Advice on an upgrade

[MrG1977]

First of all is like to say hi to everyone , I've always had an interest in the night sky since being very young , but never got a telescope until earlier this year , during first lockdown .

I bought a celestron nexstar 130slt , it's a fantastic telescope and have loved using it but now I've been bitten by the bug and want to upgrade , but there is just so much choice out there I think I've just confused myself lol .

I initially thought I'd like to upgrade to an explore scientific ar 152 , but after reading reviews it's not so good for the photography side of things due to chromatic aberration , so then I looked at the skywatcher skaymax 180pro , but reviews suggest this is best for only planets .

I've also read that your best to buy the biggest aperture you can afford , which leads to a dobsonian .

So I thought I'd turn to you guys with the experience and the knowledge to help steer me in the right direction .

I have a reasonable budget of up to 2k , we currently enjoy the visual side of astronomy but would like in the future to get into astrophotography , my main target objects is planets , in particular Saturn and Jupiter , but would also like to be able to view and photograph galaxies and nebula's , so ideally due to my budget would like to find a scope that could potentially cover all my requirements from a scope , I'm not wanting competition quality photos but something that would still look impressive to friends and family .

I'm kind of guessing in advance that it's a tall order and possibly not going to find 1 scope that will be suitable , but thought best to ask you guys on here and see what the general consensus is and go from there .

Thanks in advance for taking the time to read this and I look forward to hearing your responses , I'd also consider any second hand equipment that any of you may have for sale that may be suitable for my requirements , I'm based in hull 

Thanks MrG 👍🏻

[steppenwolf]

The needs of astrophotography (AP) and observing are rather different so with AP in mind for the future, your choice is going to be more difficult. For Deep Sky imaging, you will need the best equatorial tracking mount that you can afford and, perhaps surprisingly, not necessarily a large aperture telescope whereas for observing, an altazimuth mount and large aperture are better.

I think this is a matter of priorities so think very hard about where you mainly want to go, AP or observing.  Armed with that knowledge, we can advise you better.

[dark knight]

Im more into the astro photography side of things and would say the mount is critical,  something like a neq6 mount would provide a very stable platform and can carry a decent payload of equipment, it is fairly heavy though. It can easily manage a 10 inch reflector for visual and an 8 inch reflector with photography accessories. It really depends on how portable you want to be, where you going to use it,  back garden or trip out to dark site, whether you want to run everything via software and a laptop, how you going to power everything etc etc

[MrG1977]

Thanks for your reply , I guess the easiest answer to that question is I want to be able to do both , with what your saying I'm going to need 2 scopes , which I think with the budget I've got I'm going to struggle with 

[MrG1977]

7 minutes ago, dark knight said:

Im more into the astro photography side of things and would say the mount is critical,  something like a neq6 mount would provide a very stable platform and can carry a decent payload of equipment, it is fairly heavy though. It can easily manage a 10 inch reflector for visual and an 8 inch reflector with photography accessories. It really depends on how portable you want to be, where you going to use it,  back garden or trip out to dark site, whether you want to run everything via software and a laptop, how you going to power everything etc etc

It will mostly be in my back garden so power wouldn't be a problem , I have also looked at the skywatcher quattro 12s but have read that they maybe a little big for an eq mount and would wobble even in the slightest breeze , I'm thinking perhaps might be better getting a big DOB for the time being as we enjoy the visual more at the moment and then look to add an eq mount and a refractor at a later date when I've learnt more about the photography side 

[smashing]

25 minutes ago, MrG1977 said:

It will mostly be in my back garden so power wouldn't be a problem , I have also looked at the skywatcher quattro 12s but have read that they maybe a little big for an eq mount and would wobble even in the slightest breeze , I'm thinking perhaps might be better getting a big DOB for the time being as we enjoy the visual more at the moment and then look to add an eq mount and a refractor at a later date when I've learnt more about the photography side 

That's not a bad idea...maybe try a star adventurer and cheap second hand DSLR as well as it will get you started in some of the basics and can get you some awesome photos without a stupid amount of $$$

[steppenwolf]

27 minutes ago, MrG1977 said:

I'm thinking perhaps might be better getting a big DOB for the time being as we enjoy the visual more at the moment and then look to add an eq mount and a refractor at a later date when I've learnt more about the photography side 

I think that is an excellent approach!

[M40]

29 minutes ago, MrG1977 said:

 what your saying I'm going to need 2 scopes , which I think with the budget I've got I'm going to struggle with 

Yep, definitely think two telescopes. As dark knight said, start with the mount and then see where your budget goes from there. 

