Cheap for the planets

[Simon Dunsmore]

Hi Folks, 

Quick question, I own a Heq5 Pro with a Skywatcher 130pds and love it for astrophotography of DSOs. I was hoping that this year (if the clouds clear by then) to do a cheeky bit of planetary imaging but don't want to spend a fortune on another ota. 

I see quite a few Celestron powerseeker 114eqs for sale at silly money (£50) I was wondering if this would work? 

I would obviously ditch the mount and use the Heq5? 

Any thoughts or perhaps other ideas on a sub £100 used ota for planetary imaging? 

Thanks 

Simon 

[PeterCPC]

You don't say what camera you would be using but, if you go to the resources tab and FOV calculator, you can see just how big/small the image would be.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Aperture is king in planetary imaging, so I cannot see the 115 mm doing better than the 130 PDS, despite the shorter focal length of the latter. What I would do is get a good Barlow or tele-centric lens to extend the focus of the 130 PDS. As an alternative, you can also use eyepiece projection. Much also depends on the camera in use, and in particular pixel size.

[Simon Dunsmore]

4 hours ago, PeterCPC said:

You don't say what camera you would be using but, if you go to the resources tab and FOV calculator, you can see just how big/small the image would be.

Hi, Thanks for your reply. With DSOs I generally use my Canon 60d but I also have a ZWO 120 mono that I use for guiding. I was considering using the ZWO to try my hand at imaging the planets without spending too much money. I recently received £150 in birthday gifts so not a fortune to spend.