Looking for equipment advice: Astrophotography

[Ocelot]

Hello, I'm after some advice for my dads equipment & possible next purchases. I know a little about the subject and would like to get involved more with him and help him out.

Currently, he owns:

EQ5 PRO

Skywatcher ST80

Skywatcher 200P

Skywatcher 9x50 straight finder with ZWO 120mm mini (autoguiding)

Nikon D5500

Laptop with APT & PHD2

He's great at setting the scopes up (collimating, polar aligning etc.) He has dabbled in astrophotography with the above, but finds with the 200P, autoguiding & DSLR, the mount struggles with the weight. He struggles focusing with both scopes. He's quite happy going after the "easy" DSOs (big & bright) for now, until he gets better!

My solution would be to purchase a small apochromatic refractor (with appropriate flattener), with a good dual speed focuser, which hopefully the EQ5 can deal with. A future option would be to upgrade this mount, but preferably after he has the hang of focusing/autoguiding/APT and hopefully some evidence in the form of pictures!

Would the EQ5 PRO handle something like a Skywatcher Evostar 80ED or William Optics Zenithstar 61? Or any scope around the f/6 mark... with the above autoguiding & Nikon? I suppose the lighter the scope, the better chance we have with the EQ5?

Hopefully a quality focuser (unlike the one on both the current scopes) would make a big difference helping him focus, but I'd like to try purchase/3D print a bahtinov mask to help further. I think he has his hands full with APT/PHD2 without adding extra software aids for now that would achieve autofocusing! Again perhaps something for the future. Note: I will end up taking the raw exposures and running them through the stacking and editing stage for now.

Can PHD2 quantify how good our scope is tracking and is that a good way of judging if the EQ5 with loaded equipment & setup? Is there any way we can do some maintenance on the EQ5 pro? Take apart, clean, grease, tighten etc.

Could you let me know your thoughts and advice, I'm open to all suggestions (even sticking with the ST80!!)... I think the essence of this post is: What is the minimum investment we can make to survive with the EQ5 PRO for another few years?

Thanks,

Ocelot

[PeterCPC]

IMO the Evostar ED80 should be fine. I always use a Bahtinov to achieve focus.

Peter

[scitmon]

FLO says the EQ5 Pro is rated at 6.5kg for imaging.  The 80ED is 4kgs on its own, together with the guidescope and camera you would probably be getting towards that limit, but I'd say it would probably work.  PHD2 will give you an indication of the amount of corrections needed to keep your guidestar in the same spot.  The reason behind the drift could be the mount's tracking, or it could be down to the precision of your polar alignment.

The Bahtinov mask is a must, to get good images, good focus is essential.  

I would say get both a small refractor and upgrade the mount, but which you do first is down to you!

[Merlin66]

.

 

Edited May 14, 2020 by Merlin66
wrong info

[scitmon]

3 hours ago, Merlin66 said:

I use various ED80's on my HEQ5pro for imaging.

It can handle them very well....no issues.

 

The OPer has a EQ5 Pro, not a HEQ5 Pro, unless  you were recommending that as an upgrade?

Edited May 14, 2020 by scitmon

[Ocelot]

Hi all, thanks for the responses so far.

Yes unfortunately we're stuck with the EQ5 PRO not the HEQ5! It's certainly an option for the future, but I feel with the EQ5 PRO and a lightweight refractor, we might be able to buy some time before getting the mount upgrade.

Looking good for the ED80!

[Merlin66]

My bad... I've edited my post.

 

[happy-kat]

If you ever think you might want a mobile telescope for viewing and imaging (different mount) what about the ED72, perhaps it is lighter still

[happy-kat]

There is the camera lens the f2 samgung 135mm, there's a thread on just that lens with images.