I don't know if you have found it yet, but have a look at this topic in the "Getting started with imaging" forum... Imaging with the 130pds some very impressive images have been posted.

Enjoy

[Cosmic Geoff]

24 minutes ago, MrG1977 said:

It will mostly be in my back garden so power wouldn't be a problem , I have also looked at the skywatcher quattro 12s but have read that they maybe a little big for an eq mount and would wobble even in the slightest breeze , I'm thinking perhaps might be better getting a big DOB for the time being as we enjoy the visual more at the moment and then look to add an eq mount and a refractor at a later date when I've learnt more about the photography side 

This will leave you with nothing suitable for planetary imaging, for which a SCT would be best buy.  If you have deep pockets you could get a SCT on an alt-azimuth GoTo mount for planetary imaging and visual, and a EQ-6 and small refractor for deep sky imaging.  What pattern of use do you anticipate?  An alt-azimith GoTo mount is generally less work to set up than a German equatorial GoTo like the Eq-6.  With my C8 SE + Starsense I have little more to do than carry the whole thing outside and turn it on.

[KP82]

49 minutes ago, MrG1977 said:

Thanks for your reply , I guess the easiest answer to that question is I want to be able to do both , with what your saying I'm going to need 2 scopes , which I think with the budget I've got I'm going to struggle with 

With a budget of £2k, it is still doable albeit you need to forget about any premium stuff.

Let's start with the mount. An SW HEQ5 Pro is about £800. Then it's the imaging scope. An 80ED doublet (there are many brands you can choose from) + a flattener are going to be around £700. A auto-guide setup will chew up roughly £300 of your fund. That will leave you £200 for an astro-modded DSLR (e.g. Canon 1000D) + a T-ring. This setup works very well for DSO imaging. For casual planet imaging, get yourself a 3x barlow.

Your 130SLT can carry on serving as your visual scope. When you save up another £300 or so, you can then upgrade it to a SW 200P dob for better visual.

Edited November 28, 2020 by KP82

[MrG1977]

30 minutes ago, M40 said:

Yep, definitely think two telescopes. As dark knight said, start with the mount and then see where your budget goes from there. 

I don't know if you have found it yet, but have a look at this topic in the "Getting started with imaging" forum... Imaging with the 130pds some very impressive images have been posted.

Enjoy

Just had a quick look on that thread , some very impressive photos , I'll take a better look later tonight 

[dark knight]

I had a skywatcher 200p and used it for both visual and astro photography on a neq6, it produced reasonable photographs and i found it quite capable but remember reflectors need regular collimation.

[Louis D]

You could go with either a goto Dob and derotate video frames while stacking planetary images or a Dob on an equatorial platform and not have to derotate frames.  Either should be doable on your budget.  The latter would work better for DSOs should you ever want to go in that direction.

[MrG1977]

3 hours ago, Louis D said:

You could go with either a goto Dob and derotate video frames while stacking planetary images or a Dob on an equatorial platform and not have to derotate frames.  Either should be doable on your budget.  The latter would work better for DSOs should you ever want to go in that direction.

That's what I'm swaying towards at the moment something like a skywatcher quattro or explorer 10 inch on a eq mount , that way when budget allows I could get a good refractor and use the same eq mount to keep cost down 

Edited November 28, 2020 by MrG1977

[Cosmic Geoff]

5 hours ago, Louis D said:

You could go with either a goto Dob and derotate video frames while stacking planetary images or a Dob on an equatorial platform and not have to derotate frames.  Either should be doable on your budget.  The latter would work better for DSOs should you ever want to go in that direction.

Sorry, but I use an alt-azimuth mount for planetary imaging and I don't de-rotate the video frames. Nobody does. It is not necessary.  (De-rotating the spin of the target planet is a  totally different issue.) Not many planetary imagers use Dobs - check the planetary imaging section in this Forum.  Not many people seem to use Dobs on equatorial platforms for deep space imaging - check the relevant imaging section in this Forum. There are better tools.

[Louis D]

16 hours ago, Cosmic Geoff said:

Sorry, but I use an alt-azimuth mount for planetary imaging and I don't de-rotate the video frames. Nobody does. It is not necessary.  (De-rotating the spin of the target planet is a  totally different issue.) Not many planetary imagers use Dobs - check the planetary imaging section in this Forum.  Not many people seem to use Dobs on equatorial platforms for deep space imaging - check the relevant imaging section in this Forum. There are better tools.

I was thinking that the OP could get a bigger Dob for visual at first and then add a dual axis equatorial platform later for some basic imaging like Bob Brunck on CN in this thread has done.  It seems quite doable.