Is the Orion ED80 APO good for astrophotography?

[sharkey93]

3 minutes ago, Galen Gilmore said:

Are you doing deep space photography or planetary? Because for deep space you will most likely will not need that much magnification, besides some of the planetary nebulas. Most DSOs are very large in the sky, for example the Andromeda galaxy is three times larger than the full moon in the sky.

Not sure if you already knew this, just wanted to make sure...

I do mostly Plantery and used a 25mm eye peice without the barlow on Andromeda I've not done much more than Andromeda for Deep space yet but plan on it soon as I've got my new Rig my Evostar broke in an accident before I got that far in but due to Student lones I never got a chance to fix her

but now a Majority of my lone is clear and I've got a Stable job I'm looking at an Esprit rather than repairing 

[DaveS]

Mount, mount, mount.

If you're even half-way thinking of AP then the mount comes first. Although you *can* get away with lighter mounts, the HEQ5 (Or the US equivalent) is reconned to be the minimum for reliable results, and face it, AP is difficult enough without adding to your woes by fighting a dodgy mount, which is why so many of us here have mounts costing well into four figures.

The Star Adventurer is fine as a portable mount for very light, short FL 'scopes using short-ish exposures, possibly without guiding, but for anything "normal" size with long exposures comes woefully short.

[Alien 13]

The ED 80 range of scopes are very good but are slow probably slower than a slow thing on a tea break so need a very good mount and guiding to get exposure lengths long enough for an acceptable image. This though is how AP works , mounts like the star adventurer are great with focal lengths at 300 mm or lower and fast f ratios where guiding becomes a luxury rather than a must have.

Alan

[Galen Gilmore]

1 hour ago, sharkey93 said:

I do mostly Plantery and used a 25mm eye peice without the barlow on Andromeda I've not done much more than Andromeda for Deep space yet but plan on it soon as I've got my new Rig my Evostar broke in an accident before I got that far in but due to Student lones I never got a chance to fix her

but now a Majority of my lone is clear and I've got a Stable job I'm looking at an Esprit rather than repairing 

Ah, I see. Well good luck then.

[Galen Gilmore]

1 hour ago, DaveS said:

Mount, mount, mount.

If you're even half-way thinking of AP then the mount comes first. Although you *can* get away with lighter mounts, the HEQ5 (Or the US equivalent) is reconned to be the minimum for reliable results, and face it, AP is difficult enough without adding to your woes by fighting a dodgy mount, which is why so many of us here have mounts costing well into four figures.

The Star Adventurer is fine as a portable mount for very light, short FL 'scopes using short-ish exposures, possibly without guiding, but for anything "normal" size with long exposures comes woefully short.

Would a normal EQ-5 work fine? The HEQ-5 is way over my budget unless I want to spend the next 3 years saving up. 

Im looking at stuff shipping from the UK as well, because stuff in the US is more expensive than stuff in the UK at the moment.

[Galen Gilmore]

Or is there a version of the HEQ-5 without Go-To?

[carastro]

Quote

is there a version of the HEQ-5 without Go-To?

Not sure what you mean by "without GOTO, but there is a cheaper version you can buy (about £100 less) called the Syntrek version which doesn't come with the Synscan handset.  You can still use GOTO by attaching it to a computer via an EQDir cable and using EQMod.  Many people prefer this anyway.

Back to your original idea of the Skywatcher Star adventurer, it tells you in the description that it will take a lightweight telescope and it does guide, however you really need to have a discussion with the retailer as regards what size scope will work on it.  If you overload the mount you won't have successful images.

I have heard of people using the EQ5 for imaging (provided it has a Guide port, I am not sure all versions do), and again making sure the telescope isn't too heavy, but it will take a heavier scope than the Star Adventurer.

ED80 APOs are fine for imaging, I use one, especially if you want to add a focal reducer as this will speed up the optics and widen the FOV.  The Skywatcher 130PDS might be OK on the EQ5 as well.  

As I say speak to First Light Optics, they have an on-line facility even for us Brits and will get back to you very quickly.

Seeing how your thinking is going, and regarding your budget, provided the weight is OK I think the EQ5 and Skywatcher 130PDS might just be what you need.  (Just check the Scope weight will be OK with the EQ5).  there is a dirty great thread on here called Imaging with a 130PDS where you can see images done with it. 

