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advice on choosing my next telescope.....


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hello guys been looking around here for ages but thought id join n post now.

i currently have a meade etx 70AT and a 80X900 refracter (with out mount) iv been using the meade for years and years but resently purchased a meade DSI colour (first one) was very cheap at time

im looking for soming to use just for the dsi a large telescope that i can attach a smaller refracter as a guide scope but one thats not really expensive. my etx 70 is a little small on the aparature side :)

iv been looking at the sebens (yes i no that they hare not good scopes) but for imaging only what are they like?

also would an investment on the meade low o iii filter be a good idea for my DSI? iv hered they are good at reducing glare

thanks guys

Gaz

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I would do some reading before going any further. Deep sky imaging is quite complicated but you do not need a large aperture to get good results. You certainly can't use a motorized Dob though. You need an equatorial mount and a good one. I'd start with Steve's book 'Making Every Pixel Count.'

Olly

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Gareth, in Olly's reply he mentioned an 'equatorial' mount. This is not the same as an Altazimuth fork mount as found on your ETX scope. The ETX's mount tracks across the sky in a stepped fashion - "along a bit then up a bit etc." An equatorial mount is pivoted so that once you have found your object, you only have to move the RA axis (left to right motion) in time with the objects speed. The altazimuth mount needs to make minature stepped movements to take account of the rise and fall of an object through the night's sky and as a result, the image you would get on your camera would also show this little adjustments.

I hope I'm not being patronising with my description, just want you to be clear about the terminology.:):)

Clear skies

James

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nooo i dont think that was patrolising james we all gotta learn something.

with my budget being that of a student which equatorial mount would be better for me? would it be cheaper to even get a new telescope with the said mount?

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If we assume the purchase of a new equatorial mount, the cost would be:

Skywatcher

EQ3-2 Deluxe £155

EQ5 Deluxe £210

Both mounts come with no motors attached. You only need an RA motor (driving the mount 'across' the sky) and this would cost you £77. To have an additional motor included for the DEC axis (up & down) together as a package would cost you £90. It is only the RA motor that you need but some would same for an extra £13 you might as well have both.

If I'm honest and if your budget is restricted, logic would dictate that you probably would do better to wait for some secondhand gear to come up on this forum (you need 50 posts to access this option) or you look now on Astro Buy & Sell, be it for the mount or the scope or even both as a package. The new mounts above are fine but there is a load capacity associated with them and that might restrict the size of scope that you might want to put on them now or in the near future. I would ask over on the imaging help section before doing anything to see what your minimum options are on the imaging front as they will have more experience of the type of results that can achieve. There are different solutions to imaging that come with different price tags and goes a long way to explaining why I only observe. :):D

Hope that helps

James

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