portable rig for astrophotography and visual

[honest]

Hi there! 

I'm just about to order my first scope from FLO. I did some research and I think I finally made my mind up in terms of the 2 main components - Evostar 72ed + AZ GTI

I have zero experience with night sky and observing night sky objects so I'll be using this setup mostly to get myself familiar with it first. I've chosen this rig cos it's very lightweight and quite versatile as far as I'm aware. This is fairly important to me as I will be soon living full time in a camper and because I'll most likely find myself in quite remote places, I'd like to try astrophotography as well in the near future. I believe both the telescope and the mount with a firmware update (EQ mode) are fully capable of doing so (unlike me at the moment). Due to limited space and budget I'd rather have one portable setup than two. Do you think it's a right setup and a right way to go? How about 80ed? Would longer focal length and higher aperture be any better? It only weights slightly more than 72ed so AZ GTI should handle it pretty well too. Plus with all add-ons FLO offers now it actually seats in the same price range as 72ed  

Which brings me to my second question - accessories. Obviously the scope and the mount is not enough so before I place the order I'd like to ask you about some necessary accessories. What do I need to start with?
For visual, do I need anything more than just a diagonal and an eyepiece? Which of them would you recommend? I see there are quite a few diagonals in FLO's offer, not sure what to look at when choosing one. Then eyepiece, would 28mm be ok? It'd give me 15x magnification on 72ed or 21x on 80ed. And lastly, barlow lenses and finder scope? Are they needed?
For astrophotography, well it's more complicated I believe. I've already got a Canon Rebel T3i which I heard might be used as a main camera. Do I need a field flattener for it or a camera adapter? Or maybe both? Another thing is a dew heater. Is it necessary to have one of this as well? Do they really improve the quality in cold days by keeping the lens warmer? I could get one for around £20 so it's not that expensive. Another one is intervalometer (is this one ok?). As I will be doing all post processing on my Mac, I thought instead of buying a intervalometer I could control the mount and the camera from my laptop. Seems like Macs are not that well supported in terms of software compatibility but I heard running Astroberry on Raspberry Pi is a cheap and good way to do it and I've got a few of them from my old projects. As my macbook will only talk to RPi, I guess the mount and the camera must be somehow connected to it. Is it just as simple as using one of this RJ12 control cables for AZ GTI? What about the camera? I don't want to overcomplicate the setup so I don't even think about getting a guide scope or dedicated astro cameras at this stage

Last two components I'm not entire sure about are, a tripod and a wedge. AZ GTI comes with or without a tripod. It's another £75 so not a lot comparing to other tripods like skywatcher 3/8" stainless steel one but this one looks way more heavy. And lastly, does it make any difference which wedge I'll go for? Star Adventurer is the one I'm leaning towards but I'm open for suggestions 

My last concern is the weight limit of the GTI mount. The website says it's rated for payload up to 5kg so theoretically it should handle both setups (for visual and for astrophotography). The OTA itself weights less than 2kg. A diagonal and an eyepiece are probably less than 0.5kg so that should be ok. My DSLR (body) weight 0.5kg + any adapters, flattener, dew heater and cables shouldn't add more than a 1kg or 1.5kg so still maxing out around 4kg. Is my math correct? If the total weight stays below the 5kg threshold, do I still need to consider a counterweight?  

Thanks for all your help and advice 

[Cosmic Geoff]

Before you buy anything else, buy the book "Making Every Photon Count" by Steve Richards.  This book is an essential introduction to astrophotography and should answer many of your questions.  It is available from forum sponsor FLO.

[honest]

Thanks. I bought it last week, just finishing 'Stargazing beginners guide to astronomy'

[happy-kat]

Hi this thread world likely be a good read. If keeping portability and dual use in mind I would check user experiences first as creeping up in size could be too much for both the mount and storage.

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/387014-skywatcher-az-gti-mount-owners-thread/page/20/#comment-https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/387014