Skywatcher 200P, or 150P-DS

[Louis D]

On 20/04/2020 at 15:09, belfieldi said:

The best thing to buy first, is a copy of 'Making Every Photon Count' https://www.firstlightoptics.com/books/making-every-photon-count-steve-richards.html. It will give you a fighting chance of identifying the right kit for you.

I was wondering why the following books are never recommended on SGL for beginners:

The Deep-sky Imaging Primer [by Bracken]

Getting Started: Long Exposure Astrophotography [by Hall]

Beginner's Guide to DSLR Astrophotography [by Lodriguss]

The Astrophotography Manual: A Practical and Scientific Approach to Deep Space Imaging [by Woodhouse]

Is it because Making Every Photon Count is just that much better or the ones I listed are just much too advanced for beginners?

[iapa]

On 20/04/2020 at 23:07, Rich Shore said:

Thank you for your knowledge, very helpful.

I have decided that my budget is currently not high enough, as you say another 10% would be a good start.

The two original scopes I was looking into was the 200P, or the 150P-DS as a result to a similar price range with the EQ5 pro as a bundle on FLO.

However as you say, after some more digging on Skywatchers website, the P-DS models would far better suit my needs, or even the quattro if I can gather the funds.

Coma corrector is something I'm also looking into.

 

I have the 200P-DS which I collimated a couple of years ago, and when I checked at the start of this year it was still fairly good.

The Quattro, being f4 really does need accurate collimation, and I found that I needed to redo every 3-4  months. Being the carbon fibre version it's lighter than the steel one.

For both I was tearing down and storing after every session.

The 150p-DS has had a lot of good reports in various forum here, including comments about collimation staying in place a quire some time.

 

[iapa]

On 22/04/2020 at 20:32, Louis D said:

I was wondering why the following books are never recommended on SGL for beginners:

The Deep-sky Imaging Primer [by Bracken]

Getting Started: Long Exposure Astrophotography [by Hall]

Beginner's Guide to DSLR Astrophotography [by Lodriguss]

The Astrophotography Manual: A Practical and Scientific Approach to Deep Space Imaging [by Woodhouse]

Is it because Making Every Photon Count is just that much better or the ones I listed are just much too advanced for beginners?

Steve Richards is also one of "ours", a long well standing member of the site.

[fiestazetecmk2]

If your wanting pictures then the 200p is not what you need .

[buzz]

On 22/04/2020 at 20:32, Louis D said:

I was wondering why the following books are never recommended on SGL for beginners:

The Deep-sky Imaging Primer [by Bracken]

Getting Started: Long Exposure Astrophotography [by Hall]

Beginner's Guide to DSLR Astrophotography [by Lodriguss]

The Astrophotography Manual: A Practical and Scientific Approach to Deep Space Imaging [by Woodhouse]

Is it because Making Every Photon Count is just that much better or the ones I listed are just much too advanced for beginners?

My book, The Astrophotography Manual, is intentionally not a beginner's book. It is aimed at existing practitioners who want to progress. Astro books go out of date very quickly and some of these are already showing their age. I have just published a new book, aimed at beginners, called "Capturing the Universe" which is bang up to date.

[Louis D]

1 hour ago, buzz said:

My book, The Astrophotography Manual, is intentionally not a beginner's book. It is aimed at existing practitioners who want to progress. Astro books go out of date very quickly and some of these are already showing their age. I have just published a new book, aimed at beginners, called "Capturing the Universe" which is bang up to date.

Sounds good.  Are the rest of the books on that list also aimed at more advanced photographers and are not usually recommended on here for that reason?

I know what you mean about books going out of date.  I have Michael Covington's Astrophotography for the Amateur from the late 90s.  It focuses on film photography since digital photography was in its infancy when published.

[buzz]

The major problem lies with how one defines 'beginner'.  Some want to do astrophotography with their iPhone. Remarkable as it is and while some will get some images, it is not the right tool for the job. Some starters will want a full explanation of how to use a photo-editing suite like Photoshop. That is a book in itself.

The subject depth is an issue with some books that cover a broad church. When you delve, however, there is precious little insight in any of the tricky subjects like guiding, autofocusing and image processing. Publishers restrict page count and it is a tricky decision on what to leave in and what to take out.

I'm one of the few authors who includes a bibliography and acknowledges the work of others. In the list above, Charles' stands out.