What telescope to buy

[Joe beaumont]

Hi everyone, I’m fairly new to astronomy however I have always had an interest in it, early this year I bought myself a celestron nexstar 4se and a neximage5. I want to get better and bigger images of planets that I could possibly try to edit. I am looking in to getting a celestron nexstar 6se or 8se and was wondering which is better or if there are better choices out there and also if I buy a new telescope where is the best place to sell my 4se as I won’t need it.

Thank you everyone. 

[fifeskies]

There is a good buy/sell section on here.

(though you need to make a few more posts to gain access to be able to sell I think)

Most telescopes are unavailable due to Covid supply issues at the moment which does restrict options just now and probably for a good while to come.

You will be lucky to find a 6se or 8se anywhere in the UK for sale from a stockist.

 

I use refractors for my imaging and have done some planets mainly Saturn and Jupiter (Mars a bit too). but it is nor my main interest so I will leave others to advise you on the best choice.

(I try to image DSO most of the time).

[Joe beaumont]

Thank you very much fifeskies 

[Stu1smartcookie]

Hi Joe ... the 6 or 8 will give you better views for sure than the 4 . Although they are generally considered still to be planetary and luna scopes ( the 8 is more of an all rounder due to its size) . Are you sold just on imaging and viewing planets ? i only ask because a decent size reflector could be an option on an EQ mount ( which would really need to be driven for imaging ) The advantages would be a distinctly shorter cool down time and a scope that really will deliver on both planets and DSO's . 

I am looking at a nextstar 100mm .. i love Maks and SCT's and their compactness makes them so portable . Do you view from your garden or do you need to travel to a site to use the scope ? If you have to travel then the 6 or 8se are good choices . I think Amazon are doing a deal where you can buy the 6se and pay interest free over 5 months ! As Fifesskies mentioned , scopes are in short supply at present . 

Stu 

[vlaiv]

12 hours ago, Joe beaumont said:

I want to get better and bigger images of planets that I could possibly try to edit

Have you taken some images so far?

How do you do your capture and processing? What equipment do you use?

With planetary imaging (and I suppose we are talking imaging here since you talk about editing your images) it is all about aperture but also in optimizing your capture procedure and processing. To resolve detail, you need to have aperture, but once you have aperture - you need to apply very special technique called lucky imaging to capture data and then you need to stack that data and process it in particular way.

Simple phone at eyepiece or DSLR attached to telescope is not going to give you very good results. On the other hand, proper imaging technique will give you very good results with even modest apertures. These were taken with 4" telescope:

4" is considered to be very modest aperture for planetary imaging. In order to start getting really good images - you need to look at 8" or above (having 8" would for example potentially double the size of planets in the images while keeping sharpness and level of detail).

Probably most affordable 8" planetary scope would be 8" f/6 newtonian on EQ platform. You can get SW 8" dob scope for £289 at FLO and you can DIY equatorial platform for about additional £100 or so. Throw in good planetary camera like ASI224 for another £220 and a barlow for another £50 and you'll be all set.

Another good option would be scope like this:

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/stellalyra-telescopes/stellalyra-8-f12-m-lrs-classical-cassegrain-telescope-ota.html

and you would need at least EQ5 class mount to carry that scope for planetary imaging.

[Joe beaumont]

Thank you very much for your advice. I live in London and houses all around me so I have to drive to a location when I use the telescope most of the time, I’ve watched a lot of YouTube videos and some people are saying that the 6se and 8se are fairly similar in the image you get through the scope and I was also looking in to getting maybe a second hand 6se or 8se but am unsure on what to look out for to make sure there are no problems with the scope 

[vlaiv]

20 minutes ago, Joe beaumont said:

Thank you very much for your advice. I live in London and houses all around me so I have to drive to a location when I use the telescope most of the time, I’ve watched a lot of YouTube videos and some people are saying that the 6se and 8se are fairly similar in the image you get through the scope and I was also looking in to getting maybe a second hand 6se or 8se but am unsure on what to look out for to make sure there are no problems with the scope 

When you say "image you get through the scope" - do you mean visual image or photographic image?

For visual - yes, they will be fairly close on planetary since visual image very much depends on atmospheric conditions. For photographic image if lucky imaging technique is used - we try to defeat impact of atmosphere and for the most part, image quality is directly related to aperture size - larger the scope, better the image.

I'm not sure I can give you any sensible advice on purchasing second hand - except to look for obvious - like any mechanical damage to tube or glass elements.

 

[Joe beaumont]

Thank you very much for your help 

[Jm1973]

If you decide to sell your existing telescope try AstroBuySell. Not sure if I'm allowed to post links to other sites, but you can google it.

[Joe beaumont]

Thank you so much 

[Joe beaumont]

What do you think I would get for a celestron nexstar 4se 

[johngm]

4 minutes ago, Joe beaumont said:

What do you think I would get for a celestron nexstar 4se 

If its in very good condition, the main consensus is around 2/3 of the retail price. I certainly wouldn't pay more than that, when you consider you get full warranty with a new scope

[toshapetriji]

1 hour ago, Joe beaumont said:

What do you think I would get for a celestron nexstar 4se 

I recently sold mine for £300, including eyepieces and filter.

 

 

Edited November 13, 2020 by toshapetriji
Ammended price sold for

[Luke]

I have used a 6 inch, 8 inch and 11 inch Celestron SCT. For planets, when conditions are good, you will get more detail from the larger aperture scopes. I suspect the sweet spot is the one I have never owned, the 9.25, as the 11 I feel rarely was able to make full use of its aperture on planets in my typical conditions! However, the 9.25 is so much more expensive than the 8! If only it cost 1.25x more!

You would get I feel better bang for buck from a newtonian or dob. The best view I have ever had of Jupiter was from a 12" dob. It was miles ahead of anything I have ever seen in the 8 inch SCT. Though I love my 8 inch SCT. It is a very powerful, light yet compact and portable telescope, which is why we kept it over the two others. I think of it as my mini light bucket. The 9.25 might be the best aperture to weight option, but for me the 8 is the best price to aperture option.

Those are just my views. I thought the 6 inch was very sweet as well and is probably underestimated. My wife bought the 6 inch and owning a 12" dob at the time, I didn't really understand why she bought it. But after I looked through it, it is a very nice scope and I started to borrow it! The 11 was fab and I only sold it because of the heavy weight.

Edited November 14, 2020 by Luke

[ollypenrice]

Second hand gear goes for around 60% of new, generally, if in good condition. Rarer items may be worth more.  There isn't much that can be invisible to inspection and still wrong with a telescope. Sometimes refractors can be out of collimation and tricky to fix but an SCT is a tolerant design. If it looks OK it is very likely to be OK.  Mount electronics are another matter but that's true of anything electronic.

Olly

[Joe beaumont]

Thank you guys 

[Nigella Bryant]

The best telescope you buy is the one you use most. It's an old saying. I've an 11inch SCT, an 12inch f4 Newtonian and a Lunt 60mm Double Stack solar scope. The Lunt is my most used scope strangely though. I guess it's because I'm awake during the day and easily see those rare breaks of clear skies whereas if I'm in bed or asleep I don't, lol. 

[JeremyS]

2 hours ago, Nigella Bryant said:

it's because I'm awake during the day

that's probably where I'm going wrong 🤣