Mount recommendations for Mak 90 / DLSR

[Slas]

Hi

I have a Celestron Firstscope 76 and am fed up with it (luckily I spent only ~$20 on it) (I even 3d-printed a fitting DLSR adapter but I was disappointed because of bad telescope quality , Images of the moon were pretty blurry , and it was also when looking trough the eyepiece). I have researched and firstly wanted to get a 80mm refractor but the reviews were not that good for the most telescopes of that kind. Because of the price, portability and quality I want to get a Skywatcher 90/1250mm Mak for deep sky imaging. Now if you already have anything to say against that please tell me , because that telescope firstly gets mentioned around 2011, and maybe there are newer and better options.  Anyway before I want to buy the telescope I want to check which options are there for a good mount. There are basically two options for me ,just a camera mount and on top of it something like the iOptron SkyTracker Pro. And also I found this Bresser Skytracker which seems like a good option because it allows up to 2.5 kg , and the 90mm Mak is only 1.4 kg. (DLSR is about 500 grams ? + extra buffer ) What do you guys think ?

[RT65CB-SWL]

Hi @Slas and welcome to SGL.

I use my 're-modded' Meade ETX105 on a Vixen GP... or Tele-Optic Giro DX mkll.

<--- ETX105 on GP/DX.

<--- TeleVue Ranger mounted alongside ETX105 on Giro mkll.

The image below is of Montes Apeninnus area of the Moon. It was afocal projection using the ETX105, Meade 20mm Plossl, eyepiece projection unit and an Olympus C2040 (2.1MP) digital compact camera, (optical zoom not digital zoom), from a few lightyears ago, mounted on the Giro mkll.

I have now gone DSLR and not tried astrophotography with it... yet! 

 

 

** EDIT / UPDATE ** 

I know what I wrote above does not fully answer your question, but it gives you some idea of what it would look like. The only downside with small aperture Maksutov's is the f:ratio is in double figures and that means it is a slow 'scope... the ETX105 is f:14

[vlaiv]

2 hours ago, Slas said:

Because of the price, portability and quality I want to get a Skywatcher 90/1250mm Mak for deep sky imaging

No, no, no, no - you don't want to do that to yourself.

I will be first to tell you that "slow" scopes in photographic terms are not necessarily slow scopes for DSO imaging, but you really don't want to get that as your first imaging scope. There are a lot of reasons not to go for that scope for DSO imaging. While I think it is very good scope for the money - it will simply perform poorly for DSO imaging.

That scope probably can't fully illuminate 4/3 sensor, let alone APS-C or full frame. Focuser is probably too weak to hold DSLR body with any sort of stability. You will need very precise mount to image with such focal length and guiding will be necessary. Special processing techniques will be required to get anything decent out of your imaging - like binning and such.

I do encourage you to get your self that particular scope and use it for observing things - like Moon, Planets and even brighter DSOs (depending on level of light pollution that you have). You can even try to do some imaging to see if you get anything decent out of it, but don't hold your breath.

What would be good idea is to get your self one of these:

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/skywatcher-mounts/sky-watcher-az-gti-wifi-alt-az-mount-tripod.html

With accessories that turn that mount into EQ mount (wedge + counter weight). Then you can use that mount in AZ mode for observing with said Mak90, you can do some Moon and Planets imaging with your camera and said scope, but you can also start gently into DSO photography with that mount in EQ mode and DSLR and regular lens. This will help you learn the basics of image acquisition, stacking and processing.

If you are serious about DSO astro photography, you will need to invest a bit more in your kit. You might want to skip above setup and go straight into DSO AP, but in that case, this would be sort of minimum budget wise:

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/reflectors/skywatcher-explorer-130p-ds-ota.html

Suitable coma corrector, like this one:

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/coma-correctors/skywatcher-coma-corrector.html

and decent mount, like this one:

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/skywatcher-mounts/skywatcher-eq5-pro-synscan-goto.html

but this one is going to be better (and you can look out for a second hand one):

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/skywatcher-mounts/skywatcher-heq5-pro-synscan.html

Just add up prices of those items to get the sense of what would basic DSO AP setup cost (and it is not cheap).

 

[cletrac1922]

Slas

You cannot go far wrong with a SW ED80 on a HEQ5 mount

I am running mine on a EQ5 mount

You can now also get a WiFi adapter for SW mounts, and  download the SynScan APP

Takes a lot of guess work out of setting up, as the APP configures your location, date and time from your mobile device