I should warn you though that this will not be the end of your expenditure as there will be other things you'll need to buy:  Coma corrector, Extension USB cable, if you're going with the 130PDS you'll need some sort of collimator (I use a Cheshire, it's cheaper and in my opinion easier to use).   Trying to remember what camera you are using, but I think it's a DSLR, depending on where you live you might need a CLS LP filter.  If you're using a Refractor you will need to get some dew heaters.  With the Skywatcher scopes you can use the finderscope as the guidescope with an adapter approx £30, plus a guide camera.  You can get away with using a webcam for this, but you'll need the right adapter for it. 

Carole 

 

[carastro]

Just searched for the Syntrek version of the HEQ5 as they stopped supplying it for a while, then it became available again, but now I can't see it again.  I bought one a few years ago when it first came back, but I had to ask for it.  Maybe it's not advertised and you need to ask.

Carole

[Galen Gilmore]

15 minutes ago, carastro said:

Not sure what you mean by "without GOTO, but there is a cheaper version you can buy (about £100 less) called the Syntrek version which doesn't come with the Synscan handset.  You can still use GOTO by attaching it to a computer via an EQDir cable and using EQMod.  Many people prefer this anyway.

Back to your original idea of the Skywatcher Star adventurer, it tells you in the description that it will take a lightweight telescope and it does guide, however you really need to have a discussion with the retailer as regards what size scope will work on it.  If you overload the mount you won't have successful images.

I have heard of people using the EQ5 for imaging (provided it has a Guide port, I am not sure all versions do), and again making sure the telescope isn't too heavy, but it will take a heavier scope than the Star Adventurer.

ED80 APOs are fine for imaging, I use one, especially if you want to add a focal reducer as this will speed up the optics and widen the FOV.  The Skywatcher 130PDS might be OK on the EQ5 as well.  

As I say speak to First Light Optics, they have an on-line facility even for us Brits and will get back to you very quickly.

Seeing how your thinking is going, and regarding your budget, provided the weight is OK I think the EQ5 and Skywatcher 130PDS might just be what you need.  (Just check the Scope weight will be OK with the EQ5).  there is a dirty great thread on here called Imaging with a 130PDS where you can see images done with it. 

I should warn you though that this will not be the end of your expenditure as there will be other things you'll need to buy:  Coma corrector, Extension USB cable, if you're going with the 130PDS you'll need some sort of collimator (I use a Cheshire, it's cheaper and in my opinion easier to use).   Trying to remember what camera you are using, but I think it's a DSLR, depending on where you live you might need a CLS LP filter.  If you're using a Refractor you will need to get some dew heaters.  With the Skywatcher scopes you can use the finderscope as the guidescope with an adapter approx £30, plus a guide camera.  You can get away with using a webcam for this, but you'll need the right adapter for it. 

Carole 

 

Thank you! That was very helpful. Unfortunately I don't have $600 to spend at the moment! I will probobly get the the mount and scope used if I see it!

[carastro]

It's such a shame you are across the Pond (from a buying point of view), as we have an excellent secondhand Astro kit for sale website here called UKAstroBuySell where you can get things about 2/3 new price which generally are well looked after, but the seller is just upgrading.   I don't know if they have such a thing in the USA.

Carole 

[Galen Gilmore]

2 hours ago, carastro said:

It's such a shame you are across the Pond (from a buying point of view), as we have an excellent secondhand Astro kit for sale website here called UKAstroBuySell where you can get things about 2/3 new price which generally are well looked after, but the seller is just upgrading.   I don't know if they have such a thing in the USA.

Carole 

You never what you can find on EBay these days. Even though I doubt they have what I need, it's worth a look. 

My local astronomy club has used equipment as well which might be worth looking into.

[Dave In Vermont]

Galen:

Looking for 'Used' is an excellent idea! And here in the USA there's an excellent outfit to use. Both for 'Used' up for sale, and you can also post post 'Wanted' gear. Small consideration to know - it costs you $15/Year to join - well worth it as it keeps criminals and spammers out. Members also post 'positive' and 'negative' deals with the sellers. Selling will be yours to use if you wish to sell-off gear too at some point. So you can look, here's a link:

https://www.astromart.com/

It's well-worth it for many articles alone, but they're free to read without joining. Astromant is a win~win website.

Enjoy!

