Buying my first scope! Need some advice!

[RikityDJ]

Hey everyone!

Ok so im 25, been partying and DJing but recently (well 1 year or so ago) gave it up, somehow blagged a half decent job and now im proud to say im on the straight and narrow, high on life

Ive always been amazed by whats up there, always! The only thing that put me off before was the money side of the hobby, but now i have a job i should be ok.

I am looking for a telescope that does all the hard work for me to start of with, i do not want to spend much more than 300£ on my first scope, i dont need to do planet discovery just be nice to stare at different planets and pretty star patterns and bend my mind a bit

I understand there are scopes that do all the hard work for you, this sounds perfect for me, im sure its considered cheating maybe but, oh well.

The other thing that is essential to me is to be able to photograph what i see, at the moment i have a very basic Sony digital camera, it was about 200 odd quid but its only a small one, do i need one of those bigger style cameras?

So if someone could find the time to help me out here id be really appreciative, i live in a good spot apparently to do this kind of thing, really excited about my new hobby

Thanks alot

Rick

[Capricorn]

Sounds like you are looking at the goto options, check out some of the retailers sites and see what they have to off in the Skywater and Meade offerings. Although of the budget you state it will be a small one. Think there is a skywatcher goto 102mm at around £300.

Next astrophotography: Bit of a specialist area and basically outside of the realm of a basic goto scope.

For astrophotography you really are looking at an EQ mount, say HEQ5 or better, then add on the scope and as you want a goto I am guessing at £1200-1500.

A goto is also an alt/az mount and again not best suited to astrophotography.

Suggest that you purchase a scope that you will use, that is easy to use, then move on to the astrophotography.

[RikityDJ]

Thanks for your help

So say for example i buy this

Maksutov - Skywatcher Skymax 127 SupaTrak

i couldnt take pictures of what i see with this

Cameras & Camcorders - Digital SLR - Electricals - Latest Offers -

?

[barkis]

How about this. An 8" f5.9 Dobsonian Reflector at £265 from the link at the top of the page First Light Optics. The orange and blue logo.

Ideal for a first telescope. Simple to use, and plenty of light gathering. You will be able to Image the moon, and the brighter planets, but deep sky is a nono. You will need to have a fatter wallet I'm afraid

Ron.

[pvaz]

Astro photography is a different game and requires lots of cash, time, skill and dedication to make anything that will make you proud.

I would advice this scope:

Reflectors - Skywatcher Explorer 130P SynScan AZ GOTO

Then you'll need a powerpack to provide power to it, that may get you to the 300£.

Then, if you want to start imaging, start with lunar and planetary. A celestron neximage camera comes ready for that purpose for a bit less then 100£.

As others said, for good Deep Sky Objects (DSOs) images you need a good equatorial mount, with goto on it, wich will take you over 750£ by itself. Then you need to add the scope, the powerpack, a DSLR camera (you need a camera where you can remove the lens to use the telescope as a lens) and lots of others bits and bobs, plus a huge learning curve.

So start simple, then if the interest holds for a year or 2, use your experience to move on to more ambitious plans.

[RikityDJ]

How about this. An 8" f5.9 Dobsonian Reflector at £265 from the link at the top of the page First Light Optics. The orange and blue logo.

Ideal for a first telescope. Simple to use, and plenty of light gathering. You will be able to Image the moon, and the brighter planets, but deep sky is a nono. You will need to have a fatter wallet I'm afraid

Ron.

Ron

Thanks alot for your reply.

So is that scope a goto jobby? and to take pictures will i need a better camera?

im sorry to pester you so much on a bank holiday

[RikityDJ]

Sod it, i could bump my cashflow up a bit, i have 10 grand saved up

deep space sounds like fun

[barkis]

Take care Rikity. Astrophotography is a very fat money termite, and will devour your cash faster than a Black Hole.

Ron.

[brantuk]

Hi Rick and welcome to the group

Well - the advice you're hearing is right - your budget will just about get you a basic scope and not a lot else. When buying you should consider size of aperture (for light grab) and optical quality (for clarity of views).

If you want to have tracking motors and/or goto functionally within the same price bracket then remember the cost of these will come out of the optics (aperture and quality).

Astrophotography is a brilliant, absorbing, and stimulating part ot the hobby, but it's also very involved and expensive - so needs very careful planning and consideration.

As suggested - probably the most cost efficient way into it is solar system pics using webcams with a basic equatorial scope and tracking in RA.

