What to invest in for my first expensive (1K) telescope?

[Cosmic Geoff]

1 hour ago, Sedna said:

What do you all think about these: Orion Sirius 8 EQ-G GoTo Reflector Telescope and Celestron Advanced VX 8" Newtonian?

Purely my personal opinion, but I think an equatorially mounted Newtonian is not a first choice these days.  For visual one could also consider a Dobsonian-mounted Newtonian (cheaper) or a SCT (easier to use and more compact and lighter).  It looks useful for  planetary astrophotography with that mount, but for deep-space astrophotography I imagine that a small refractor on a large mount would be less of a wind-sail and a better choice.

As mentioned before, one telescope and mount may serve in one or two roles, but can't do everything, so ideally you either need to decide on your specialty or buy multiple telescope outfits.

Others may have something to say about the claim that this cited outfit is "an ideal telescope for astrophotography". ? 

[Louis D]

6 hours ago, Sedna said:

Thanks for the input everyone ... direct viewing is more important to me than AP, so I probably value aperture over focal length, but I'll get something on an EQ mount.

EQ mounts with Newts make for very unergonomic visual viewing.  The eyepiece can end up at all sorts of odd angles, you have to deal with the meridian flip to go from one side of the sky to the other, and you have to deal with large amounts of counterweights.  For purely visual use with tracking in a large aperture, I'd go with a collapsible goto Dob.  The eyepiece always remains in an accessible location and there are no counterweights.

[Louis D]

5 hours ago, Cosmic Geoff said:

I have used the C8 SE alt-azimuth mount for planetary astrophotography.  I found that it drifted about quite a lot and I was relying on the stacking software to take out the drift and get a decent final image.  I wouldn't waste my time putting it on a wedge and trying to do long exposure deep-space astrophotography with it.

That's what I gathered from reading up on them.  The drive is just not accurate enough for AP.  Ironically, the original 1970s/1980s orange tube SCTs weren't too bad for AP because they used a nice worm and spur gear set and were intended to be used on a wedge from the outset.

[Sedna]

10 hours ago, Cosmic Geoff said:

Purely my personal opinion, but I think an equatorially mounted Newtonian is not a first choice these days.  For visual one could also consider a Dobsonian-mounted Newtonian (cheaper) or a SCT (easier to use and more compact and lighter).  It looks useful for  planetary astrophotography with that mount, but for deep-space astrophotography I imagine that a small refractor on a large mount would be less of a wind-sail and a better choice.

As mentioned before, one telescope and mount may serve in one or two roles, but can't do everything, so ideally you either need to decide on your specialty or buy multiple telescope outfits.

Others may have something to say about the claim that this cited outfit is "an ideal telescope for astrophotography". ? 

Hi Cosmic Geoff, thanks so much for your input. What about an equatorially mounted SCT? Perhaps that's better than EQ mounted Newtonian?

[Sedna]

5 hours ago, Louis D said:

EQ mounts with Newts make for very unergonomic visual viewing.  The eyepiece can end up at all sorts of odd angles, you have to deal with the meridian flip to go from one side of the sky to the other, and you have to deal with large amounts of counterweights.  For purely visual use with tracking in a large aperture, I'd go with a collapsible goto Dob.  The eyepiece always remains in an accessible location and there are no counterweights.

Hi Louis, thanks for saving me the neck ache What do you think about EQ mounted SC tubes?

[Cosmic Geoff]

38 minutes ago, Sedna said:

Hi Cosmic Geoff, thanks so much for your input. What about an equatorially mounted SCT? Perhaps that's better than EQ mounted Newtonian?

Depends what you want it for. A good choice for planetary astrophotography.  An unnecessarily complex mount for visual observation.  The focal ratio could be long for deep space astrophotography so you would be shopping for a focal reducer (extra $$).

Maybe instead of picking an expensive outfit that might turn out not to do what you want, you should get a cheaper, more portable, more general purpose outfit like a 127mm Maksutov  on an alt-azimuth GoTo mount, and play with it till you get a better idea what you ultimately want.  If you start with a second-hand one, you may not even lose any money should you sell it on later.

If you have a good digital camera you could attach it directly to a mount for a dabble with deep space astrophotography.

 

[newbie alert]

8 inch sct and a avx is very portable..will handle planetary easily (where it's strengths are but if you used a focal reducer and the DSLR you can do shortish deep sky exposures..on bright smallish targets it's great as it has some reach combined with aperture.. I had great fun with mine..

For long exposures then a different mount is needed..cgem or eq6 size but will need to look at oag for the mirror flop etc

[Charic]

1 hour ago, Cosmic Geoff said:

An unnecessarily complex mount for visual observation.

Matches my experience with even the most basic GEM (German Equatorial Mount ) supplied with my first scope, Celestron 127EQ.
It wasn't that it was too complex, it was just unnecessary for visual work, and like Louis D mentions, managing the eyepiece/focuser  was/is very time consuming.

My Dobsonian mount is a joy to use down to its simplicity. 

[Louis D]

4 hours ago, Sedna said:

Hi Louis, thanks for saving me the neck ache What do you think about EQ mounted SC tubes?

For purely visual, I'd go with a fork mounted alt-az SCT.