Dave

[alexbb]

As others have said, the minimum future proof mount would be an heq5, but an eq5 could hold fine a short scope, though the tracking accuracy is lower than a heq5's. If I were you, I'd invest as least as possible if I were looking for an upgrade soon, or I would wait and go for the better mount. That means an used eq5 with RA tracking only or the heq5.

But I read that you want to use a Canon 5D with the esprit or the 80ED. The scopes won't be able to give you an imaging circle wide enough to fill your full frame sensor. They're ok for aps-c sized sensors.

HTH,

Alex

[carastro]

Quote

But I read that you want to use a Canon 5D with the esprit or the 80ED. The scopes won't be able to give you an imaging circle wide enough to fill your full frame sensor. They're ok for aps-c sized sensors.

Don't understand that, a Canon DSLR and ED80 will give a good FOV which will be perfectly fine for the OP or is there something unique about the 5D? 

[carastro]

I have just remembered another mount that might suit your budget and will do Astro imaging OK.  I had one for the first 2 - 3 years of imaging,  if you can get one 2nd hand as they are no longer made by Celestron. 

CG5 GT  (Celestron).  These don't work on EQMod (laptop control).

 

 

 

[alexbb]

1 hour ago, carastro said:

Don't understand that, a Canon DSLR and ED80 will give a good FOV which will be perfectly fine for the OP or is there something unique about the 5D? 

Yup, the Canon 1, 5 and 6 series use full frame sensors. That means 24x36mm ~same as the 35mm film. The others are 1.6x crop, meaning ~22.2x14.8mm.

Very few scopes with the aperture under 100mm are able to provide a good imaging circle to illuminate properly the full frame sensor.

[carastro]

Well can't remember if the OP already has a Canon 5D, if not maybe he'd be better off with a different DSLR as the ED80 and SW130PDS are good beginner scopes.

Carole 

[alexbb]

Indeed, my apologies, it was sharkey93's post mentioning the Canon 5D. I read this morning the thread on the tablet and I didn't pay enough attention. The above remarks about the ff sensor and the imaging circles still stand, though they might be irrelevant for the OP.

[MattJenko]

There is a lot to be said for going for a high quality lens based tracking approach versus a budget based compromise heavier EQ mount/refractor approach.

In this thread terms, to start with imaging I would much rather a StarAdventurer with a high quality lens/DSLR or a very short FL scope, than a heavy newt on a wobbly EQ5.

I have tried both and this is my travel/easy/widefield rig at the moment:

 

[Ags]

Small correction - M31 is around 3 degrees, so at least 6 times larger than the Moon.

@MattJenko, what tripod is that?

My understanding is a Star Adventurer can take a small scope for visual use only - bear in mind the ED80 weighs quite a bit but it also has a relatively extreme focal length of 600mm. A Star Adventurer is really for camera lenses up to about 300mm. Also bear in mind the ED80 has an F ratio of 7.5, substantially slower than a camera lens that might be anything from F2 to F5.6.

[sharkey93]

Well I'm getting a standard sync EQ5 with my Esprit when I make my order tonight as I just can't stretch my budget to 2K so I will upgrade to a HEQ5 at a later date 

[MattJenko]

1 hour ago, Ags said:

 

@MattJenko, what tripod is that?

 

It is a berlebach mini. Quite extravagant for something like this, but this setup has been a while in coming together as I tried out various components. A solid tripod added about 1-2kg of capacity in my experience with the kind of imaging I do with this. My whole setup comes in at around 7kg, which is at capacity, and in theory I should get a bigger counterweight, possibly one of the coke can based ones, but in reality it copes fine and for my non guided 30 second sub type imaging and at this resolution/FL, it works a treat.

[Uranium235]

Would have to agree that on the Star adventurer, a nice camera lens or very small telescope is  more suitable. There are some pretty good lenses out there at the moment. Ok, so you lose on focal length and fine detail - but it will be quick.... very quick.

[Galen Gilmore]

I have found the US equivalent of an EQ-5, the Orion skyview pro. And there is one on Amazon for about $70 cheaper than it sells new.

[michaelmorris]

You may be able to have your cake and eat it!  

You could probably pick up a HEQ5 £450 and a 130PS for as little as £110 if you're prepared to go to the secondhand market.  That's £15 cheaper than a new 130PS on an EQ3.