For planets a cassegrain style scope is fine and will be a bit sharper than a similar priced newtonian scope.

For dso's however you'll need highly accurate tracking mounts, long exposure cameras with specific filters, and high grade optics - all very expensive.

The skywatcher and celestron ranges have good offerings at your budget and a Neximage webcam will be just over £100 (or just under £100 second hand).

Hope that helps

[RikityDJ]

Could someone just link me to a scope with goto that will let me see pretty planets, maybe some of those nebula thingies, and allow me to take high resoloution pictures

or am i way out of my depth here

[RikityDJ]

thanks brantuk

yea that helps.... confused, but it helped!!!

[RikityDJ]

but yea, if someone could just link me up, ill be on my way

[Brunty12345]

if i was you, i would go for what pvaz said, the 130p, that is a descent starter scope even with the "do everything for you" kit attached to it

[brantuk]

Rik you're very welcome. Picking a scope for someone is like choosing them a car - a pretty personal thing - wouldn't want you to be unhappy if a recommendation turned out to be a dud for you.

The best advice would be to visit a local astro soc on a viewing night. They never charge a beginner for the first session or two. You'll get a lot of help and advice, you'll see different types of kit, and get to look through various scopes. It'll give a great idea of what you're looking for.

Of course there's also camera and telescope shops - plus at the moment there's a few star parties coming up. If you state roughly where you are in the country we can guide you to the nearest one.

Cheers

[RikityDJ]

how do i go about taking pictures with the 130p?

can i use my sony SLR?

[RikityDJ]

and dont worry about that brandtuk! id settle for a skoda to be honest, jus wanna go into space without the need for haloucenegic substances

[Wurzil]

hmmmm! if you want high resolution pictures - youre basically asking for links for a full astrophotography set up. I doubt anybody on this forum would try to encourage you to spend over a thousand pounds on that sort of setup when you havent even looked through a scope yet. It could be a waste of your hard earned money.

If you are desperate to get into some high quality astrophotography, hold on to your money for now and go to a local astronomy society and have a look through a few scopes - hopefully someone will be there with a photography set-up who will show you whats involved.

If you cant wait to get into the hobby go for a more modest set up as your first scope - I would say go for something like the Skymax127 with a webcam like the celestron neximage and start off doing the moon and planets. If you find you want to upgrade at a later stage you can always sell your old kit (on this forum!).

heres some links

local astronomy society search

Sky at Night Magazine - the world's first astronomy magazine and cd package

webcam

CrazyCameras - Celestron NexImage Solar System Imager

goto version of skymax 127

AZ GOTO - Skywatcher Skymax 127 SynScan AZ GOTO

you will need a few other bits like eyepieces and possibly a power pack for the motor as well.

good luck

warren

[RikityDJ]

alright now we are talking, cheers warren

eye peices and power pack? link me up, baby!!!

[Casus belli]

You can take afocal pictures by simply holding your camera close to the eye-piece of your scope. Its not easy but it can be done and you can get decent pictures of the moon. Otherwise astrophotography is a very expensive hobby.

Start off with a pair of 8x50 or 10x50 binoculars which you can get for under £30. You wont be wasting any money and they will give you a good start in astronomy.

Download stellarium at stellarium.org

Its free easy to use and will show you where things are.

A lot depends on where you live. If you live in a city with loads of light pollution you are going to stuggle to see anything apart from the moon and planets even with the best of scopes.

Have a look at first light optics web site. No rubbish there

Take your time before buying a scope. Dont buy one from e-bay or from a local department shop as these all tend to be a waste of money with poor optics and wobbily mounts

[Cornelius Varley]

You will need a mains psu like this 220/240V AC Input 12V DC 2A Output psu. The eyepieces that are supplied with the telescope, although not the best, should be OK to start with.

[brantuk]

Well - this is a good popular startup scope with a lot of folk:

Reflectors

Fourth scope down the page (OTA) only but you can click the chooser for different mount options. It's a good all rounder (Newtonian) and you'll see most stuff of interest that you mentioned above. Youll also want a power pack - Maplins do a reasonable 17ah one for around £45-£50.

All a tad over your stated budget but very useable with a good residual value when you want to trade up.

Do use it as a comparison or benchmark against other suggestions though

(I started with the manual version of this one - you won't regret it)

[pvaz]

The 130p link I gave you haves full goto.

