Silver 6" Astrophotography GoTo Mount Telescope Camera

[casaerwin]

I am new here and also new to astronomy.  I saw this scope on ebay and just wondered if anyone has even heard of it before.  I know I should avoid the cheapo scopes, but $510 is not trivial.  Of course, it's not near what en entry level astrophotography scope normally runs.  If anyone cares, here is a link to the ad:  http://www.ebay.com/itm/131643297528?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

[ChrisLX200]

Unsuitable for astrophotography because it's on an AltAz mount (not equatorial). The quality of the optics is unknown but for sure I wouldn't be using my money to find out...

ChrisH

[casaerwin]

2 minutes ago, ChrisLX200 said:

Unsuitable for astrophotography because it's on an AltAz mount (not equatorial). The quality of the optics is unknown but for sure I wouldn't be using my money to find out...

ChrisH

I feel the same way about my money, but I've seen several GoTo Scopes on AltAz mounts.  With a separate motor to drive each axis, I shouldn't think it would be that difficult to program them to track objects.  This brings up another question I have about buying my first telescope, but I think I had better start a new thread for it.

[ChrisLX200]

3 minutes ago, casaerwin said:

I feel the same way about my money, but I've seen several GoTo Scopes on AltAz mounts.  With a separate motor to drive each axis, I shouldn't think it would be that difficult to program them to track objects.  This brings up another question I have about buying my first telescope, but I think I had better start a new thread for it.

It will track but being AltAz it cannot compensate for field rotation. Additionally, the optical tube is f/9.3 which is very slow for AP, and because the tube is suspiciously short I suspect it makes use of a Barlow in the focuses - meaning it likely uses inferior spherical mirror. 

ChrisH

[Putaendo Patrick]

The Ioptron Cube is a very basic starter goto mount with a payload of 7lb, or about 3kg. The list price is $270. You can also buy it bundled with several small light-weight telescopes, and seems to work quite well for visual observing by all accounts. However I would think it would be absolutely on its limit for the 6" scope bundle from Taximarket, the ebay seller.

The same Twinstar scope (in black) is available on a manual EQ mount for $229.99 on Amazon. A few people who have actually owned these say they are O.K., but they're not wildly singing and dancing either.

Effectively the scope is a Jones-Bird design, which uses an internal Barlow to extend the focal length to 1400mm. In general this feature is not popular with more serious amateur astronomers, as it introduces more glass of unproven quality into the optical chain and makes collimation rather complicated!

I'd save my money and buy a scope from a better known manufacturer - Celestron, Orion etc. As a beginner's telescope with goto, you might look at the Celestron NexStar 130 SLT at $385 https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/370208-REG/Celestron_31145_NexStar_130_SLT_5_1_130mm.html/prm/alsVwDtl

 

 

 

[casaerwin]

36 minutes ago, Putaendo Patrick said:

I'd save my money and buy a scope from a better known manufacturer - Celestron, Orion etc. As a beginner's telescope with goto, you might look at the Celestron NexStar 130 SLT at $385 https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/370208-REG/Celestron_31145_NexStar_130_SLT_5_1_130mm.html/prm/alsVwDtl

 

 

 

I'm not really sure I would be best served with a GoTo for my first scope.  I'm afraid it might impede my learning to get around the sky.  It's too easy to puch up numbers on a handset without ever having to look for something. 

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[Putaendo Patrick]

To go-to or not to go-to, that is the question..... as Shakespeare might have said, but didn't.

I think there are benefits to both when you're starting out. Go-to will help you identify targets with greater certainty. Just manually star hopping, I often doubted whether what I thought I should be seeing was actually what I was really looking at (and sometimes it wasn't and still isn't, but don't tell anyone, especially here ). But, personally I agree with you - learning the sky manually has been fascinating in my case. And I often use regular binoculars as much or sometimes more than my telescope.

Go-to also adds a lot to the price, so if you're on a budget you can get a much better, bigger aperture telescope without go-to for the same money. For visual observing, you can get a 200mm aperture Dobsonian reflector for $355 in the USA, and that's really a pretty powerful telescope! https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1141702-REG/sky_watcher_s11610_8_traditional_dobsonian.html

I don't know what's available on the local market in Peru, but here in Chile, with taxes, import costs and high mark-ups, telescopes are horribly expensive!