Advice on telescope choice for beginner?

[SarahI]

Hi there,

I am thinking about buying my husband a telescope for birthday/Christmas, but am trying to work out if i can afford anything that will be good enough, rather than frustratingly not-quite-good-enough!

He's a really keen photographer with loads of great equipment and has dabbled with astrophotography using a wide angle lens and his DSLR when we've been on holiday up in mountains and deserts.

So although we've not used a telescope, I suspect if i get the most basic one he'll pretty rapidly get frustrated as he has some beautiful pictures of teh milky way and starts etc. just from his DSLR. We live in a dark skies area with incredible night skies, so it'd be a really great place to start.

So I'm just looking for some advice! 

Max budget is I guess £250 (happy to buy second hand!).

Somebody recommended Skywatcher SKyliner 200p. HOwever i was told a refracter telescope was, in general, better for photography. Ideally it'd be under £200 but i suspect no chance of finding something for less...

Any suggestions for someone who's never going to be more than a very basic amateur, but knows a fair bit about getting the best out of camera-type equipment would be very very much welcomed!

Thanks so much  

 

Sarah

 

[Owmuchonomy]

Hi Sarah

welcome to SGL.  I will say straight off that if you think your husband wants to extend his astrophotography to using his camera with a telescope then the cost will be at least a magnitude greater than your budget. If on the other hand he would be enthralled by doing visual astronomy then you already have the best recommendation for your budget, an 8" Dobsonian telescope.

[happy-kat]

Hi

The skywatcher staradventure might light the interest in extending the photogpahy interest just about in budget. This would use the existing camera and lenses and you would need to add a tripod to carry the staradventurer. Members have used theirs with longer lenses then just widefield. It is possible to search to see example images.

link

[Kropster]

You could buy a tracking mount for him to put the camera on. Should be able to do some great astrophotography.

You can photographer far more than you can see.

Something like the Skywatcher Star Adventurer mini.

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/skywatcher-star-adventurer/skywatcher-star-adventurer-mini-sam-wifi-astro-imaging-mount-bundle.html

Or this...

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/skywatcher-star-adventurer/skywatcher-star-adventurer-astronomy-bundle.html

[Linda]

Maybe you could find a second hand EQ5 with second hand refractor or reflector.

As an alternative, there are also EQ platforms for sale for Dobsonians, so that you can use it for imaging. A very quick search on the internet gave me this:

http://www.equatorialplatforms.com/dobsonians.on.platforms.shtml

This last option should be affordable, especially if you buy a second hand Dobson. Ans you can also use it easily for visual use.

 

[ronin]

Astrophotography is generally a more costly area of this hobby. For the "normal" set of equipment you are looking at a driven EQ mount, small refractor 70mm and a few additional bits - T-ring, Intervalometer.

The catch is that the EQ mount is likely to be £530 and the scope around £370-£400, if you add say £100 for the additional bits you can see it starts to build up. In real terms these days it is £1000-£1200 for an AP kit.

As was mentioned previously there is the option, less cost, for adding a small camera mount between the camera tripod and the DSLR and taking shots through the "normal" DSLR setup. This may be the best option at this time. If husband later want to dive in deeper then he at least has somethng to build on. There are couple of these mounts/units:

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/skywatcher-mounts/skywatcher-star-adventurer-astronomy-bundle.html

There is another possible option = a small equitorial mount to put the DSLR on, the one that comes to mind on this is the iOptron SmartEQ mount, but they are £450. Thoughts here are that he can use the DSLR, then later if wanted add a small refractor 66mm or 70mm and add a DSLR to that. However cost is around double and the mount is not substantial, but is an option. One other aspect is that he could just put a small refractor on and use it to view the skies. So in that respect it manages a couple of possibilities.

Any clubs around you, that may be able to supply information and or guidance: http://www.astronomyclubs.co.uk/

 

[happy-kat]

You can also adapt (add a pan head to a decent ball head) an existing decent photo tripod to carry a portable (read that as quality small) refractor for observing grab and go mount for your trips to that dark site.  Perhaps something to look at later on after getting a mount to take astro images with.

If your husband is really into photography he may already own a tripod that can use with the staradventurer.

The mini mentioned above the payload is much less, the original will carry more payload and is cheaper.