150p eq5

[toml42]

My friend has been bitten by the astrobug

He has a budget of about £500 and would like a mount that tracks objects, as he'd be interested in imaging, but isn't fussed with GOTO capabilities. He's also a planetary and lunar fan and would like to observe them visually, too.

I advised mounting a 150p skywatcher explorer on an eq5 mount, as i think the 150p should be a good all rounder and an eq5 should be heavy duty enough to keep it steady for basic imaging.

How good are the dual axis motor drives for the eq5? are they adequate for imaging?

This setup comes to £440, giving a little wiggle-room for EPs etc.

Does this sound like a sensible suggestion? does anyone have experience with a similar setup, or any alternate ideas for <£500?

[Capricorn]

Thoughts are that he should be able to image with the scope, however remember that many of what we see are taken with refractors not reflectors.

If he ends up using it for a fair bit of visual I would have suggested the 150PL instead, simply easier for collimation and eyepieces.

Think the 150PL would be OK for imaging, it is not a very big f number in reality, especially as you mention moon and planets. However there is just one moon and in reality Mars, Jupiter and Saturn for planets to image. It will not take long for them to exhaust the options and want to move on.

If they start to magnify the images, guess they will, then it doesn't matter if they have the P or PL. Suspect the PL may be easier if magnified.

The motors used on the EQ5 are the same as far as I know and on the HEQ5 so shouldn't be any problem there. Probably advisable to use a better grease then whatever they come with.

Could do the option of visit a club that has a few imager in it and ask and see what they use.

[Thunder]

This sounds kinda like what I had in mind - 150p+eq5 mount, I would like to be able to observe and image too. so feedback on it would be very nice. For me budget is stretched a little on this setup, but I am planning to wait till early december to get it which gives me time to try to get overtime in to cover it.