If you where to pick 2 scopes only, what would they be ?

[Catanonia]

Well if you had to pick two scopes, what would they be..... Here is the criteria.

Need mounted side by side. One of them would be for imaging, the other for guiding. Now of course they can be swapped around depending on whether you want deep or widefield.

Currently I have a ED120 and a ED80, so have a varied deep of field depending on what I want.

But sometimes the ED120 isn't deep enough and the ED80 isn't wide enough.

Now bare in mind that if you are swapped around and guiding with a bigger scope it gets harder.

So what would be your ideal combination of scopes / equipment on a side by side ADM mount for imaging all aspects.

Remember, only 2 scopes and need to fit on a EQ6 Pro.

Why am i asking this, well my ED80 isn't wide enough for the heart, jellyfish and american nebulea, and also my ED120 isn't deep enough for my liking with galaxies.

But I need to image AND guide with both depending on what I want to do.

So what would be your ideal choice. Include reducers if you like.

[Whippy]

I'm not quite sure how you term 'deep' here. To me going 'deep' on an object or piece of sky involves doing a few hours' worth of exposures to pull out faint detail and/or objects.

To be honest, I've got an ED80 and 120 and they suit me fine. I've also got a ZS66 and a reducer/flattener which gives me the opportunity to image at 6 different focal lengths giving me a wide range of options when I have the chance to get out there.

If you fancy going for a longer focal length then you're most likely looking at a SCTor Mak-Cass with a reducer and going shorter would be a Zenithstar 66. But if I was you, I'd just buy a reducer and if you can't fit an object in the FOV, then mosaic it.

Tony..

[Catanonia]

by deep i mean Focal length.

I am wondering whether the ED80 with optional reducer would work with a good Mak class. But then would the Mak class be too much focal length to guide for the ED80 for widefield ?

Is it worth having a ED120 and a ED80 side by side ?

[Whippy]

Ah I see, you want to go for a longer focal length. Not sure if you'll find a reducer that'll work with both the Mak-Cass and the ED80 though.

AFAIK, the only problem you'll have with guiding would be the longer the focal length, the smaller the field of view which lessens the chance of finding a suitable star to guide on.

Tony..

[skye at night]

easy...

RCOS 16 inch f8 with Remote scope control and FLI instrument control alongside....

RCOS 20 inch f8 with Remote scope control and FLI instrument control

EAsy..

Job done..

Steve

[Catanonia]

Ah I see, you want to go for a longer focal length. Not sure if you'll find a reducer that'll work with both the Mak-Cass and the ED80 though.

AFAIK, the only problem you'll have with guiding would be the longer the focal length, the smaller the field of view which lessens the chance of finding a suitable star to guide on.

Tony..

yup, now you see whatg I am on about..

So with that, what would be your ideal optimum ?

[Doc]

My dream set up.....

Tak TOA-130.

Tak FS-60 as a finder.

DM6 Mount.

G11 Tripod.

[Tim]

If I could have anything

Takahashi BabyQ for widefield

and a good carbon f4/5 astrograph.

What you really need, is an off axis guider. That way you can just bung one scope on the mount, guide it perfectly with no trailing or flex, at the same scale as the picture, and use the same setup on any scope you buy.

Dont forget your DSLR is not helping you get close in on the galaxies. You really need a smaller chip/larger pixel camera for that.

Dont get too hung up though, it is easy to spend a small fortune trying to get more and more out of it, but most things are nicely doable with the kit you have. Its what Mosaics and 3 x drizzle were invented for

[beamer3.6m]

I'm sure it is not the best set-up by far but mine suits me:

Explorer 200p side by side with C80ED.

[Whippy]

If money was no object and we're talking purely imaging then I guess it'd be an Intes Micro M103 coupled with some nice little APO frac plus all the usual stuff like a decent mount, obs, enough space for said obs, dark skies etc etc....

But going back to your original post, I'd stick with what you've got. It's simple, it works and without spending a fair bit of money, you're not going to get significantly better. Buy a reducer and enjoy .

Tony..

[Catanonia]

mmm, wondering whether to swap out the ED80 for a WO66 or similar with optional reducers to give good coverage.

[alfi]

hi

i think you should take a look at the meade 5000 80mm f/6 triplet for widefield, it is a really good performer.

im in the prosess of getting a Istar optical 152mm f/8 fluorite triplet, and that would give you the longer focallenght, and excellent imaging performance.

alfi

[Catanonia]

hi

i think you should take a look at the meade 5000 80mm f/6 triplet for widefield, it is a really good performer.

im in the prosess of getting a Istar optical 152mm f/8 fluorite triplet, and that would give you the longer focallenght, and excellent imaging performance.

alfi

mmmm 152 triplet, drool.... do you mind me asking how much they are ?

[Astroscot2]

I like you thinking Steve ;-)

Cat it can be tricky to cover all the bases with a couple of scopes, sometimes you just have to compromise a bit, I think the set up which you have is fine, rather than change your scopes why not take the oppertunity to move to a dedicated CCD camera , something with the 285 chip will give you stunning detail in the smaller objects with your 120. Or if your happy with your DSLR why not look at good quality camera lenses for widefield work?

I myself had a similar issue last spring where my current set up for widefield imaging just did not suit galaxy imaging, I decided on a fast good quality newtonian for big greasy close ups of galaxes, Ideally I need a small chip camera to make good use of the available FOV. You see were never happy ;-)

If you end up looking for a longer focal lenght instrument dont dismiss a newtonian as an option.

Mark

easy...

RCOS 16 inch f8 with Remote scope control and FLI instrument control alongside....

RCOS 20 inch f8 with Remote scope control and FLI instrument control

EAsy..

Job done..

Steve

[Darth Takahashi]

I'm a very lucky boy as I have my dream setup;

1) TOA130F main scope

2) Sky90 guide scope

All sitting on a EM200 USD3 (EQ6 being a copy of the EM200.

I also have a M250 and the Baby Tak and would love to put the M250 side by side with the TOA130F but I don't have enough mount for that!

Neil.

[alfi]

mmmm 152 triplet, drool.... do you mind me asking how much they are ?

hi

i dont have the full price yet, but it will be in the neighbourhood of 6000US$.

alfi

[ollypenrice]

I have a Baby Q and Meade 127. I doubt there's much in it between the 120 and 127. Your problem is going to be this; you will get a bigger image out of an SCT at about 1.6 metres but I very much doubt that it will be a much better image. I suspect it will be bigger but softer and in the end no better than the refractor image cropped and enlarged a bit. I have briefly tried our 10 inch SCT for imaging and felt this was the case at first glance. I have yet to test this properly. However, I have two guests who come with both 10 Meade ACFs and Tec 140 refractors (I get to meet the finest of folks in this job!) and for my money the Tec at a metre eats the SCT at 1.6 for breakfast. The Tec is really only much better than the humble Meade on larger chips and with big blue stars so I don't know what to suggest for the longer focal length. You have a good scope. If you take LOTS of expoures you will get good galaxies because you can sharpen hard. Maybe the Vixen VC200L, but there are issues. Check carefully on the net before deciding.

However, the Baby Q is VERY easy to recommend!! A cheaper alternative - even the only alternative - is the Borg. Although I'm a Tak fan I would avoid the small doublets, the Sky 90 and FS60, both of which throw up big blue haloes. Your ED80 is a hard act to follow at any price, that's the trouble.

Olly

PS I agree about the camera being the key. Go for a full-on CCD.