Newbie! Equipment Advice!

[beingtrivial]

Hi everybody

My primary interest is astrophotography though it would also be fun to explore lunar craters and other planetary details. Being from photography background and having dabbled in milky-way etc photography using DLSR over past few years, I understand a few things about fast/slow lenses, focal lengths etc. But then, being a wannabe beginner with telescope, am not very sure of how eyepiece based magnification will factor in.

Hence, I am struggling to decide on my first piece of telescope:

Needs:

GoTo (to get help with developing interest in night sky observation easily),

Motorized Equatorial Mount (for astrophotogrpahy of deep sky, lunar phases etc). Don't want to spend time in stacking pp.

So,  I have almost finalized a mount - Orion SkyView Pro Equatorial GoTo Telescope Mount

Where my confusion lies is the OTA.

The ones fitting in my budget and available at my location are of specs around: 130-150mm aperture and 600-750mm focal length. I guess that it would be good for deep space astrophotography, but will it be enough for lunar and planetary observation? If not, then what should be the aperture and focal length range I should be looking at?

Or am I hunting in entirely the wrong direction here?

 

 

 

[beingtrivial]

Will an OTA with 150mm aperture, 750mm focal length and a 6mm eyepiece be a decent combination? Obviously considering the optics of the OTA to be decent grade.

[Gfamily]

The mount seems to have a payload of about 9kg, and the usual advice is that for astrophotography you should aim for loading no more than 50% the payload, particularly for DSO imaging.

A smaller OTA may work with that mount, but I would be concerned that a 130 - 150 mm aperture scope would overload it. 

 

Edited October 23, 2020 by Gfamily

[Crackabarrel]

With a 6mm eyepiece that combination of focal length and aperture will produce good results for lunar and planetary (seeing conditions dependent)

I have been using the Skywatcher 130P (A:130mm/FL:650mm) to good effect for just that, however if you intend to move to do DSLR imaging you will need to look into the 130/150PDS, as many reflectors have issues focusing with a DSLR(not enough inward travel), the PDS versions are configured for imaging so have lower profile, more robust focusers.

If you are going down the reflector route you may want to look into a mount with a larger payload capacity.

[beingtrivial]

Okies, thanks for valuable suggestions. I have narrowed it down to this selection:

EXPLORE SCIENTIFIC EXOS-2 PMC-EIGHT WIFI GOTO MOUNT
+
GSO 6inch F/5 Imaging Newtonian Telescope by GSO

But this combination is getting a bit out of my budget.

Another option that am getting available to buy at my location and in my budget is:
BRESSER MESSIER AR-102S / 1000 Refractor with EXOS-2 GoTo Mount

Compromise on aperture from 150mm to 102mm will be quite a bit for the use-case I explained above, right? Or will this be a good first scope as well?
 

 

[beingtrivial]

Also, how about?

Orion StarSeeker IV 130mm GoTo Reflector Telescope

Seems to offer similar specs, apart from Equatorial mount, but fits very comfortably in my budget, infact leaving behind some spare cash. But then, will always need to do stacking in PP. :-s

Buying the first one is really tough, no?

[Erling G-P]

If you want to do deep sky imaging, there's no way around image stacking, no matter what telescope, mount & camera you use.

If your main interest is photography and specifically deep sky, then you really need an equatorial mount.  There are people doing this with altazimutal mounts, but it will always be a limiting factor.  For planetary & Lunar images, it should be ok.

Of the equipment mentioned above, my own experience is limited to the SW 130 PDS.  For the money especially, it's a cracking scope that can provide some very good images.  Would imagine it would be a good match for the Explore Scientific mount you mention.  Am using it on a SW HEQ5Pro myself, for which it is also a very good match.

[Tiny Clanger]

I'm only a beginner , but I've studied what kit is on offer at the more affordable end of the market, and (just as with cameras & photographic lenses) have come to the conclusion that you always have to make compromises, and you can always buy something a bit better for rather more cash ...

It might be useful to think about getting into this in stages, maybe buying a 'scope which will be a good visual astronomy tool and will be suitable to take you into astro photo later on, but (for the moment) having it on a relatively cheap mount like a simple alt az while you learn what's up there and where it is by looking . Then you can upgrade just the mount when you feel ready to move on .... and have saved some more money !

[Waldemar]

get this book, it will safe a lot of money and frustration: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/books/making-every-photon-count-steve-richards.html

 

Edited October 23, 2020 by Waldemar

[Alan64]

7 hours ago, beingtrivial said:

Okies, thanks for valuable suggestions. I have narrowed it down to this selection:

EXPLORE SCIENTIFIC EXOS-2 PMC-EIGHT WIFI GOTO MOUNT
+
GSO 6inch F/5 Imaging Newtonian Telescope by GSO

But this combination is getting a bit out of my budget.

Another option that am getting available to buy at my location and in my budget is:
BRESSER MESSIER AR-102S / 1000 Refractor with EXOS-2 GoTo Mount

Compromise on aperture from 150mm to 102mm will be quite a bit for the use-case I explained above, right? Or will this be a good first scope as well?
 

 

 

7 hours ago, beingtrivial said:

Also, how about?

Orion StarSeeker IV 130mm GoTo Reflector Telescope

Seems to offer similar specs, apart from Equatorial mount, but fits very comfortably in my budget, infact leaving behind some spare cash. But then, will always need to do stacking in PP. :-s

Buying the first one is really tough, no?

The Bresser 102/1000 refractor(achromat) would be best for visual-use; not ideal for astro-photography.

The Orion "StarSeeker IV" 130/650 Newtonian is not fully collimatable, but might do in a pinch for astro-photography.  

If you're in the U.S., you can try this OTA...

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/468744-USA/Vixen_Optics_2604_R130Sf_5_1_130mm_Reflector_Telescope.html/overview

The Vixen is collimatable, but it has a plastic 1.25" focusser, and rubber-grommets for the primary-cell.  Both can be upgraded, the cell most easily, and with metal springs.  Then, you choose the go-to mount.

However, this is the ideal 130/650; a proper, collimatable instrument...

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/reflectors/skywatcher-explorer-130p-ds-ota.html

...and configured for astro-photography, as well as for visual-use.

[happy-kat]

Hi

If you are into photography does that mean you already own a bunch of camera lenses. Many deep space objects are large and camera lenses can be used to capture them on a tracking mount without a telescope. Something like that long bresser refractor would be suitable for the Moon and planets as it has a long focal length. To a point, if there is chromatic aberration, it can be post processed to lessen it though it's long focal length shouldn't have it too strong.