Need advice on buying telescope

[Fishie]

Hello. I'm a fan of astronomy and recently, I want to purchase a telescope and an equatorial mount for astrophotography. My targets are M42, M31 and those larger deep sky objects. My budget is USD 2000. I'd like to hear your advice on which brand, which model would be better within my budget. I've seen some Meade LX70 M6, would that be good for astrophotography? I hope to seeing your opinion, thanks.

[Steve Ward]

Welcome to SGL ... 

The Mak has too long a focal length and too small a field of view to capture large objects like M31/M42 really , better bet would be something like the Skywatcher ED80.

This along with it's dedicated Field flattener/reducer and mounted on an HEQ5 mount would be a great and proven combination for deep sky photography.

Will capture M31 in it's entirety , it's a very large object covering 6 Moon widths .

[Fishie]

52 minutes ago, Steve Ward said:

Welcome to SGL ... 

The Mak has too long a focal length and too small a field of view to capture large objects like M31/M42 really , better bet would be something like the Skywatcher ED80.

This along with it's dedicated Field flattener/reducer and mounted on an HEQ5 mount would be a great and proven combination for deep sky photography.

Will capture M31 in it's entirety , it's a very large object covering 6 Moon widths .

Thanks! I'll consider that. But eh, may I know, approximately, how much it costs and it's stats / features?

[Steve Ward]

Can only link you to UK prices , but they'll give you a rough idea ...

http://www.opticalvision.co.uk/astronomical_telescopes-sky-watcher_pro-series-evostar_ed_apochromatic_refractors/evostar-80ed_ds-pro_ota.html

http://www.opticalvision.co.uk/astronomical_telescopes-sky-watcher_pro-series-evostar_ed_apochromatic_refractors/focal_reducer_corrector_evostar80ed.html

http://www.opticalvision.co.uk/astronomical_accessories-telescope_mountings/heq5_pro_synscan.html

[Fishie]

1 minute ago, Steve Ward said:

Can only link you to UK prices , but they'll give you a rough idea ...

http://www.opticalvision.co.uk/astronomical_telescopes-sky-watcher_pro-series-evostar_ed_apochromatic_refractors/evostar-80ed_ds-pro_ota.html

http://www.opticalvision.co.uk/astronomical_telescopes-sky-watcher_pro-series-evostar_ed_apochromatic_refractors/focal_reducer_corrector_evostar80ed.html

http://www.opticalvision.co.uk/astronomical_accessories-telescope_mountings/heq5_pro_synscan.html

Thanks again. My next concern is, what would be the suitable equatorial mount for the tube? Plus, if I wanted to take images of smaller objects such as M27 and M57, would the telescope be able to take a clear image of them? Thanks!

[Steve Ward]

The third link is the mount ... 

 

[ronin]

On the mount aspect there are the iOptron mounts, I would say that the CEM25 is about the right size for you, although there is a ZEQ30 also. They seem to be priced at around the $900 mark for the CEM25 although they are not common here. One aspect that does come across is that they are a little optimistic in the load they will carry. Seems that although rated at 25lbs it is more sensible to consider 20lbs. Have read that the motors are not sort of high torque.

Another aspect of iOptron is there is a user forum, where there are lots of information and iOptron also take part. So it is in effect a way to ask direct to iOptron.

After that is the scope. The Skywatcher ED 80 is popular but is still a doublet and there are mention of slight CA coming through. You could try the ES ED80 which is a triplet and so should be better. There is a new ED80 from ES at $1000, the FCD100, it uses a better glass whose name has "100" in it hence their naming. They also have one titled "essential". Another triplet and $700. The essential has had good reports.

ES seem to be designing their scopes around inaging, as to use them visually you need a short extender - which they seem to supply also in the scope accessories.

I assume that you are going to use a DSLR and that you have one already???

Additional items you will probably require include a flatener, T-ring and an intervalometer.

 

[Fishie]

8 hours ago, Steve Ward said:

The third link is the mount ... 

 

 

8 hours ago, ronin said:

On the mount aspect there are the iOptron mounts, I would say that the CEM25 is about the right size for you, although there is a ZEQ30 also. They seem to be priced at around the $900 mark for the CEM25 although they are not common here. One aspect that does come across is that they are a little optimistic in the load they will carry. Seems that although rated at 25lbs it is more sensible to consider 20lbs. Have read that the motors are not sort of high torque.

Another aspect of iOptron is there is a user forum, where there are lots of information and iOptron also take part. So it is in effect a way to ask direct to iOptron.

After that is the scope. The Skywatcher ED 80 is popular but is still a doublet and there are mention of slight CA coming through. You could try the ES ED80 which is a triplet and so should be better. There is a new ED80 from ES at $1000, the FCD100, it uses a better glass whose name has "100" in it hence their naming. They also have one titled "essential". Another triplet and $700. The essential has had good reports.

ES seem to be designing their scopes around inaging, as to use them visually you need a short extender - which they seem to supply also in the scope accessories.

I assume that you are going to use a DSLR and that you have one already???

Additional items you will probably require include a flatener, T-ring and an intervalometer.

 

Thanks very much.

 

I don't have a DSLR, but my father does, so I'll just borrow his DSLR.