Lunar/Planetary Imaging - What scope

[wornish]

For astro imaging Lunar close-ups and Planets what's the difference in using a

Sky-Watcher Skymax 180 Pro - Maksutov  FL 2700mm  for £805

And

Celestron Edge HD 8" - SCT. FL 2125mm. For £1275

And

iOptron Photon RC8 Ritchey-Chretien FL 1624mm. For £899.

I understand that for deep sky imaging using long exposures guiding becomes a major factor but for Lunar/ Planetary its less critical isn't it?

I am open to other suggestions.

[johninderby]

The Edge HD is a better all round scope than the Skymax 180 whereas the 180 is a planetary specialist.

Used to have a Skymax 180 but upgraded to an 8” Classical Cassegrian which is also a lunar / planetary specialist scope but a much better one that will take higher magnification and not having a corrector in front dewing up hasn’t been a problem and cools down faster. Could have bought an RC for less but the Classical,Cassegrain is much easier to collimate and a great visual scope as well. 

I have upgraded the focuser and added tube rings.

https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p10753_TS-Optics-8--f-12-Cassegrain-telescope-203-2436-mm-OTA.html

Edited April 26, 2020 by johninderby

[CraigT82]

17 minutes ago, johninderby said:

The Edge HD is a better all round scope than the Skymax 180 whereas the 180 is a planetary specialist.

Used to have a Skymax 180 but upgraded to an 8” Classical Cassegrian which is also a lunar / planetary specialist scope but a much better one that will take higher magnification and not having a corrector in front dewing up hasn’t been a problem and cools down faster. Could have bought an RC for less but the Classical,Cassegrain is much easier to collimate and a great visual scope as well. 

I have upgraded the focuser and added tube rings.

https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p10753_TS-Optics-8--f-12-Cassegrain-telescope-203-2436-mm-OTA.html

That cassegrain looks the business!! Have you had much chance to get any lunar/planetary imaging done with it? I'm very interested to see how it performs as I could see some of these in my not too distant future. 

46 minutes ago, wornish said:

For astro imaging Lunar close-ups and Planets what's the difference in using a

For imaging I'd probably go with the C8 edge HD out of those three. Mostly because I think it's the easiest to collimate and you've got a bit of an aperture advantage over the skymax. You've also got the tube vents in the edge HD and aftermarket fans are available, though probably not essential. The RC is open tube so that's good for thermal management but they are tricky to collimate. 

To be honest all things being equal there won't be a huge difference in the images produced by those three scopes, but I think the C8 would be easiest to live with. 

 

 

[johninderby]

Think the choice is between the Edge HD and the Classical Cassegrain. Edge HD if you are going to image more than lunar / planetary and CC if you are going to specialise. The CC has a fixed primary and a tefractor type focuser so that has advantages in imaging. 

Hard to go wrong with either though. 🙂

[CraigT82]

7 minutes ago, johninderby said:

Think the choice is between the Edge HD and the Classical Cassegrain. Edge HD if you are going to image more than lunar / planetary and CC if you are going to specialise. The CC has a fixed primary and a tefractor type focuser so that has advantages in imaging. 

Hard to go wrong with either though. 🙂

Millions of images on here and astrobin from the C8 to vouch for its capabilities, but not so much with the classical cassegrain. Have you done any imaging with yours? Keen to see how it performs for hi res imaging. 

[johninderby]

Have owned a couple of C8s so familiar with how they perform on the moon.  Have found the CC will take very high mag visually on the moon without the image breaking down. 600x when seeing is good. Really sharp and contrasty. 👍🏻

Now have a ZWO290 mono camera so looking forward to seeing what results I can get. 40” 4K TV as monitor will help I think. 😁

 

Edited April 26, 2020 by johninderby