esprit 80

[steviebee]

l am after some advice from you good folk. l have the EQ3-2 pro mount with the heavier duty stainless tripod from the EQ5. l was wondering if this would be man enough to take the Esprit80 triplet or would l be pushing it to it's limit.  My cameras are the Canon 1000d and ASI224MC. TIA.

 

Steve

[Padraic M]

Hi Steve,

The Esprit 80 is designed specifically for high-end astrophotography. The EQ3-2 Pro is not, so you've got a miss-match of expectations there.

If you look at weight vs mount payload, the total weight of your astro set-up is likely to be in excess of 5kgs:

I assume you'll use a guide scope of some sort, I've assumed an AA Starwave 50mm but regardless, you need to account for it. You could reduce weight quite a bit by gettingone of the ZWO Mini guidecams, they are around 50g weight so would bring the total above down to 5.6kgs.

The EQ3-2 Pro is rated for 7kgs. I know that Celestron quote 5kgs for imaging, but the generally accepted rule of thumb is to use 50% of visual payload as the target for imaging, so that's 3.5kgs.

Given that you've got the EQ5 tripod, that may improve matters. The EQ5 is rated at 9kgs for visual, so assume 4.5kgs for imaging. The truth may be somewhere in between 3.5 and 4.5. This is still too low for your setup weight of 5+kgs.

In addition, I don't know how smooth the tracking is on the EQ3-2 head, but I doubt it's up to the levels you need to get the best from your Esprit.

The pro imagers on this forum generally advise to spend money on the mount rather than scope or camera. The only reason to go for the Esprit over the ED80 at half the price is to get quality imaging, and with that mount, you won't get it. Why not upgrade your mount to a HEQ5 (minimum) or a EQ6-R first? Then either get an ED80 for a good quality set-up, or save your money for an Esprit to get an excellent quality set-up?

fwiw, I've had to pull out lots of stops with my HEQ5 (fully tuned and belt-modded) to get usable results from an Esprit 80 and the ASI1600MM Pro camera. I'll accept that mono capture and processing is an additional layer of complexity and also requires a filter wheel, but I find it quite challenging. 

 

[TerryMcK]

I agree entirely with Padraic. A mount like the HEQ5Pro (belt modded if possible) would be a great match for the Espirit 80 and would be well within its imaging load capacity.

[steviebee]

Many thanks for your replies. An HEQ5 it is then, followed by the Esprit. l may get the 80ED to tied me over if l can find one for the time being, but the mount will be first. 

 

Steve.