After a near-10-year hiatus: Hello from Oxford!

[Peter Reader]

Last activity on here was in 2012, after building a DIY telescope for my A level product design project in North Devon. I left astronomy at home to go to university and now nearly 10 years later I'm renting a house with a garden in Oxford.

Will be reunited with my Skywatcher 200P in a few days. How has the technology moved on? Is this telescope still worth using today?

Will be looking to restart astrophotography; can anyone recommend a camera to replace my Philips Toucam for planetary? - it's no longer compatible with my Windows 10 latop it seems... lol

Are there any cameras that can do both planetary and DSO imaging these days or are DSLRs the goto for deep sky and webcams for planets still?

Thanks!

[AKB]

Welcome back, from someone else near Oxford!

200P still talked about and used here, I think you'll find.

For a planetary camera, you'll be amazed by some of the newer CMOS cameras, which can also do the business for DSO.

I'm sure several people with more expertise will be along with advice shortly.

Abingdon has a thriving astro club if you're interested in meeting with others – and we're actually doing Zoom-based observing evenings for a while (once a month.)

Welcome again,

Tony

 

[barbulo]

Welcome back to SGL! You will find here tons of answers to your questions.

One thing I doubt has changed in 10 years is that this hobby is money-driven.

[Peter Reader]

47 minutes ago, AKB said:

Welcome back, from someone else near Oxford!

200P still talked about and used here, I think you'll find.

For a planetary camera, you'll be amazed by some of the newer CMOS cameras, which can also do the business for DSO.

I'm sure several people with more expertise will be along with advice shortly.

Abingdon has a thriving astro club if you're interested in meeting with others – and we're actually doing Zoom-based observing evenings for a while (once a month.)

Welcome again,

Tony

 

Thanks Tony, I'll have to check out the club some time soon...

[newbie alert]

Hi and welcome back.. there are a vast array of planetary cameras and deep sky camera's available today

The planetary cameras are superior to a webcam

Designated  cmos or ccd are superior to a DSLR simply because it's cooling capabilities and lack of ir filters

You can have camera's that do both but I still think that planetary and deep sky are far different..

What mount are you using?

[PeterCPC]

Hello and welcome. Have a look at ASI224 for planetary imaging.

[banjaxed]

Hi Peter, welcome back to SGL.

[bosun21]

Hi Peter, I am also from Oxford and also back into the hobby after a 30+ year break. I have bought a 200mm Dobsonian as well and also a 127 Skywatcher Maksutov Go to. The biggest difference I found on my return was that there’s now so much choice of equipment, of every genre. I am concentrating on visual for the moment but I am saving for a decent astrophotography set up. When I started viewing again, I asked myself “ Why did I ever stop in the first place “.Good luck with your Dob

[Stephen Green]

Hi welcome back to the SGL

Edited November 10, 2021 by Stephen Green

[Xsubmariner]

Hi Peter, welcome back to AP. You will find a lot has happened in the world of AP over the last 10 years.

[Richard_]

Welcome back! I'm a newcomer to astronomy, particularly astrophotography, and after reading some older threads and posts across different forums, I can see that there have been huge advancements! There are improvements which have made the hobby easier and more accessible for newcomers like me.

ZWO have a good range of affordable cameras for planetary imaging plus you have nice devices like the ASI Air to drive everything (controlled by a tablet/phone) which removes the requirement of taking a laptop outside. Using the ASI Air really made the hobby much easier for me, I didn't have to faff around with DSLR and intervalometer and I didn't like the idea of leaving my laptop outside. 

[Nigella Bryant]

Small world, I'm in Devon and was away from here for 30 year's after going to university as a mature student, lol. The zwo ASI 224mc is a good planetary camera but you'll need something else for DSO's. Or go for the DSO one which can do both. Image taken with the zwo ASI 224mc and C11.

"You'll be back, lol."

[Mr Spock]

Welcome back 👍

[Sunshine]

Welcome back to SGL!

[Paul73]

Welcome back from just south of Oxford. Hope that the light pollution isn’t too bad.

Paul

[Ags]

Welcome back! 

[ddm4313]

On 09/11/2021 at 22:05, Peter Reader said:

Last activity on here was in 2012, after building a DIY telescope for my A level product design project in North Devon. I left astronomy at home to go to university and now nearly 10 years later I'm renting a house with a garden in Oxford.

Will be reunited with my Skywatcher 200P in a few days. How has the technology moved on? Is this telescope still worth using today?

Will be looking to restart astrophotography; can anyone recommend a camera to replace my Philips Toucam for planetary? - it's no longer compatible with my Windows 10 latop it seems... lol

Are there any cameras that can do both planetary and DSO imaging these days or are DSLRs the goto for deep sky and webcams for planets still?

Thanks!

Welcome back, 200P still can be used today, many people use it for astrophotography and have gotten great images with it. 

I have that scope and it's great, though one downside I guess is its big but that depends on who you ask.

[gazza25]

welcome back to the SGL

[Dave Lloyd]

Hi Peter, welcome. 

[Peter Reader]

Thanks for the warm welcomes! Spent this evening getting my old Philips Toucam Pro II running on Windows 10... thanks Hildo 

 

Which camera is this, Nigella?

On 10/11/2021 at 17:50, Nigella Bryant said:

Or go for the DSO one which can do both.

 

[Pete Presland]

Hi welcome to SGL from Pete in Bedfordshire 🙂