Hello everyone

[Skinnypuppy71]

Hi guy's....I'm new to SGL and a typical newbie at astronomy but have found myself drawn to the heavens from a few nights out light painting and star trailing  with my trusty olly omd em5(2) and I'm looking for my first scope but have become overwhelmed by the choices available and what my actual intentions  are at this early stage....I know I like a refractor from my early teenage years but have been put off by some reviews of the more budget offerings due to the c.a's...so turned my attention to the skywatcher 80 ed pro...but I'm not actually sure what I'll be able to view with this small aperture scope and then I've looked at the sw reflectors which seem the best bang for buck but not quite as portable as the little ed 80......or else I could get a tracking mount for my camera/tripod and  a cheap refractor/mount combo....first of all I'm not really looking to get into astrophotography at the moment..it's just too expensive to be bitten by that bug...I do like doing wide angle night photography with foreground interest which is doable.....while my camera is sitting taking pics I want to be viewing in Greater detail through the scope .oh and I have around £550 -£600 to spend at the moment.I live only around a half hours drive from the Galloway forest in the south of Scotland.thanks in advance for any pointers.

[MarsG76]

Welcome to SGL... have you considered a SCT?.. a 8" will show you heaps of objects and amazing planetary detail compared to a 80mm refractor, and price wise would be similar to a higher end 80mm refractor. As a added bonus it looks and operates like a classic book telescope where you look into it back end...

 

[Skinnypuppy71]

Thanks MarsG76...but I feel the sct  might be a bit too focused and advanced for a first scope was thinking something with a bit wider view like f5 -f8 ideally....i think..also the sct's are a tad on the higher side of my budget..with only a 5" celestron within reach I think......I also have to factor in a  az5 mount and possibly a eye piece....I did see flo had a returned sw Explorer 150pds at £187....that coupled with the az5 mount on my current tripod (if compatible).....is a thought...I do have a spare tripod for my camera also.

[laowhoo]

 I don't know from refractors but I like me some Skinny Puppy. You just sent me straight to Stairs and Flowers and Worlock, so thx for that.

[PeterCPC]

Hello and welcome.

Peter

[Ricochet]

For a beginner starting out with visual astronomy I don't think that you would go far wrong with either an 8" dobsonian or a 6" newtonian on an alt/az mount. Both would show a wide enough selection of objects for you to discover what type of objects you enjoy looking at and would influence any future telescope purchases. I suspect that the ED80 is going to be a bit too small for this and that you need something with more aperture for a first/only scope. 

The ED80 is however, a good beginner scope for imaging so if you think that despite the cost you will end up going down that route it is worth considering on the basis that you could re-purpose it later. The other option you could do this with is to buy the Skywatcher Explorer 150-PDS (PDS versions allow a DSLR to focus) which gives you a more useful aperture for visual astronomy.

[Cosmic Geoff]

I think the first step is to decide what you want the new scope to do. Once you have decided that, you can pick one.  If (understandably) you don't have much idea about that yet, then buy something small and manageable that  you are prepared to re-purpose as a grab'n go, or to sell on.

As a beginner, you might consider a GoTo mounted telescope. Even a smallish one will show you thousands of objects, and you can spend your camera-minding time in looking at objects rather than in trying to find them.  A lot of people go for Dobsonians, attracted by the low cost, but then they have a setup which probably makes such exercises as finding faint asteroids, or viewing Mercury in daylight, too much like hard work.

[spillage]

Have you looked at the second hand market. 

www.astrobuysell.com/uk might be worth looking at, if you decide at a later date to change you will be able to sell it on and not lose as much money.

I had the 127 slt goto and found this a great little scope, easy to use and quick to set up.

[Skinnypuppy71]

OK guy's thanks for the input....I'm currently looking at a sw Explorer 150pds and add it to the sw star discovery az goto mount....a question is can the computerised goto section be transferred to another better mount in the future?...I love the idea of the sw ed80 as a grab and go scope with a view to doing a bit of imaging in the future but as mentioned it is probably under powered to get me going......

Also I'm assuming I'm going to need a culmination tool and two or three eyepieces....are the skywatcher or bst skyguider branded items of decent quality?

[Ricochet]

You might be able to transfer the handset to another mount but the part with the motors in is the mount so there is no transferring of that. I think that (almost) all of the mounts suitable for astrophotography (assuming that is your thinking) are supplied with handsets so it is unlikely you would need the Star Discovery one.

The BST Starguider range are good quality and are generally recommended. Skywatcher are a brand with several different ranges so the exact range you're looking at really needs to be known before a recomendation (or not!) can be made.

[Skinnypuppy71]

OK just pulled the trigger and apparently my new sw Explorer 150 pds and star discovery goto mount along with a Cheshire culmination thingy jig will arrive tomorrow....I'll get the eyepieces through the next month or so as the scope has a 28mm to get me going.....cheers for the input guy's....am I correct in assuming that I will be able to mount my camera on the star discovery mount with an adapter of sorts.the little olympus should be very good for this as it can stack images with it's live composite mode on board up to 1 minute exposures for as long as the battery holds out.....with the 12-40 f2.8 pro lens the results should be quite pleasing once a bit of tweaking in lightroom has been done.getting excited.lol.

[happy-kat]

That's nice but what does the 150pds weigh? as there is a payload limit on that mount and the bundle is a 150p with plastic bits to cut weight and is not the same as a 150pds except for the mirror and focal length.

Yes the star discovery mount can be used with just a camera in the L bracket (not sure if one is in the box or not), a red dot finder with flash hot shoe mount can be used to align is using just a camera. I use a dove bar for holding my camera into a similar mount)

[Skinnypuppy71]

Oh dear if the weigh is too much then I'll have to return and get the eq3 or something.

I really didn't think the ota would be over 5kg's they look very light and there's not much to them.

I kind of thought if their was a compatability issue then FLO might have sent me an email stating such a problem.