As to astrophotography I'll try to explain whats involved in a VERY resumed way:

For planetary photography:

You use a webcam with good light grasp, such as the Neximage I told you about. You connect it on the laptop and put it on the focuser as an EP. You can check the focus on the PC and play with the focuser to reach focus. You then record a video. After you use registrax to split that video into individual frames, and stack the good ones toghether producing a final image.

For DSOs:

- You need long exposures. The Earth rotates so if you take a long exposure you catch star trails cause everything in the sky appear to move. Much like taking a long exposure over a busy road at night, you get the headlight's trails. To avoid this you need a good Equatorial mount to rotate the scope at the same rate the sky rotates so that stars will still be points, and you'll get the objects instead of their trails. Lots of technics to do this, some involve a second scope and camera, connected to a PC where the pc detects the movement and accurately instructs the mount to follow the sky.

- Now to the shooting part, you'll need a scope where you can reach focus with the camera. Not all scopes allow you to do this, so you need to talk with the dealer before buying to make sure. Usually a refractor 80mm APO (around 400£) is recommended as it haves less maintenance then other types of scopes. This particular scope will allow you to photograph anything but won't be good to observe DSOs with an EP due to the small aperture. If your sony SLR haves live view you can reach focus easier, if not reaching focus alone may be a hard time.

- After going through all this, you need to capture like 100x 5 minute photos, of the same object, possibly over several nights, and then process them on the computer to produce a final image. Except for using a camera, there's not much in common between astro photo and regular photography.

I'm not trying to put you off, I just want you to reallise that going all the way to astro photo is a huge learning curve. You'll need to get acquainted with:

- Astrogear

- Astronomy in general

- Specific problems of astro photography

- Various post processing software

All that will imply some massive reading.

So my advice is: Take it slow, start with a scope observing and maybe some planetary imaging, then move on to something else. If you really want to do astro photo regardless of the learning curve, then start by buying this book before you even consider what telescope to buy:

Books - Making Every Photon Count - Steve Richards

PS-> Some people with the 130p can't reach focus with a SLR on it, and the Goto mount in that link is of the type Alt-Az, which means it won't compensate for field rotation. For DSO photography you'd need a mount like this:

http://firstlightoptics.com/proddetail.php?prod=proheq5

And a scope like one of this:

http://firstlightoptics.com/proddetail.php?prod=SW150Pota

http://firstlightoptics.com/proddetail.php?prod=evostar_80ed_ds (no maintenance required)

[Wurzil]

Skywatcher

you can get a 7.5mm skywatcher super plossl for £20 - that will give you a magnification of 200x (which will be your high magnification). the scope already comes with two eyepieces 25mm (60x mag) and 10mm (150x mag). You will add better (and more expensive) eyepieces to your eyepiece collection as you get into the hobby. MAGNIFICATION IS DERIVED BY DIVIDING THE FOCAL LENGTH OF THE SCOPE (skymax=1500mm) BY THE FOCAL LENGTH OF THE EYEPIECE (so 1500mm / 7.5mm=200).

the link to that camera i posted is a company i have never used before (crazy cameras) by the way, i just did a google shop search for celestron neximage, and that was the cheapest one.

as far as the power pack goes, youll have to ask someone else as i have no experience there!! You can run the scope on AA batteries but these will run out quicker and will cost you loads of money eventually.

oh you might want a moon filter as well (moon is very bright sometimes)

Moon & Neutral Density Filters (£15)

Still think you should look through a telescope first though.

here are some webcammed videos off youtube to give you an idea of what you will see YouTube - saturn through skymax127

good luck - looks like youre all sorted now - but do take your time before taking the plunge and have realistic expectations

[RikityDJ]

Guys.

Thank you so much for all your help, i really appreciate your time!!! Especially to warren for googling stuff and finding me the cheapest price!!

Im going to go with what Warren has suggested, so tomorrow (whilst at work - hehe) i shall order...

Scope

AZ GOTO - Skywatcher Skymax 127 SynScan AZ GOTO

Imaging device

CrazyCameras - Celestron NexImage Solar System Imager

PowerPack

Accessories @ Modern Astronomy

Eyepeices

7.5mm jobby

Skywatcher

And, i should be ready to rumble? aslong as it isnt cloudy! !

Thanks again

[rowan46]

can I give a warning about crazy cameras sometimes they don't tell you they dont have it in stock and keep your money for ages before giving you the money back, they rarely answer e-mails or reply to telephone and its a foreign website so occasionally it comes back with a customs sticker which bumps the price up a bit and of course being foreign your customer rights are not as well protected