Another which telescope thread..

[martin_b]

Hi All,

I'm coming back into Astronomy after a gap of 25 odd years. I though i knew what I needed scope wise but the more I investigate the more confused I am.. What I'm after is a scope&mount et al.. combination that will..

Fit in an Estate, but I'm not overly worried about the weight.

Allow me to do Astro Photography mainly deep space stuff, but Saturn would be nice, I'll start with a Nikon DSLR as I have a spare one but may move on a dedicated setup.

Budget is say upto £2K for everthing.

So far I found out I need a nice sturdy driven mount, EQ5 or 6 and probably a GOTO? but then the confusion starts..

One shop suggests a refractor, another a reflector (and variants), The only thing I will say is that after comparing a couple of WO and Skywatcher refractors, the WO seems so much better made, but then it costs more I guess. ( and if anybody from Skywatcher is reading this why did you decide to paint the tube with blue glitter paint..? hardly a professional look is it :-) )

So there we go guys, any suggestions greatfully recieved.

[Ben Ritchie]

The sturdy mount is always a good idea - i'd advise the EQ6 in general for 'future proofing', as it'll take a wider range of telescopes if your interests change over time ... and very often they will. It's a bit heavier than the HEQ5 but not unmanageable, and as you say you're not overly worried about weight then long-term the extra money of the EQ6 would be well spent.

As for the choice of telescope, my preference would be for a refractor if your priority is long exposure deep-sky imaging. Reflectors can do the job too, especially some of the fast Newtonians (with the caveat that you then need coma correctors and have to worry about collimation), but a refractor is a very simple solution. Remember that you need an apochromat, not the cheaper achromats. I'm a great fan of Skywatcher's 80ED, sure the WO et al. scopes look better, but the Skwatchers have very good optics at a very reasonable price. With a barlow the 80ED performs respectably on the moon and planets too.

Finally remember that you'll really need a guidescope and autoguider - the Skywatcher ST80 and QHY5 are a very good budget choice there.

[philsail1]

Hello "martin_b" (and welcome back!).

If your budget is around the £2K mark, and you're not too concerned about weight issues, then I would agree with "Ben Ritchie" and go for the HEQ6 mount, and a good "apochromatic" refractor - perhaps with a 100mm aperture (or above if you can get one and keep your total budget within the £2K) to give you more aperture for deep sky photography.

I certainly would await some more replies from SGL members before rushing out to buy!

Best wishes on your final choice,

philsail1

[SteveP]

Martin

Welcome back after a long time. My own history is somewhat similar. I had a break of about 30 years as well and much had changed

When deciding what you want, I'd work on 3 principles

1. Whatever you buy, you'll become dissatisfied with it and want to upgrade at some stage!

2. You'll get lots of contradictory advice from your new friends and decision making is difficult

3 As a contra to 1, get some stability and longevity into your setup.

If you intend to get into AP, then my advice would be to concentrate on the mount. You can get very good results from 'lesser' scopes and cameras but rarelly not without a decent mount. I'd recommend an EQ6 - ideally the Pro with GoTo but an alternative would be to use the non Goto with EQMOD software run from your PC. Secondly, I'd go for a decent achro/ED refractor - bigger than 3", maybe 2nd hand or possibly from one of the 'newer' names - eg Astrotech or homebrand such as Astronomica. You can get very good results from a large reflector but my experience is that they take more looking after and a quite bulky. Whatever you do in the future, I suggest you'll keep coming back to it. You can always use more than 1 scope but the advantageous of having 2 non-permanent mounts is less obvious. I can't advise on a camera though, my experiece is very limited. At this stage, I'd stick with your DSLR

Hope that helps. I'm sure somebody will be along soon with some contradictory advice very soon!

[adamsp123]

Hi Martin,

The blue SW tubes are the old type, the new SW ED pros are the black/white ones and now fitted with a nice dual speed crayford focuser + diagonal + 2" EP + Alu Case.

They are excellent value for money!

Pete

[SteveP]

Oops - Double post now removed!

[Merlin66]

I'm with Ben!

A HEQ5pro/ EQ6 mount with a SW ED80pro scope ( gold tube, not the weak blu!); I'd add a dual mounting bar and the ST80/QHY5 guide set-up.

By the time you consider the camera adaptors/fittings, eyepieces, filters, power source(s), laptop for imaging, things will already add up.

The good news, is most of this stuff is re-sellable, and will always be a good "portable" set-up if and when you go for something more substantial in the future.

[Viking]

It is also useful to look at the kit that the imagers use. The 80/100/120 refractors seem to give good results. Then there is the Skywatcher 190MN Mak-Newt Astrograph, see FLO site http://firstlightoptics.com/proddetail.php?prod=skywatcher_mak_newt_astograph

John

[TheThing]

The blue paint is rather nice, in my opinion. Anyway, it's what the view thru it is like rather than looking at it and it's going to be mostly dark when you use it, so that will help!

Skywatcher have, rightly so, a good reputation, so you wont go far wrong with any of their range.

[Whippy]

Another vote for the dual-refractor route. Although instead of the ST80 as a guidescope, I'd go for a William Optics ZS66 as it makes a great guidescope and wide-field imaging scope in one.

Tony..

[martin_b]

thanks for all the advice guys..

time to put my thinking hat on! ( and check the bank balance!)

[DaveS]

martin_b, hi....

I'm in much the same position as you, though I don't intend to go traveling much with a 'scope, and my purchasing may be a bit further off due to finances, though my budget is similar.

I'm thinking along the lines of an 80mm apo at the moment, going to a 5" later, for both vis and imaging.

Dave

[martin_b]

So i think I've decided what to do..

I'm going to get a EQ6 Pro, and a Megrez 72. practice with this for a couple of months ( moon shots) and let the bank balance recover, then get either a FLT 98 or a 110 , and use the 72 as the autoguider.

I'm going the WO route because if I don't I think I'll regret it, and end up getting one anyway later. they just seemed better made than the competition.

Anyone see any problems with this plan ( other than my wife!)