upgrade from ed80 to ?

[iwols]

hi all just wondered what i would be looking at cost wise to get a reasonable upgrade from my ed80 for astrophotograhy both in terms of speed and image quality ,any comments appreciated

[MARS1960]

7 minutes ago, iwols said:

hi all just wondered what i would be looking at cost wise to get a reasonable upgrade from my ed80 for astrophotograhy both in terms of speed and image quality ,any comments appreciated

I can't really answer your question but, here's what i did.

Sold my ED80, bought the ED120, sold that at a loss and bought the Explore Scientific 127, sold that at a loss, bought the equinox ED80, sold that at a loss, bought a primaluce quad, sent it back.

Guess what i have now? ?. 

[iwols]

ed80????

[geordie85]

13 minutes ago, iwols said:

hi all just wondered what i would be looking at cost wise to get a reasonable upgrade from my ed80 for astrophotograhy both in terms of speed and image quality ,any comments appreciated

That all depends on which direction you want to go and what your budget is. 

I hear very good things about the esprit range and they're triplets. 

Maybe a newt? The 130pds is a very capable scope and has a great long running thread on here. 

[vlaiv]

Could you specify what you are looking for as an upgrade over ED80?

Do you want go higher resolution? Do you have issues with sharpness due to ED80 being doublet? Do you want to keep your current resolution and just go for speed (less imaging time)?

What sort of budget are we talking about for an upgrade?

[iwols]

Just now, geordie85 said:

That all depends on which direction you want to go and what your budget is. 

I hear very good things about the esprit range and they're triplets. 

Maybe a newt? The 130pds is a very capable scope and has a great long running thread on here. 

deep sky,neb ,

[iwols]

keep my atik 414ex filter wheels,reduce imaging time ,increase quality? 1500 ish

[geordie85]

If it was my money I'd be buying either the esprit 80 or 100 depending what kind of FOV your looking for. 

There is an flt98 with feathertouch focuser and Flattener on ens optical for £2000. I think it's a little over priced but I got my flt98 carbon fibre scope with moon lite focuser but no Flattener from there and I absolutely love it. And it only cost me £1100

[vlaiv]

Well if deep sky is target, and nebulae are prime candidates you want larger FOV over resolution. This means going shorter focal length - somewhere around 400mm - 450mm

If you want "hassle free" operation, then it has to be refractor. Reflectors would need to go really fast and they are going to be very demanding on collimation / spacing / etc.

Probably fastest you can go with refractor is something like F/4 and that gives you aperture "operating" range of 100-110. Look for 4" scopes (faster ones) and reserve some funds x0.75 Riccardi FF/FR - that will turn F/6 scope into F/4.5 scope and correct field in the process - probably one of better FF/FRs out there if not the best (general purpose FF/FRs anyway).

Other option is to go with reflectors - this will be cheaper and faster - but be prepared to spend some time getting it to work properly. Go for either 6" F/5 for example (150PDS) or mentioned 130PDS and ASA coma corrector x.073 https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p4685_ASA-2-inch-Newton-Coma-Corrector-and-0-73x-Reducer-for-Astrophotography.html

It has corrected field less than 20mm but you have smaller sensor (11mm) so you should get excellent correction for it. 130PDS with this CC will have 475mm FL/

 

[MARS1960]

14 minutes ago, iwols said:

keep my atik 414ex filter wheels,reduce imaging time ,increase quality? 1500 ish

Oh i forgot one, 250pds, never even got it on the mount lol.

Have you thought about another ed80 and atik etc for a dual rig setup?

[Wiu-Wiu]

Are you factoring in to buy a new mount in time? A bigger scope is tempting, but the mount is key.

You have an edgeHD scope, I think trying OAG might get you into a new range of objects with the equipment you already have. 

Or you could trade it up to a 120-127 mm scope, they are great! Nice fov and good results on lots of nebulae and deep-sky, but I think your C8 will bring you 'closer'. 

Anything bigger will make you reconsider your mount.

 

 

[alacant]

51 minutes ago, iwols said:

speed and image quality

Hi. I gave up on my (my example had a hopeless focuser fat blue halo stars) 80ed for one of these and couldn't now go back. Not sure whether it would go with your camera, but if you want speed and image quality, then this has it:) HTH.

[ollypenrice]

To be honest I don't think changing your scope alone will make a huge difference. You have a system in which all the components are well matched. If you upgrade the scope to a faster refractor you'll also end up paying heavily for a larger corrected circle which your camera won't exploit. You'll then want a bigger chip camera which will have smaller pixels working at a higher resolution, which means you'll want a more accurate mount...

Olly

[vlaiv]

5 minutes ago, ollypenrice said:

To be honest I don't think changing your scope alone will make a huge difference. You have a system in which all the components are well matched. If you upgrade the scope to a faster refractor you'll also end up paying heavily for a larger corrected circle which your camera won't exploit. You'll then want a bigger chip camera which will have smaller pixels working at a higher resolution, which means you'll want a more accurate mount...

