A few questions before diving in.

[Simms]

This is my first post (aside from the one in the welcome forum) so forgive me for any blatant stupidity - I am pretty thick skinned so don`t worry about being too harsh.

OK, I think I have decided on my first scope, it being the Skywatcher Explorer 130M from FLO (they seem to get good write ups in here so I guess it makes sense) - it seems a good beginners scope and I am sure I won`t outgrow it too quickly - what appealed to me was the motorised mount - I am not worried about having a GoTo mount, I think half the fun will be in trying to find the objects myself - but initially I was toying with the idea of astrophotography, but reading on the forums it seems this is something I should wait a while before diving into (I have more sense than money thankfully!) - however, I believe with a motorised mount I should be able to `piggy back` my DSLRs (Canon 5Dmk2 and a 1Dmk3) and capture some nice long exposures whilst tracking the movement of the sky (or a number of shorter exposures subsequently stacked during postprocessing).

Could someone tell me any other accessories I would need to achieve this - bearing in mind I am only interested in wide sky (think Milky Way) imaging at this moment in time - hit me with the photographic terminology if you like, I do the photo thing for a living although the heavenly bodies I am used to photographing are usually wearing a white wedding dress and having minor tantrums!

Thanks in advance and looking forward to getting my scope!

Mark

PS - slightly off topic, but I am currently using a pair of 15x70 Celestron binos and loving them, will the scope above give me the same sort of views or will it be sucking in more light than my binos, FWIW, I was blown away by what I could see with the bins, does a similarly enjoyable experience await me with the 130M?

[Astro_Baby]

Hi and welome,

I would be inclined to get the 130P version and add a motor. The P version has a better mirror set.

Skywatcher used to do a PM version which had the parabolic mirror and a motor but for some reason stopped doing it about a year ago. No idea why because it was very popular and won all sorts plaudits in reviews.

The P version is the same scope but minus the motor whixh you can add as an extra.

[pvaz]

2 very nice cameras, I'm a bit envious.

The problem is they are also 2 heavy beasts and the EQ3 may not handle the extra weight all that well. Anyway it should be enough to get started and see if the bug bites without investing too much.

If you want something a bit more future proof then maybe an HEQ5 mount and a cheap scope (for now) will suit you better. At least you won't have to upgrade the mount if you decide to get serious about imaging.

A scope shows a lot more then binos. You'll get blown away by the huge amount of detail on the moon. You'll be able to see saturn and jupiter as disks and appreciate some detail. They will still be small but you'll see a lot more. The brightest messier objects will also look much better. Under a dark sky you'll see structure in the Orion nebula near the core.

Another option you have is to get a dob exclusively for observation. This will be the most cost effective way to see more. Then get an EQ mount, without a scope, and use it as a tripod for the camera and start with widefield imaging. This will make tracking easier and allow you to get a grip on processing before you add a scope to the equation. Given your cameras I suspect you have a few quality lenses to go with them and you'll have a lot of options before moving to a higher magnification with a scope.

PS-> I'm just trowing some ideas in the air. I don't image so take them with a grain of salt.

[rowan46]

you might want something to identify targets Stellarium Philip's Planisphere: Northern 51.5 Degrees - British Isles, Northern Europe Northern USA and Canada Philip's Astronomy: Amazon.co.uk: Books these are out of stock but you may find some tucked away at waterstones and you will need a red light torch to see what you are doing

[umadog]

Your scope will be pulling in 130^2/(2x70^2)=3.4 times more light than the binos (a bit less, actually because of the Newtonian's central obstruction). Don't forget, however, that this figure may be misleading since the binoculars are really two 70mm telescopes not one. Generally speaking, doubling the light gathering power will give a significantly better view. The 130 mm will surpass this threshold compared to your binos. I think you'll be happy with it.

[Nexus 6]

Hi Mark, welcome to the forum. Good start having the Celestron bins, they have sold like hot cakes over the past few weeks due to FLO having an offer on them.The Skywatcher has also been a big seller, and appears a great choice as a first scope. as for views I would only add if you can get to some decent dark sites it'll enhance your observations greatly.

Alan

[brantuk]

I agree with the suggestion of getting a parabolic mirror and add a motor. But if you can afford it I would stretch to a 150P and an EQ5 or CG5 mount.

The 130P is a great little starter scope but the 150P will give you quite a few more objects and last a bit fair longer into the future.

The mount will easilly accommodate a camera either on top (for tracking) or at the eyepiece (for prime focus photography). If you decide to get another scope at a later date (eg a short tube appochromatic refractor) it will easilly fit on the mount so you'll only need the ota.

[nightfisher]

agree with brantuk, if you can go to the 150 on an eq5 you will love it, thats not to say the 130 is not suitable

[cgarry]

Could someone tell me any other accessories I would need to achieve this - bearing in mind I am only interested in wide sky (think Milky Way) imaging at this moment in time - hit me with the photographic terminology if you like, I do the photo thing for a living although the heavenly bodies I am used to photographing are usually wearing a white wedding dress and having minor tantrums!

Hi Mark,

To do the kind of widefield photography you are talking about, you really do not need anything more that a static tripod and a camera. You simply take a number (10 to 20 is a good number) of 30 second subs of the sky you are interested in and stack them in deep sky stacker.

This sticky describes the technique:

http://stargazerslounge.com/imaging-tips-tricks-techniques/73737-basic-widefield-camera-tripod.html

Cheers,

Chris