Telescope final choice?

[hadyn73]

Hello all, and a big thank you to all who have helped me to get to a near final telescope shopping list.

As mentioned in other posts, I am looking for a Portable Setup as my location is quite poor for observing. I am also hoping to do some astrophotography in the near future, so I am nearly ready to purchase, but as always need your help on my final setup and hope that this setup will be suitable for future imaging using a ccd device. I will be asking questions on this issue in 2011, my retirement year. I have around £1,500 to spend. I currently own a Canon EOS350 DSLR. Here is my wish list so far..

1 x SW 80ED Pro Refractor.

1 x HEQ5 Pro Mount

1 x SW Explorer 200P OTA.

I am hoping to mount these scopes "side by side" on the HEQPro mount using extra mounting plates etc etc.

Thanking you all in advance,

Kindest regards, Hadyn - Isle of Man.

[johnh]

Sounds like a good setup although many experienced imagers will suggest the EQ5 might not be upto autoguiding. The EQ6 is the one to go for and the Syntrek (almost the same as EQ6) is cheapest at £750 but 2nd hand they are so cheap (usually buyer collect) so look out in the Sales Section. I don't use refracs but SW80ED is a good one and saddle mounts are very popular as they seem to provide firmer coupling of 2 scopes.

John.

[hadyn73]

Hello Johnh

Thank you for your advice regarding my choice so far. I was going to get the EQDIR Module to help the HEQ5 Pro Synscan keep track on my targets, so to speak. What is your view please John on this little extra bit of kit?

Kindest regards, Hadyn -IOM

[johnh]

Well Hadyn the little EQDIR plug will give you finer control over the mount controls from a laptop and is pretty cheap too. Autoguiding is more direct this way, you can have more slew rates and drift compensation if your mounts sidereal is a bit slow or fast. It will give you better PEC - smoothing out the Periodic Error. You can use a wireless 'RumblePad' to centre on a star in eyepiece and you can align on as many stars as you like for improved pointing accuracy and calibrate anywhere if you are a bit out. It will even allow you to track satellites. Your planetarium software will have millions of stars/objects that the handset just cannot manage.

Join the Yahoo EQmod User Group for all the freeware to do these things as the software is being updated and expanded all the time.

John.

[hadyn73]

Hello Johnh

Thank you very much indeed for your help. I have joined the yahoo group you menioned. I have been looking at getting the special offer sw100ed from flo instead of the ed80 John, is that the better way to go please? Here is the link. Clearance / Pre-Owned - Celestron C100 ED-R ED

Is this a better option for me instead of the sw ed80 please John?

Best regards, Hadyn - IOM

[johnh]

Hello Hadyn, both scopes are excellent with no colour separation but 80ED Pro has fl of 600mm v 900mm of C100ED the C100 will give better visuals at longer fl for detail but it is a heavy scope at 5kg while 80ED Pro is a grab and go type.

C100 has similar fl to SW Explorer 200P (1000mm) but 80ED has half the fl which compliments 200P better I would have thought. Two factors of weight and fl need to be thought about?

JohnH.

[hadyn73]

Hello Johnh

Thanks again for the great help. Nearly time for bed here, going dream about an ideal scope/scopes in my £1500+ price bracket, if there is such a thing. As mentioned before, I would like to buy something now and be ready to go for some imaging in the near future (more cash to find again, ha ha)

Thank you very much again and if you happen dream about a perfect scope/scopes that would suite me please drop me a line when you awaken ha, ha.

Thanks again, its great there is so much help out there John.

Kindest regards, Hadyn - IOM