New scope advice

[ShaunyC]

Hey recently picked up this hobby again by buying a wide angle lens for my phone..

Now am itching for a scope aha.. found one close by I thinks ok but after I jumped in double footy coupe of year ago and wasted money on a james bird style scope..  I thought I'd come ask you good folk 1st..

It's a sky watcher 150p equipment 3-2 mount about 18 months old... He wants £135 for it.... 

What's your opinions? 

Thanx

[ShaunyC]

I would like to use it for astrophotography eventually, is it easy enough to make it motorized?

[Cornelius Varley]

That's less than half the price of a new 150P/EQ3-2.

[Pig]

The focusser / eyepiece arrangement looks a little on the busy side ? 

[ShaunyC]

Yea I thought it was but cheap.. scower Google it seems motors can be added for another 80 quid.. but it's doesn't focus camera too well or something?? 

People recommending the 150PDS

But the price is very tempting anyway...

Would be interesting to hear some experience of this scope..

[Cosmic Geoff]

It's a Newtonian on a manual equatorial mount.  They're a bit of a pain to set up and use as you generally have to carry three components - mount, counterweight and OTA outside, assemble it and align it relative to the Pole, and the eyepiece gets into some odd positions.

If your budget is not much more than £135 you could do worse than buy this, as it ought to work and 150mm is a decent aperture. 

You could spend more than this on an eyepiece or a finderscope.?

Adapting it for photography could be tricky, and anyway for astrophotography a different (but more expensive) setup might serve better.

[ShaunyC]

I had a bit of practice setting up eq mount ith my 1st bummer buy celestron powerseaker had a built in Barlow or something.. got but disheartened with it not for the view but the thought I could of spent the money on something better..

Which is why I thought I'd get the heads up before I shell out on this one..

I have some bits purchased after I got that scope trying to improve it.. astro eyepices set, colimantor, red dot finder..

So crux is..  as good deal as i think this scope is and albeit will be better than the last one... effectively would just be another waste of money when I come to AP.. 

What budget scope would be more suited to AP??? Don't think I want a GoTo as i imagine it takes the fun out of searching the sky...

A link to something on here for me to read would be good... I've tried to search but get abit overwhelmed 

[Cosmic Geoff]

1 minute ago, ShaunyC said:

What budget scope would be more suited to AP??? Don't think I want a GoTo as i imagine it takes the fun out of searching the sky...

AP and 'budget' don't belong in the same sentence, alas.  Also note that the serious AP mounts generally incorporate GoTo.

For a budget AP setup maybe you could buy that EQ3-2 mount (and its free scope) get the motor kit, and put a camera on the mount for Milky Way panoramas. You might manage some planet images with the EQ3-2 and telescope.

But first you should get that book 'Make Every Photon Count' that the imagers all recommend.

[ShaunyC]

Thanks for the book recommendation I will try pick it up from somewhere I heard left at Orion is another good book?

I'll drop looking for scope for now and play about with my wide angle an phone for abit.. 

And will have a good research on what's a half decent scope for AP

Thanks for all the coments ?