Telescope and camera setup.

[Julius Stanionis]

Hello, 

I think it's time for me to finally buy some gear and star watching and photographing the sky. However I am not very sure what gear exactly to buy. 

• For telescope I am considering     Skywatcher Telescope N 150/1200 Explorer 150PL EQ3-2 (would it be huge difference to get 200mm mirror?) 
• for mount I am considering           eq3-2 and motor drive
• for camera I am considering           ZWO Camera ASI 178 MC Color

at first I was considering something like D5300 but I am not sure I want to get into astro mods...

This setup would be about 1,2k euro. I am don't want to spend much more than that.

So would this setup make sense and would I need any extras like adaptors to connect camera to scope or similar. 

 

thanks for advice.

 

 

[SthBohemia]

If you care to browse the beginners forums you will find a couple of dozen members asking the same questions as yourself. With pages of replies 🙂 

[Clarkey]

2 hours ago, Julius Stanionis said:

I think it's time for me to finally buy some gear and star watching and photographing the sky. However I am not very sure what gear exactly to buy. 

As @SthBohemia suggests there are loads of similar questions on the forum. I would suggest you need to consider what you want to view and/or image to help in your decisions as this will affect your choices.

[happy-kat]

Hi

You might like this owners thread on the EQ3-2 to see what other members have imaged and using which telescopes. The 200p is I think too big for the mount you've mentioned for imaging.

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/279039-the-eq3-dso-challenge/page/1

[CraigT82]

4 hours ago, Julius Stanionis said:

Hello, 

I think it's time for me to finally buy some gear and star watching and photographing the sky. However I am not very sure what gear exactly to buy. 

• For telescope I am considering     Skywatcher Telescope N 150/1200 Explorer 150PL EQ3-2 (would it be huge difference to get 200mm mirror?) 
• for mount I am considering           eq3-2 and motor drive
• for camera I am considering           ZWO Camera ASI 178 MC Color

at first I was considering something like D5300 but I am not sure I want to get into astro mods...

This setup would be about 1,2k euro. I am don't want to spend much more than that.

So would this setup make sense and would I need any extras like adaptors to connect camera to scope or similar. 

 

thanks for advice.

 

 

The 150pl is a great visual scope but not great for imaging as it’s quite long and hence tough on mounts. 
Also the eq3-2 is a pretty basic mount and not up to the task of mounting the 150pl.

Think about the 150pds instead as it’s a decent visual scope and good for imaging too. As for a mount I wouldn’t be looking at any smaller then an EQ5 with at least an RA motor to get you started.