Saying hello

[Wanderers]

Hi all

I'm Andy. I'm 63 and live in North Wales. 

I've always loved the night sky and a few years ago owned a 10" orion optics newtonian. In the end I struggled to store it and sold it on.

The problem now is I can't imagine viewing a smaller image!

I'm still deciding what to do.  Can you help?

After retiring from teaching I had a wedding photography business so have some nice photography equipment which I'm planning to use for AP.

Regards

Andy

[Alan White]

Hello Andy and welcome to the forum.
No help on Astro Imaging as I am a pure visual astronomer only.
I understand why down size from a nice 10" may feel a bit tough, 
but with some of the kit now available, I am sure if your purse will stretch you will enjoy.

My most used kit is a pair of 10x50 Binos.

 

[Floater]

Welcome. Hope you have lots of fun. 🙂

[M40]

Hello Andy and welcome to the site. Have a look around to see what people are using and what they are achieving, it may give you a few ideas on a direction you may like to go. On the site there is a diy observatory section that has a variety of builds that may help with storage of a similar telescope to your old one if that is possible for you. All the best and give us a few pointers on budget, what you would like to see or image.

Edited February 14 by M40
Speling

[PeterCPC]

Hello and welcome.

[Swoop1]

Hi Andy and welcome.

There is some good kit out there to replicate your previous scope. If looking at astrophotography however, you may soon find yourself wanting a driven equatorial mount to follow the target over a long period.

It may be worthwhile researching your local astronomical society to tie up with some like minded nearby people to help and demonstrate equipment for you.

 

[PatrickO]

Welcome!

Perhaps a catadioptric telescope. They are smaller than Newtonians for a given aperture.

[Sunshine]

Hello Andy and welcome! 
 

You need not worry about loosing out having sold your 10” If weight is an issue you can always get an 8” dob or even a quality 100-120mm refractor. You may be surprised when looking through a good refractor.

[bosun21]

Could you please clarify what you mean by a smaller image? Are you talking about the physical size of the telescope or the image taken with the telescope of the night sky with a camera? 

[dweller25]

Hello @Wanderers (Andy) and welcome to SGL.

Do you want to do do visual astronomy as well as photography and what do you want to photograph ?

Also what is your budget ?

We can help more if we know the above and we are always keen to spend someone else’s money 👍🤣

[carastro]

I know what you mean but as an Astrophotographer l think a smaller scope would give you a larger field of view when imaging nebulae.  Some are pretty large and you’d get frustrated about only being able to get part of them.   On the other hand a large scope is good for galaxies.  So depends what you want to do.  

Maybe a SCT might be a compromise for you.   

 

[wookie1965]

A warm welcome to SGL

[Wanderers]

Thanks everyone for the welcome and advice. It's much appreciated. 

I'm definitely after a compromise between both branches. With the previous scope i remember the thrill of the planets and moon craters  and would not want to miss out on that which i believe i would with a solely astrophotography setup?? (note the question marks 😁)

[carastro]

Get two scopes.  One for planetary and galaxies and one for other DS objects.    
 

If you get a Newtonian not all are capable of reaching focus with a camera (primary needs to be moved up the scope to do so).  The PDS versions have been adapted for imaging.   Then if you want to use them for visual l believe you have to add a spacer to get focus.  
 

The most important for imaging is to get an equatorial mount capable of guiding and sturdy enough to take you scope.  You need to halve the load for imaging to get accurate tracking.  

Edited February 15 by carastro

[Elp]

If you want the sharpest crispest views a refractor is best. If you go for something like a 4 inch you'll have a medium ish FL scope which will perform well on DSO and also solar system, but will struggle to frame some DSO objects in full. A Newtonian provides similar sharp views to a refractor but you're obviously dealing with a larger volume item as well as collimation (which is easy) and getting the scope ready for the best imaging state.

If you want up close solar system SCTs generally provide the most FL (unless you go large dobsonian) but their visual use or view will be "mushy" in comparison, still detailed and the larger aperture will provide more resolution than a refractor can hope to achieve but you are then at the mercy of atmospheric seeing as well as longer scope cool down times the larger you go, also your mount will have to be better the larger the scope. The Celestron SCTs are quite unique in that you can use them for visual and AP, I've got the additional kit so I can use it for planetary visual or imaging, imaging at F6.3 reduced and imaging at F2 which once you experience you won't want to use a "slower" scope. 

For visual I also quite like my 60mm refractor as you can take more of the sky into the FOV, it's also proven to be excellent at all imaging I've put it through (basically all forms of AP though planets were small).

If you're interested in AP just try the camera equipment you already have on a decent goto mount (well, even try it on a fixed tripod first, you can image starfields and open clusters easily). One of the best pieces of equipment for AP is the Samyang 135mm F2 lens, not designed for astro at all but beats most astro telescope optics for speed, size, sharpness and price any day.

Edited February 15 by Elp

[Wanderers]

The replies I've received haver been amazing, thank you so much. 

Special thanks to Elp. I've got to sort down and take it all in now. Thanks again.

[Pete Presland]

Hi welcome to SGL from Pete in Bedfordshire 🙂