Olly

I would say that sensor size is not suited of larger nebula due to FOV constraints.

Changing just OTA (and suitable corrective optics) will make quite a bit of difference but will also change "intended targets". Heq5 will certainly support resolutions in range of 1.8-2.0"/pixel (even stock if just tuned by hand can get guiding at 0.8-1.0" RMS). 8" (F/4 or F/5) Newtonian with ASA CC and this camera will be in that resolution range - 1.8" - 2.0"/pixel. Heq5 can carry 8" short tube instrument.

Only problem with above setup will be in terms of FOV as sensor is only 11mm - ~45' x  35' can capture only smaller nebulae - more suited for work on galaxies and planetary nebulae (although for PNe there is lack of resolution at 2"/pixel)

[iwols]

any thoughts on this one  Skywatcher Esprit 100 ED f/5.5 Super Apo Triplet Refractor 

[vlaiv]

I don't have first hand experience, but I've heard that it is a cracking little scope for imaging. Here are some thoughts about it, based on your current kit.

- You can use it native, at 11mm sensor I doubt that you will have issues with field curvature

- Using it at native will give you resolution of 2.42"/pixel - good resolution for wide field work

- In comparison to ED80 it will provide you with tighter stars, a bit bigger FOV that ED80 native, and bit smaller FOV compared to ED80 + x0.85 dedicated FF/FR. It will of course offer ~56% increase in light gathering (cutting down total exposure for about 33% to get same SNR if you keep your working resolution).

- If you want to go wider FOV and lower your resolution go with above mentioned Riccardi FF/FR - it pairs very well with that scope, according to this link: http://photonenfangen.de/instruments/skywatcher-esprit-100-ed/

Quote: " It offers f/5.5 with the original flattener (threaded) and f/4.1 with the Riccardi (also threaded). After the first 9 months I have the feeling that the picture quality with the Riccardi is even better than with the original reducer. So I run this scope almost always with f/4.1 thus it gives a wide view angle with my KAF-8300. "

You can also see mounting of Riccardi FF/FR to Esprit 100 if you choose to get one yourself (there is mounting diagram down on page).

 

[Jbro1985]

10 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

will make a huge difference. You have a system in which all the components are well matched. If you upgrade the scope to a faster refractor you'll also end up paying heavily for a larger corrected circle which your camera won't exploit. You'll then want a bigger chip camera which will have smaller pixels working at a higher resolution, which means you'll want a more accurate mount...

^^^ this ^^^ and it's a journey we all go through.

[Adam J]

12 hours ago, iwols said:

hi all just wondered what i would be looking at cost wise to get a reasonable upgrade from my ed80 for astrophotograhy both in terms of speed and image quality ,any comments appreciated

I would go with a 102mm F7 triplet.  If you use a 0.8x flattner it will leave you with a usable field of view and pixel scale with your camera at F5.5.

Without the reducer you can go hunting for galaxies at F7 and decent pixel scale.

 

[Wiu-Wiu]

I had almost the same problem about 2 years ago. I wanted to image deepsky, and the occasional comet. 

I had a C8 - that was too much of a hassle to start imaging with / and I started with an Esprit 80 ED. That worked great but as you will know, it gives you a rather large FOV. 

The C8 was retired and I started looking for an upgrade for the 80ED. 

A 100 ED was within budget, but the step up from 80mm was TOO SMALL.  I think I would have been disappointed and on the lookout for a bigger one very soon. 

An Esprit 120 was out of budget. 

I eventually found a 127mm Maxvision ED and that did prove to be the better choice. It still is my main scope for imaging, although I am not saying no to an affordable Esprit 150 if that would come along  

[ollypenrice]

The OP expressed a desire to improve the quality and speed of the rig rather than to change its potential targets. I took this to mean staying at a similar focal length.

Olly

[RayD]

8 hours ago, iwols said:

any thoughts on this one  Skywatcher Esprit 100 ED f/5.5 Super Apo Triplet Refractor 

Excellent, and you won't see too many bad works written about them.  Great value for money.

I love mine.

[gazza]

8 hours ago, iwols said:

any thoughts on this one  Skywatcher Esprit 100 ED f/5.5 Super Apo Triplet Refractor 

I have one, best scope I've ever owned, as good as a TSA120 I owned previously. Flattener works well over the full size of my ASI071 MC Pro.

Can get close to F4 with a Riccardi reducer - see:

http://photonenfangen.de/instruments/skywatcher-esprit-100-ed/

Has some nice images there...

Gary

 

[iwols]

thanks guys for the great advice 

[jjosefsen]

Hi,

I am also looking at a new scope, as i suspect my little SW ed80 isn't that optically great.
I have decided that i am probably done with SW scopes, the QA is just too lackluster and you never really know what you get. Maybe the esprit line is different, i dont know..

Been looking at this: https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p5881_TS-Optics-6--f-4-UNC-Newtonian-Telescope---Carbon-Tube---made-in-Germany.html

Edit: I might make an exception for the SW 130pds since it is so cheap, and it can be collimated..