Help choosing a telescope!

[Spock17012000]

I currently own a Celestron Inspire 80az, refractor. It has a 80mm lens.  A focal length of 900mm (f/11).  I am looking to upgrade to something better and am a little confused which telescope would be an upgrade.  I am looking at a Skywatcher Explorer 130mmP f/650 Newton Telescope.  Or possibly a Celestron AstroFi 102 mm Maksutov-Cassegrain Telescope.  Focal length 1325mm, f/13.  Would either of these be an improvement over my current instrument and which would you recommend? 

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[banjaxed]

Hi and welcome to the forum. It would help if you could give an idea of your budget as there are a lot of choices.

[Carbon Brush]

Hello and welcome to SGL.

Yes the scopes mentioned would be an improvement. But which is better? Or something else?

The simple answer is more questions...Sorry.

Do you view from home? Or travel to a dark site?
Do you have an easy path to the garden (if at home) or need to negotiate stairs, etc.
Is quick setup and rapid cool down important?
Is goto important? Or are you happy to spend on optics and mount, rather than electronics?
Are you happy with bright-ish objects, planets, etc? Do you want to tease out the 'faint fuzzies'?
What sort of budget do you have?
Must it be new, or would you consider used?

With a better idea of your viewing habits (you know what I mean) there will be lots of incoming suggestions.

David.

[Spock17012000]

I live in a ground floor flat and walk across to the beach for viewing.  Mu current mount is a alt/az mount.  The Skywatcher has an EQ2 mount while the Celsetron Astro-Fi has a go-to mount.  I'm not fussed which mount I use but would want an improvement over my current setup.  I like looking at the moon and planets but would like to view more deep space objects.  Budget would be up to about £400 but that's an absolute maximum.  I also want to be able to take photos of the various objects and currently use a dslr on a T adaptor for this.

[Alan64]

Have you taken images with the DSLR and the 80/900 achromat?  If so, you can certainly upgrade from that; for example...

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/astro-fi-series-telescopes/celestron-astro-fi-125mm-5-inch-schmidt-cassegrain-sct.html

But that one is over budget.  You want a telescope with a focal-length as close to 900mm as possible, but that's not per your present kit.  The 5" Schmidt has a focal-length of 1250mm, which is a bit much, but shorter than a 102mm(4") Maksutov even; for examples...

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/astro-fi-series-telescopes/celestron-astro-fi-102mm-maksutov-cassegrain.html

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/sky-watcher-az-gti-wifi/sky-watcher-skymax-102-az-gti.html

With a 130mm f/5 Newtonian, you might need a 3x and perhaps even a 5x barlow.  You would attach the camera to a barlow, for the planets and other smaller objects.  The Schmidt and Maksutov might make use of a 2x, if that, depending on the object desired.

[Carbon Brush]

Thanks for your reply.

I think the first comment is that £400 gets you into good scopes. But not for astrophotography. Sorry.

If you want to get a quick shot of the moon, then fine. But if you ae talking 30sec and more exposure times you need a good tracking mount.
It also needs to be EQ rather than alt az, or things get more complex.
An EQ2 mount will hold a scope, or camera, but not at the same time.
Packages of scope+ mount tend to use the lowest spec mount they can get away with.
The general consensus is that for half decent long exposure through a scope that you need HEQ5 mount size. OK you can get away with smaller, with care.
Wide field views are of course less taxing on the mount.

Another consideration (from experience) is that photography through a scope can mean many nights spent for little return until you accumulate the skills and equipment.
A 'go out and look' can be much more enjoyable.

For the reasons above, I think you are better off concentrating on visual, with an occasional photo either wide field (lens on DSLR) or a bright object (short exposure) through the scope.

An example of the way photo money runs away from EQ to goto is here:  https://www.firstlightoptics.com/reflectors/skywatcher-explorer-150p-ds-eq3-2-eq3-pro-goto.html
 

If you want a scope to give 'wow' views you could do a lot worse than a Skywatcher 200P dob. You can hang the DSLR on there for moon views.
https://www.firstlightoptics.com/dobsonians/skywatcher-skyliner-200p-dobsonian.html

I'm sure there will be lots more comments and opinions to follow. Not all of us agreeing with each other!

Take your time to mull them over and keep asking the questions.

David.

 

 

[happy-kat]

Personally I'd look at options to upgrade the mount and keep your telescope

I haven't heard great things on the Celestron astro-fi controlling application so I'd lean towards the skywatcher wifi variant. The recent comment I've seen suggest it might work better if you're an Apple user rather than Android, you might want to do some searching on that.

 

Edited December 26, 2019 by happy-kat

[Spock17012000]

To be honest most of the photos I intend to take will be of the moon and planets.  I get far more enjoyment looking at the stars than trying to photograph them.  The one I am looking at is this one specifically,

https://www.wexphotovideo.com/sky-watcher-explorer-130p-eq2-parabolic-newtonian-reflector-telescope-1524209/

I haven't tried taking a wide angle shot yet, as I need a camera tripod.  I do have a barlow lens with a 3x magnification and managed to get a reasonable shot of Jupiter with 4 of it's moons.  I suppose the real question is would the one in the link above be better than the one I have.  Or would I be better saving up a bit more money for something even better?

 

[Stu]

I would avoid the cheap EQ mounts like EQ1 and 2, they will just frustrate you and will not be very stable.

I'm inclined to suggest a Mak of some sort if the Moon or Planets are key targets. For just a little over your budget you could get a 127mm Mak on an AZ5 mount, or even an AZGTi mount which would track targets and make taking images much easier.

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/sky-watcher-az5-deluxe/sky-watcher-skymax-127-az5-deluxe.html

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/sky-watcher-az-gti-wifi/sky-watcher-skymax-127-az-gti.html

Or perhaps for the benefit of the shorter focal length/ wider field of view, this:

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

On this

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/alt-azimuth/sky-watcher-az5-deluxe-alt-azimuth-mount.html

Or this?

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