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Beginner's telescope

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Guest

Guest

Posted
Posted

Hello!

I have been interested in space as long as I can remember and now I have decided to buy a telescope. I have a budget of 200-350£. I'm want to observe both DSOs and planets. I'm interested in both astrophography and visual observation. I know that budget is small for astrophotography, so I'm planning to get a telescope that can later be upgraded for astrophotography by for example buying a better mount.

I currently have a cannon eos100d, but I may only have it for another year or so, so I don't want to buy something too expensive for only that specific camera.

I don't know what telescope I should get.

I started looking at the Skywatcher explorer 130/900, but than I read that the explorer 130p is better and the price difference is quite small. After that I read that the explorer 130pds is better for astrophotography, but on FLO you can't buy it with a mount so I was thinking that I could buy an eq3-2 mount to begin with. If i buy the 130pds and the eq3-2 seperatly on FLO it will cost 338£ and that's not far from the 379£ that the 150pds with an eq3-2 mount cost. But that's stretching my budget and that's only the cost of the telescope, not including the other things i need such as a collimating eyepiece.

Which telescope should I get? It doesn't have to be one of the telescopes I have mentioned.

What's the difference between the explorer 130p and the 130pds?

Thanks in advance!

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Red Dwarfer

Red Dwarfer

Posted
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I seen the Cygnus loop and Packman nebula very brightly in my 130P last night , sprung to life with an OIII filter . Highly recommend these scopes or 150 / 200P Dobsonian ... then an ED refractor on a good mount for astrophotography ☺

 

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Ricochet

Ricochet

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I don't think an eq3 mount is suitable for astrophotography or visual use with a reflector. Better to get an az4/5 for visual while you save up for an eq mount that is suitable. 

However, the price of an az4/5 is almost the cost of a 6" dob, that you could keep using after the 130pds has been pushed in to photographic service. 

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LukeSkywatcher

LukeSkywatcher

Posted
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6 minutes ago, Ricochet said:

I don't think an eq3 mount is suitable for astrophotography or visual use with a reflector. Better to get an az4/5 for visual while you save up for an eq mount that is suitable. 

However, the price of an az4/5 is almost the cost of a 6" dob, that you could keep using after the 130pds has been pushed in to photographic service. 

I recently bought AZ5 (tripod and mount). Love it to bits. You are right though............for the same price you can buy a Dob.

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Guest

Guest

Posted
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6 minutes ago, Ricochet said:

I don't think an eq3 mount is suitable for astrophotography or visual use with a reflector. Better to get an az4/5 for visual while you save up for an eq mount that is suitable. 

However, the price of an az4/5 is almost the cost of a 6" dob, that you could keep using after the 130pds has been pushed in to photographic service. 

I didn't think that the eq3-2 was suitable for astrophotography, I was planning to use it until I could afford something like a eq5. But you don't think it will be suitable for visual use either? Both the 130 and the 130p comes with an eq3-2 mount. An az5 on FLO is 199£, which I think seems a lot for the mount if I'm planning to replace it.

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happy-kat

happy-kat

Posted
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Hi

A 130p does not reach focus with a camera, unless you move the mirror or add a barlow. The 130p-ds will reach focus with a camera and has a better focuser. However many DSO are huge and can be imaged with a camera lens.

What you do need really to image DSO (not planets as you use short video for that) is a tracking mount and really EQ is better but no less than an eq3-2 but again there will be challenges there as it is not a load carrying mount or designed to be hugely actuate in it's tracking but members are using it well and maximising what they can achieve. There is a thread dedicated to using that mount.

The better the mount the higher keep rate from the images taken. It takes just a breath to lose an image taken to any number of reasons and the better the mount the ever increasing keep rate.

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happy-kat

happy-kat

Posted
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When used on an eq mount for visual observing the eyepiece revolves as the reflector is moved sometimes meaning either ending up in user contorting position or you have to carefully slaken off and rotate the tube to better position the eyepiece and carry on observing. A reflector on an altaz mount doesn't rotate. There are people who like using eq mounts to observe and the are those who don't just something to be aware of.

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Ricochet

Ricochet

Posted
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18 minutes ago, Nerarith said:

But you don't think it will be suitable for visual use either?

No. As an eq mount tracks it rotates the telescope. For a reflector with the eyepiece sticking out of the side this means there is a large movement in focuser position. The result is that each time you move from one object to the next you will have to stop to rotate the telescope in the rings so that the focuser is in a useable position which soon becomes tedious. Lots of us started with such a scope and when it was time to upgrade switched to a dob. 

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happy-kat

happy-kat

Posted
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Altaz mounts move in left right up down directions.

Eq mounts track the earth's rotation.

The former can be used for imaging but exposure length is limited by the effect of rotation which soon blurs the image. 

However as generally video is used for planets they can be imaged even using a static mount.

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happy-kat

happy-kat

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As an idea what about the 130p-ds and make a diy dobsonian mount and then look out for a second hand eq with goto and motors.

Last thought, the eq2 can have a motor but you'll need to make something to help get good polar alignment or learn to drift align. Plus except shorter exposure length and taking loads and stacking them. I might be wrong but I think the 130pl (long tube) reaches focus with a dslr. It's about trying to spend wisely and not wanting something else too quickly as that might waste money.

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cuivenion

cuivenion

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You could skip the telescope to start with and just start out with camera lenses if you already have them. I would forget about imaging planets for now because from your latitude it's going to be hard to observe or image them at the moment, and your camera isn't well suited to it.

If you have camera lenses and a decent photo tripod already you could go for this:

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/skywatcher-star-adventurer/skywatcher-star-adventurer-astronomy-bundle.html

And maybe observe with this:

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/startravel/skywatcher-startravel-80-ota.html

That's brand new of course. You could maybe find a small dob second hand for observing in the £100 bracket so maybe go with that instead of the scope.

That ST80 scope will sit on the star adventurer quite nicely, and you could even try imaging with it if you want. Of course if you don't have tripod you will have to purchase that so that will take you up to budget.

If you go with the ST80 scope in the link above you won't have to collimate it and using it on the EQ star adventurer mount will be easier, but you will have less aperture.

 

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Alien 13

Alien 13

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I think that the EQ3-2 is perfectly fine for AP provided you keep the scope/camera lens focal length down below 400mm or so, you can mount a newt on it for planetary/lunar imaging too.

I am not a fan of dobs as its almost impossible to get the eyepiece in a comfortable position unlike an EQ mount, back breaking at times unless you sit down but who wants that....

Alan

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  • 3 weeks later...
Guest

Guest

Posted
Posted

Hello everyone!

I have been reading and thinking about your suggestions and much else.

1. Wouldn't rotating rings solve the problems with an equatorial mount and a reflector (for example http://www.andysshotglass.com/wilcox_rotating_rings.html) ?

2. If an eq3-2 isn't enough for astrophotography, I could stretch to an eq5 (https://www.firstlightoptics.com/skywatcher-mounts/skywatcher-eq5-deluxe.html). Will that be good enough for a 130p-ds?

But if I buy both the 130p-ds and an eq5, I'm far away from my original plans just to be able to do astrophotography. An alternative is to purely visual to begin with, with something for maybe 200£ and than buy a new later. One problem is that I might not have the space for two telescopes.

3. Is a motor enough for astrophotography or do you need goto?

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