which scope would come next?

[milan]

ive currently got a nexstar 6se, just out of curiosity..... what would anyone recommend as a next step?

could probably afford to spend a max of another £1k and then add on the sale of the celestron

astrophotography is a must (although a newbie) and more interested in nebula and galaxies etc than planets (although planets are cool!)

more of a hypothetical than anything

(seen on FLO that the CPC925 has some money off.....)

[MartinB]

Well if astrophotography is a must stick with the nexstar for visual and just enjoy.

Get yourself something like a Skywatcher ED80, they come up regularly second hand for under £200. Spend the rest of your money on a decent mount, again you can save a lot of money buying second hand, something like a Vixen GPDX or an HEQ5

The ED80 will give you superb wide field images and the short focal length will be forgiving on tracking errors.

A CPC 9.25 is a very challenging scope to use for deep sky imaging purposes.. You could take some wonderful high magnifcation pictures with it but you could also end up having a very frustrating time.

[arad85]

Astrophotography -> German Equatorial Mount. The CPCs are NOT suited for "proper" astrophotography as they are fork mounted and you'll get field rotation with them.

As to suggestions for £1k - EQ6 and 80ED as above (although that's just over your 1k).. You're sorted for the mount for a long time, and have a serious scope that you can start widefield astrophotography with...

[milan]

A CPC 9.25 is a very challenging scope to use for deep sky imaging purposes.. You could take some wonderful high magnifcation pictures with it but you could also end up having a very frustrating time.

Care to expand?

[MartinB]

Long focal length means that there is a high magnification of tracking errors and focussing is critical. Can be used with reducers but there is a limit to this especially if using large format CCDs or DSLRs. Field flatness is a problem with reduces with star distortion increasing away from the centre of the field of view.

Precise focusing is difficult with the standard focuser - quite coarse and mirror shift.

Mirror flop is more of an issue with some SCTs than others, probably not too bad with the 9.25 but still an issue especially when crossing the meridian.

All the problems are surmountable but life is much more difficult. Switching over to using a short focal length refractor after imaging at long focal lengths is such a joy!

[milan]

Thanks.

From the quick look ive had the Eq6 needs to be 'setup' properly in order to track? and isnt a 'goto'?

Our first experience of a astronomy and using 'cheap' telecope was a disaster and we could never get it setup correctly in order to track things. Hence getting the nexstar with its goto functionality.

How easy is it to setup an Eq6 mount?

Thanks for all your help

[narrowbandpaul]

yes you need to set up the EQ6, ie polar align. The advantage over the fork mounted SCT's is field rotation. Because the EQ6 will have been polar aligned there will be no field rotation.

if you go for the HEQ5 or HEQ6 it has goto, and more importantly, or just as importantly it has an autoguide port which means the mount can easily be guided for long long exposures. Half an hour is quite doable once guided.

if astrophotography is your goal, the most important thing by any shadow of a doubt is the mount!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i cant stress this enough!

a good mount can take a wide variety of telescopes well. A bad mount will only accept a few scopes poorly.

this for me is a no-brainer.

if imaging is your goal go for the HEQ5 or HEQ6, the 6 is meant for larger scopes, though the HEQ5 will handle most amateur instruments.

an 80ED will be a nice start to imaging, as martin has already said, it is more forgiving of tracking and polar alignment errors than a long focal length schmidt.

so yes the HEQ5/6 needs set up. But all that involves is rotating the RA axis until the dots representing stars in the 'polar scope' match with the constellations in the sky. Normally UMa and Cas are the constellations used. Then just put polaris where it tells you. Done! attach telescope and camera. Done!

so for me, and HEQ5 and 80mm APO of some kind......

paul

[milan]

Just seen the goto option Polar alignment on our 'cheap' scope was a nightmare and we never got it to work correctly so just pointed, observed and adjusted, which was followed by frustration, as im sure you can imagine.

Thanks for the information, really appreciated.

So given the cost and the fact that we like our Nexstar, how much difference would we notice with an EQ6 and 80ED setup than a nexstar 6SE with a wedge etc?

I guess that like asking how long is a piece of string?!

[arad85]

The EQ6 synscan is goto (you can get the mount in 3 flavours, mount alone, mount with tracking motors, full goto). Setup is the same as any of the german mounts - slightly more complex than the 6SE but once you understand what you are doing - pretty easy.

[narrowbandpaul]

i have used a wedge for imaging with a 16" SCT. It was horrible.

basically I wouldnt touch that set up with a barge pole. Keep your 6SE, for visual (it can even be attached to the HEQ5/6 later for imaging if you want, and buy the HEQ5/6. Its some much more versatile when it comes to imaging, as it can take lots of different scopes.

i am not sure of the exact difference between imaging with the wedge and imaging with a GEM. I am sure someone with more experience than me can fill you in.

good luck

paul

[milan]

Keep your 6SE, for visual (it can even be attached to the HEQ5/6 later for imaging if you want, and buy the HEQ5/6. paul

Interesting! just off to our local Astronomy shop as our power tank has packed up. will ask more there as well.

