What telescope?

[OXO]

Or semi Spade?

[GordonCopestake]

I want something a little bigger than the ED80 but want to get my research right before I empty the coffers

[GazOC]

Or semi Spade?

lol!

[Greg]

Mine performs very well, I've had it up to 240x on Saturn with virtually no colour but if someone is looking at buying one then you got to call a spade a spade.

Yip.....

At the end of the day, it doesn't matter what the scopes are labelled as as long as you're happy with what you can see with the thing.

ED80 Semi fork!!

[GazOC]

I want something a little bigger than the ED80 but want to get my research right before I empty the coffers

They do an E100 for around £550, Russ has one and likes it. Any bigger than that I'd wait to see how those 127mm semi Meade triplets turn out.

[GazOC]

At the end of the day, it doesn't matter what the scopes are labelled as as long as you're happy with what you can see with the thing.

True, but the naming should have some basis in fact. There has been some very "fast and loose" naming conventions recently by scope manufacturers.

[OXO]

One thing about ED glass is that it has a finer extention of the secondry spectrum thus eliminates the chromatic aberration(False colour) now depending on the quality of the build of glass(ED) this is were you will notice a differance between makers..As i understand it anyway..

James

[Mancunian Lee]

Hello.

Thanks for the thoughts and advice, after much "umming and arring" ive just ordered a Skywatcher 200 and HEQ5 mount :)i was going to save until i knew what i really wanted but thought id just take the plunge and buy it now

Now im wondering what my options are regarding, astrophotography. I have a Fuji S602 digital camera which is an ok camera with lots of manual controls, i also have a decent laptop if i went down the CCD route.

I havent thought of a budget yet, i thought id see my options and stick it on the plastic!! what is going to give me best results and a great level of control? ive seen the meade deep sky imagers but they seem lo res and wont make good prints will they?

So far your advice has been greatfully recieved, so thanks

[Jamie]

Hi Lee don't worry about imaging mate cos you have got a good scope

for doing all sorts of imaging---- planetary/deep sky.

That scope will do it all.

[Mancunian Lee]

I dont mean another scope mate, i meant what's my best option with regard to taking the picture. Either one of those CCD that go on the eye piece like the deep sky imager or a camera bracket or something.

[Jamie]

Sorry mate i got a hold of the wrong end of the stick there.

One of the cheapest and best options (for planetary imaging)

would be the TouCam Pro II 840k webcam.

I am sure you could get the whole set up inc adapter for around 60 quid.

Most of the guys on here use them and have had great results with them.

BTW what a cracking avatar made me larf so much ( i saw that episode) :)

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

They meant Bobby Charlton Caz,

Captain Chaos

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

Regarding the CCD on the eyepiece hole, this is usually a webcam with the lens taken off. You then use the 'scope as a webcam lens. This makes for a really heavy duty imaging system for just a few quid.

If you use any old webcam, you can get planet and moon images easily as they are plenty bright enough. The favoured astro webcams are the Creative Labs Pro EX that I have, the famous Toucam Pro and a few others. Damien is part way through doing a serious write up of these as he gets round to testing each one. He currently has several.

If you already have a webcam, it will do to image with as above, if it's on Damien's review list, then it's best to take his advice for obvious reasons.

You will need some (free) software such as Registax and K3CCD (see links section0 and you're all set.

If you look at http://www.gas.uk.net/webcam/index.htm i have butchered a really low end webcam with results that really surprised me.

Have fun

Captain Chaos

[Mancunian Lee]

Hi thanks for the post, i have a budget that will stretch a little further than a modified webcam tbh and i think id prefer something a little more retrofit than botch job (my DIY skills are none exhistant )

Ive seen somewhere, an eye piece with built in CCD that was 16mp!! i know the 250,000 pixel meade one costs £400 so i reckon this one is gunna cost a mint

What are the other options? using a digital SLR?