend to do with this mid range refractor, narrowband or LRGB?

[PhotoGav]

2 minutes ago, johnrt said:

What sort of imaging do you predominately intend to do with this mid range refractor, narrowband or LRGB?

Good question - I think that really it will be used for those medium sized nebulae, so both Ha/OIII and Ha/RGB, and clusters in LRGB.

[swag72]

Here's the thing ....... Do you need this scope at all? I ask as I have focal lengths of 330mm and 1200mm..... and I never wish that I had something in between... How about a Sony chip camera that will give you a finer resolution on the existing scope? If you went for a cheaper brand (such as Atik) then you'd be within budget...... And as you can see, the WO and Atik gives you an almost identical FOV as the GT102 reduced with the 683.

 

And in my opinion, it's a damn sight easier to swap over a camera than a complete scope

 

 

[PhotoGav]

Sara - that is leftfield and a very good point. I knew it would be a good idea to post the problem on here. Thank you for that thought and for opening my mind to the alternative alternatives!

[souls33k3r]

Buy yourself a month worth of Beer ration ... money well spent ... you can thank me later

[PhotoGav]

5 minutes ago, souls33k3r said:

Buy yourself a month worth of Beer ration ... money well spent ... you can thank me later

The thing is, I hardly touch a drop, so the total beer spend would be well within budget and I would still have enough left for a scope!!!

[Ben the Ignorant]

Help Me Spend My Money!

Send it to me.

 

[PhotoGav]

1 minute ago, Ben the Ignorant said:

Help Me Spend My Money!

Send it to me.

 

And what do you give me to image the stars with in return?!!?

[Ben the Ignorant]

Just now, PhotoGav said:

And what do you give me to image the stars with in return?!!?

The gives nothing in return.

[Chris]

I was very recently reminded that it was all about "/pixel rather than focal length. It is a good point!

[PhotoGav]

Sara, having looked into the idea of a different CCD instead of a new scope I have stumbled across the problem... Really I need it to be an OAG camera as I now love OAG and don't have an alternative. So I would also need a complete filter set to go in the new camera - Astrodons are on the wish list, but two sets of them would be a little excessive - or a guidescope set up, wich I just don't really want to do - the OAG works so well. All of a sudden the cost is spiralling and c.£1500 for a c.500mm focal length scope is looking the better option. It was an interesting theory to explore though!