Thanks for all the useful information !

[MartinB]

I used a Nexstar 8" with a wedge and really enjoyed it. Wedges don't come that cheap though, especially the better quality ones (which I would recommend). After struggling with the Celestron offering I got a second hand APT wedge which had very smooth adjustments. I loved my Nextar, it was just so pleasant to use visually and alt az was great for planetary imaging.

A better quality (eg CPC or Nextar GPS) on a wedge can perform very well and is more convenient than an equatorial since you don't have to flip the mount after crossing the meridian. You can't interchange scopes though, in the way you can with an equatorial.

[milan]

Oh dear, just back from the local shop and had a look at the EQ5 and EQ6 goto (The 6 looks a monster!)

Anyway, certainly looks the business and started talking about scopes. The guy showed us a William Optics FLT98. Anyone have any comments on that as a setup (EQ5 with FLT98, for use with a Canon 5DMk1)

Not exactly within budget but thought i would ask!

[narrowbandpaul]

the HEQ5 with the FLT98 would be rather nice!

I think a few folk on SGL have or have had an FLT98....

[MartinB]

Don't make the mistake of going for that big investment so that you don't outgrow the scope. It sounds sensible but it never works out. The FLT98 is a very tasty scope and there are a lot of people on SGL who would really one, the thing is, there are scopes available delivering 90+% of an FLTs performance at a fraction of the cost, an ED80 for example. Who is to say that in 2-3 years time an FLT would be what you want? The best time to decide that is in 2-3 years time. In the meantime an ED80 will perform beyond your ability level and if you ever want to move on you will have learnt a great deal and will be able to make a very informed decision.

[milan]

Words of wisdom indeed that are noted.

[milan]

Edit time expired:

Words of wisdom indeed that are noted. However we've been down that road before with our old telescope (Meridian reflector) and i know in this game (and photography) you get what you pay for. But like you say if you get 90% of the quality for a third of the price then it certainly is worth investigating further.

[Whippy]

Don't make the mistake of going for that big investment so that you don't outgrow the scope. It sounds sensible but it never works out. The FLT98 is a very tasty scope and there are a lot of people on SGL who would really one, the thing is, there are scopes available delivering 90+% of an FLTs performance at a fraction of the cost, an ED80 for example. Who is to say that in 2-3 years time an FLT would be what you want? The best time to decide that is in 2-3 years time. In the meantime an ED80 will perform beyond your ability level and if you ever want to move on you will have learnt a great deal and will be able to make a very informed decision.

That is a nugget of great advice there. I have a FLT98 and recently borrowed an ED80 from a mate and did some comparison shots and it is very close. Certainly if a financial situation arose and I needed to sell the FLT, I know I'll be looking at an ED80 for a cheaper replacement.

IMO, what's happened is that the bar for 'budget' scopes is getting ever higher so if you do want that 5-10% of extra performance from a scope, you have to pay a great deal more to get it. Certainly as a starter setup, an ED80 with a HEQ5 would be a great introduction to imaging.

Tony..

[milan]

Thanks, just had a thought. What about using the scope (ED80 or FLT98) as a lens on the camera? (since i definitely cant afford a Canon 500mm F4 lens!)

[Whippy]

That's essentially what you do. If you're using a DSLR, you take the lens off and attach the camera body to the scope. 'proper' astro-imaging cameras don't have lenses at all!

Tony..

[milan]

Sorry, should have clarified. Can you use it to take wildlife images for instance? Just curious. Obviously focusing would be manual

EDIT:

Another thought, with either the ED80 or FLT98 do you need to buy an eyepiece and finderscope on top? (im guessing finderscope yet, if so what would you guys recommend?)

[narrowbandpaul]

yes, small refractors make great telephoto lens.

dont need to buy an eyepiece unless you want to look through it......it can be handy when imaging...

sometimes we dont have the finderscope aligned and so we point at a known star for goto alignment, but with a small CCD it can be hard to put a star on the chip using guesswork, so we put in an eyepiece then find and centre the star, and then put the camera back in.

[MartinB]

Optical tube assembly means just the scope, or can be bought with diagonal and finder scope.

Have a look at the add below on astro buynsell. Looks good to me. Great imaging scope, won't match your Nexstar for visual because of the smaller aperture.

U.K. Astronomy Buy & Sell

[FLO]

An ED80 and your Celestron 6" SCT on a side-by-side mounting bar mounted to an EQ6 Syntrek or PRO would be a formidable setup.

[MartinB]

It would indeed!!!