Astrophotography using a CPC 1100..??

[elessar]

So although i'm not new to astronomy, I am very new to astrophotography... I've had my CPC 1100 for 12 years now, But now want to image the planets, Clusters, nebula etc... Should i do a trade in for a solid German Equatorial type mount & scope; or can i make this Alt/AZ CPC functional with a Wedge, fine tuner, & focal reducer..?? 

All comments welcome.. 🙂 

[Davey-T]

Hi and welcome to SGL, it's fine for planets with a suitable camera, when they stop hiding at low altitudes, and brighter DSOs at high frame rates.

A wedge introduces problems of its own but can be sorted, I use my Meade 10" SCT ok on a wedge but best if it's permanently mounted.

Launching into full blown astro' photography from scratch can quickly eat up money,

Dave

[elessar]

Thanks for your response! Reading other reviews, it may be best keeping this scope as is, & invest in a portable Equalorial mound designed for Astrophotography, which I can use with my DSLR, & later invest in a scope for that?

looking at the EQ mounts/tripods any sugestions? Up to £1600? Cheers...

[kirkster501]

On 18/10/2019 at 17:05, elessar said:

Thanks for your response! Reading other reviews, it may be best keeping this scope as is, & invest in a portable Equalorial mound designed for Astrophotography, which I can use with my DSLR, & later invest in a scope for that?

looking at the EQ mounts/tripods any sugestions? Up to £1600? Cheers...

Just like there is no perfect car that can do everything, i.e. family, pick up truck, roadster etc, telescopes can't either.  Which is why many astronomers have two or three (or more) for different purposes.

For planets and lunar the CPC1100 is a great scope.  But deep sky AP with a CPC1100 is extremely tricky and having owned one, I speak with experience with them.  The long focal length makes it difficult to guide and so smearing of your images occurs.  So you start getting into focal reducers and all that faff and it quickly becomes more trouble than it is worth to a beginner.   Also the image scale is very small, ruling out many deep sky objects, many of the famous ones of which are large.

Look for an HEQ5 and ED80 scope.  A tried and tested combination that can yield superb results.

Edited October 21, 2019 by kirkster501

[Cosmic Geoff]

I have A CPC800 and find it is excellent for planetary astrophotography - solid as a rock, tracks well, etc. In fact I bought it mainly for this purpose.  As others say, I suspect that putting a CPC1100 on a wedge (etc) could be more trouble than it's worth.

You could put it on an equatorial mount, but this would have to be massive (and non-portable).  Better to start with the small-aperture ED scope as suggested above.  In astrophotography, aperture isn't king. 

[dazza1639]

I had a Celestron Nexstar 8 GPS, which was the forerunner of the CPC. I started my Astrophotography journey with this scope, starting with Planets using a webcam, then using a DSLR with short exposures so that I didn’t run into field rotation. I then purchased an Orbit Wedge. This was expensive but rock solid and allowed for precise polar alignment which let me push the exposures. Adding a guide scope and Skywatcher Synguider allowed me to get longer exposures which were limited only by my awful sky conditions (Bortle Class 8). 

I have since deformed the Nexstar and mounted it on an EQ8, but I have never regretted the Orbit Wedge, I just out grew it when I built the Observatory. I still have the orbit wedge and would be willing to sell it, I think it was £750 new but would be open to offers around the £200 to £250 mark, it also has the polar scope and bracket that was an option

 

Darren