Help for a newbie

[Skizbear]

Last year I bought my fiancee a P900, and after several lunar photos, she has informed me she wants to get into astrophotography. She knows what DSLR she wants but the decision on the telescope has fallen to me. Have looked at the 5se and 6se from celestron, but am open to other suggestions. 

Factors to consider

Budget of $1500

Portability 

Ease of use - GPS and tracking

Desire to photograph moon, planets and possibly deeper objects. 

Thanks in advance for any help. 

[Floater]

Welcome to the forum. I cannot help with AP but I’m sure someone will be along soon ...

Have fun.

[brantuk]

Some folks do specialise in solar system objects or even single planets. And the two scopes you mention are fine  for that. However it's more common for astrophotographers to widen their remit to include the deep sky (there's a lot more stuff out there). An equatorial mount is the far better tool to cover all types of object. It enables you to track in a single plane (rather than two axes), facilitiating long exposure photography.

Then you need to choose a scope - a newtonian or a refractor of the right spec are usually chosen for deep sky objects - cassegraines have a narrow fov and long focal length - which are great for planets but not so much the deep sky. I would recommend you get her a copy of "Making Every Photon Count" by Steve Richards first - it's an easy read and covers most everything you need to know about AP. Welcome to SGL.

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/books/making-every-photon-count-steve-richards.html