Eyepiece, scope, and camera rationalisation...

[inapottingshed]

Need to buy more... no wait!

I need to rationalize my equipment to make for more productive observation and imaging, and I'm particularly interested in the latter. My sky time is way too short, so I'm looking again at my equipment, trying to figure a way to increase observing time/imaging time, etc.

Most of my time is spent in the light-polluted skies of West London. Maybe a couple of times a month I'm at a suburban, and less light-polluted site in the Midlands, and a few times a year I can be down in rural Wales. And once a year, if I'm lucky, I might get to somewhere more exotic. I like to think I can dash out to a dark site at will, but its practically impossible (young children, etc.).

So, the best I usually get is an occasional couple of hours at night in West London, an odd weekend, or say bank holiday in the Midlands (where I keep my EQ6 and OO 10"), and anything after that is a bonus. Add in the weather factor, and it doesn't add up to much.

In a nutshell the equipment is as follows:

W.O. 72 Megrez, 130PM, TeleVue Genesis (early type) with Gibraltar, OO Europa 250, HEQ6 (EQMOD)

Olympus E510, Nikon D1, Nikon D90, Philips SPC900 (mono)

4mm Takahashi Hi-Ortho, 5mm Takahashi LE, 9mm Takahashi Ortho

10mm Skywatcher, 12mm Nagler Type 4, 17mm Nagler Type 4, 19mm Televue Panoptic, 20mm Plossl (unbranded), 25mm Skywatcher, 27mm TeleVue Panoptic, 30mm Ultrawide Moonfish, 50mm SuperView Moonfish (with x2, x4, x5 PowerMates/Barlows)

I think I need (I knew there'd be more...) a decent, small, portable mount, and some UHC/LPS filters. The W.O. is portable enough. But all my scopes are fast, and I'm interested in planetary observing and imaging. So whilst I'm wondering about an AstroTrak for (mobile) DSO imaging with a DSLR, I need a better planetary scope. And keep the HEQ6/OO Europa for lunar/DSO observing?

Its difficult to know where to start, but funding is needed, so, maybe I can part with some of the eyepieces? (I wear glasses) What do you think? And maybe the E510, and maybe even the D1? (I don't have any decent primes at the moment) Really, one of the scopes would need to go too, but that's not easy to contemplate!

Your input is appreciated!