Planetary Imaging Equipment - Some Questions

[WicklowSkies76]

Hi everyone, new member first post although I have spent more time on here reading other posts than I would ever care to admit.

 

I have been researching what the best planetary imaging setup would be for my budget and I am more or less settled on getting the Celestron 8in Edge HD on an AVX mount. I have some thoughts on what will be needed to get optimal results and I would like to sanity check with you wise folks on here. In order to complete the setup needed for planetary imaging I expect I will need to get a Barlow (2x or 3x) and I am exploring two possible CCD cameras.

1. Atik Titan

2. ZWO ASI120MC Colour

 

Please note that I will also be purchasing a Skywatcher Esprit 80ED Super APO Triplet Refractor to be used with the AVX and a Canon Rebel Xsi (EOS 450d) for deep sky Astrophotgraphy.

 

Some questions I have about this setup is as follows.

1. The Titan is more expensive than the ASI120MC but they appear to provide more or less the same FOV. Is there any reason why the Titan is so much more expensive?

2. The Edge HD setup above will be mostly focussed around observing and planetary imaging. Is it optimal for this purpose? Bear in mind I will also be purchasing an 80mm ED triplet for Astrophotography with a DSLR. The Edge HD SCT range appear to be flexible enough to do both but given that my wide field deep sky astrophotography fix will be satisfied by the 80mm triplet is the 8in Edge HD OTT or overly extravagant for just planetary imaging? I could go the Hyperstar route but this would work out as expensive or more expensive than buying the 80mm APO Triplet and buying the APO triplet satisfies my love for Refractors and allows me to cut my teeth in a less complex way possibly?

3. Would I be better off dropping the 80mm triplet from the bucket list and just focussing on getting the 8in Edge HD working for both planetary and deep sky via a focal reducer, understanding that I won’t be able to frame Andromeda and Orion etc at F/7?

4. My budget is around €3500 for which I can get the Edge HD 8in on AVX, the Esprit 80mm ED Triplet and I can stretch another few hundred for either one of the CCD’s listed above if needed. If there are better setups to achieve my goals (planetary plus deep sky imaging) within this budget I would love to hear suggestions.

Thanks for reading!

-WicklowSkies76

[Davey-T]

May not be worth paying extra for the edge version just for planets.

Dave

[MarsG76]

EdgeHD wont be any better in planetary image quality than standard SCT since the CCDs will use the central (and best) part of the mirror... perhaps save some money there... the other issue with EdgeHD vs Standard SCT is the fact that additions such as focal reducers have to be specific type as opposed to standard widely available types.

[WicklowSkies76]

7 minutes ago, Davey-T said:

May not be worth paying extra for the edge version just for planets.

Dave

 

1 minute ago, MarsG76 said:

EdgeHD wont be any better in planetary image quality than standard SCT since the CCDs will use the central (and best) part of the mirror... perhaps save some money there... the other issue with EdgeHD vs Standard SCT is the fact that additions such as focal reducers have to be specific type as opposed to standard widely available types.

Thanks both. I can possibly get a Celestron C9.25 XLT Ota for the same price as the Edge HD 8in. I've heard the optics in the Edge HD are sharper but given it's planetary imaging I am most interested in it does seem like it's more than I might need.

[MarsG76]

1 minute ago, WicklowSkies76 said:

 

Thanks both. I can possibly get a Celestron C9.25 XLT Ota for the same price as the Edge HD 8in. I've heard the optics in the Edge HD are sharper but given it's planetary imaging I am most interested in it does seem like it's more than I might need.

You will be better off with the C9.25 over the 8" as it will give you better details on planets... in the real world it is the atmosphere that will determine (and limit) the sharpness, but all things considered the 9.25" XLT will out perform the 8" EdgeHD on planets.

[WicklowSkies76]

For visual astronomy aside from planetary viewing/photography, would a C9.25 or a C11 for example perform much better & give much better views than an 8" Edge HD on deeper sky stuff such as Nebulae etc? I'm basically wondering what all the fuss is about with the Edge HD, if the 9.25" 'regular' non HD model would be better on planetary? Does that carry through to visual also?

Basically I am wondering if I should ditch the Edge HD 8" idea and consider getting regular 9.25" or even push the boat out and look to get a C11". The answer for me would be "Yes" if it means that aside from astrophotography, I would get far better views on nebulae etc. with 9.25" or 11"?