30th Birthday Present - What would you get with this budget?

[M40]

That's a superb present, so my thoughts would go down the line of what would I not normally be able to afford during the normal upgrade route? Mount is in the mix, but just to throw it in there, have you considered night vision? 

[OK Apricot]

I'd considered it to a point, but nothing more serious than a few videos here and there - deepskydude on YouTube has a few star party videos with NV which does look amazing in itself - but feels to me like it'd lose its appeal after a few nights out, so not worth dropping thousands on. If I had a 20" dob and clear Bortle 1 skies however... 

[Mr Spock]

Here's a start 

I saw one of these in action with a iOptron mount and lots of red imaging attachments I didn't understand (I'm visual only). Very impressive set up.

[The Lazy Astronomer]

Ok, let's see if l can get this in on budget!

1. EQ6-R Pro, £1400

2. 80 - 100mm triplet apo, ~£1500 - £2000 with appropriate flattener. My personal vote, purely because I have one (it was also my 30th birthday present 😁) is for the Esprit 100.

3. Autoguiding set-up. These can be had relatively cheaply (around £200, including a basic mono guide cam), however I might suggest going for something a bit fancier here: the Evoguide 50 plus flattener (£280) - the reason for this is it's an ED doublet which actually makes for a great little widefield imager in its own right, so can be dual purpose; a guider for the bigger triplet, or a super portable widefield travel scope. You'll probably want to allow an extra £100 - £200 here to get some more rigid mounting hardware for a solid base (finder shoes not recommended!), but this could be a future upgrade.

Following on with the dual purpose theme, I may be tempted to suggest something like the ZWO462MC as guide camera (£250) - this is a colour camera,  and whilst mono is generally regarded as a better choice for guiding, it should be plenty capable, and is also a great  lunar and planetary imaging camera for your mak when Jupiter's nice and high in the sky later in the year.

4. Imaging camera: to keep within budget, I've sacrificed sensor size a bit here to 4/3 or smaller, something like the ZWO294MC Pro (£980) or 533MC Pro (£899) would fit the bill nicely. The 294 has a slightly larger sensor, but some calibration issues have been reported when using dual a narrowband filter. Speaking of which, the 533 option leaves just about enough money in the budget to throw in a 1.25" Optolong L-extreme filter (£170), which will allow much improved results on emission type nebulae, even under quite heavy light pollution. 

Mono and filters is (arguably) the superior imaging option, but would likely involve making too many sacrifices in other areas, as you'd probably be looking at least £2.5k for the camera, filter wheel, and a full set of half decent filters.

5. Dew heater and controller, £30 for the heater tape and around £60 - £70 for the controller if you buy a 'proper' astro one, <£10 if you buy a PWM controller from ebay or the like and make your own modifications to it.

This lot should get you a very, very nice imaging set up for just under the £5k mark according to FLO's pricing, however I have cheated slightly as I've not included power or PC control (or post process software!!).

Obviously from home you could just get yourself an outdoor extension lead and just run off the mains (add an extra £40 or so for a power supply or two if needed). Out in the field, you'd need to think about some kind of battery pack.

For image capture, any old laptop from the last 10 years or so will suffice (I generally assume most people do have an unused old laptop lying around somewhere). Possibly upgrade with an SSD and new/spare battery if still available for purchase.

Capture software:

Sharpcap Pro for polar alignment (only if area around Polaris visible) - £10/year (can also be used for planetary/lunar imaging).

NINA for planning and running imaging sequences - £0 (other software available, but this is my favourite).

Stacking and post processing software is a whole other topic by itself, but this whole part can be done without spending a single penny, and all the paid for options have free trial periods, so easy to try out a few and see which you prefer. 

As a final note: a nice to have option which you may be able to fit within the budget if you go for a triplet apo cheaper than the Esprit 100 is an autofocuser - the ZWO one is £184.

Edited April 20, 2022 by The Lazy Astronomer
Typo

[OK Apricot]

My thanks isn't enough for that reply. Thank you so much @The Lazy Astronomer for an excellent piece of advice - I'll come back to this when the time comes and do some planning in the mean time! 

[StarryEyed]

You'll get an enormous list of things from everyone here. My personal suggestion would to upgrade or build one thing at a time you would be surprised at how much of you dream setup will be up for sale in a couple of years. Some things you can keep for life, most things not. So put everything aside for now and ask yourself. If I could get one telescope that even if I have others for particular purposes what would be the one best suited for me. You find that everything else will follow on from there. Your budget puts you in a position that very few are ever in. It might be your one time chance to pick up that particular telescope. So look at it this way one item from SBIG Astrophysics Takahashi TEC Software Bisque could eat up all of your budget so spend wisely and for the long term you lucky fella. 

[OK Apricot]

I appreciate what you're saying. I'd love a C9.25 EdgeHD - supposed to be excellent on galaxies and planets. Ideally I'm after a mount as a first purchase - I'll be less limited to certain OTAs if I know I have a mount with a, say 15kg+ payload capacity. I want to buy once as I'm only going to have this sort of 'windfall' once! At the same time I also want to get enough kit to get me going. Mount - camera - OTA? Mount - OTA - Camera? 

[mikeDnight]

I'd go for a TSA120 in a heart beat. Then if funds allowed, a cheap binoviewer, 2X 32mm, 2x 25mm, 2X 15mm TV Plossl's, and a 2X SW Delux barlow. In time I'd very likely sell my other scopes as they'd rarely ever get used.

[OK Apricot]

Going to need a mount to put it on! Lovely looking scope though and the idea of that quality through a binoviewer of equal quality gives me butterflies 😳

[maw lod qan]

30? Really, 30!!

A bottle of really good whiskey and celebrate being just 30!

Worry about the astronomy stuff tomorrow! The sky isn't going away!