Another newbie needs first scope advice.

[GordonCopestake]

the present "economy" version of the GP, which can carry 7kg of telescope, costs less than £300 new.

Does it? Where from?

[Jeff RV]

But would'nt a small refractor give false colour and less resolve, " Confused"....Jeff.

[GordonCopestake]

Not if it's an APO or "ED". The advantage of an APO is it DOES'NT give false colour and provides very high contrast which is what you want for imaging. Reflector designs, and especially CAT designs have a central obstruction which robs the image of all it's contrast. Refractors dont have this central obstruction so have much higher contrast. For imaging you dont need aperture as you can simply expose for longer. Hence the reason small APO scopes are a favorite for imagers. Plus, the smaller your scope the smaller a mount needs to be and the more stable

[Jeff RV]

So provided its a short FL the bigger the apperture the better still?

[GordonCopestake]

Yes, but "large" APO's are very expensive and 5" is considered big. 4" is barely affordable for most people and 3" is within the grasp of most people. Compare to reflectors where anything in single figures is small and large dobs come with ladders.

[Jeff RV]

Looking on dare i say it Ebay,Someone is offering 5"&6"APO's for around £500, But i think you have to buy drives etc as well. Are these any good? There new.

[MartinB]

So provided its a short FL the bigger the apperture the better still?

For deep sky imaging that is exactly right although every increase in aperture places greater demands on the optics so either the price rises or quality takes a hit, plus your mount has to cope with the extra size.

[GordonCopestake]

Looking on dare i say it Ebay,Someone is offering 5"&6"APO's for around £500, But i think you have to buy drives etc as well. Are these any good? There new.

I doubt they are any good at all. Synta is mass producing the cheapest APO's at the moment with their ED80's ED100's and ED120's being about as cheap as you can get. New the ED80's are about £300, the ED100 about £500 and the ED120 about £1200 OTA only.

[Jeff RV]

Point taken,Found them item no.190061440349. phenix 1.

[GordonCopestake]

Ahh, thats an Achromatic scope not an Apochromatic. The Achromatic means it WILL show false colour so is no use for imaging only for visual.

[Jeff RV]

AH YES.My mistake big difference.

[Jeff RV]

Which explains why the takahashi 4" is a cool £1500.

[FLO]

Some of the comments in this thread are correct but idealistic.

Lets not forget that every week, people post (and sometimes win Picture of the Week) images produced on affordable Newtonians and less than perfect achromat refractors...

[GordonCopestake]

Very true steve and I hope that I havn't put people off taking pictures with what they already have! In a similar vein to "the best telescope is the one you use" the best photos are the ones that YOU produce, using what ever equipment you have at hand, no matter the quality.

The APO "fad" is simply the current "ideal" solution, i'm sure there will be something else coming down the pipeline that will be the next "big thing"

[FLO]

i'm sure there will be something else coming down the pipeline that will be the next "big thing"

My money is on aspheric elements

[GordonCopestake]

See the "negative refractive index" thread for more info on the "next big thing" hehe

[Brass n glass]

Going back to the Vixen GPE at less than £300. It's on Teleskop Service in Germany at 359 euros and Orion Optics in England at £359! But they will put a top-notch 6 inch Newtonian on it for only £100 more.

[Ben Cole]

At first glance the Skywathcer 200mm looks like more money than the Celestron C8N...then I realised you get motorised drives and another eyepiece thrown in. Presuming I buy from Steve with a 10% discount , which represents the best buy in your opinions?

Steve, do you retail the necessary adapters to attch my Canon 350D to the Skywatcher Explorer 200 (HEQ5)?

[FLO]

Yes

[GordonCopestake]

Be careful comparing the Explorer 200 (HEQ5) with the C8N as the HEQ5 is a different mount from the CG5....

[Ben Cole]

I don't quite see your point there Gordon.

A more useful input from you would have been= The Skywatcher mount is better than the Celestron or vice versa.

I have a feeling that there are components of shared origin between Skywatcher and Celestron but I haven't a clue which as I'm only a beginner.

Opinions comparing the two is what I'm after.

[SteelRat]

But the HEQ5 is a totally different mount to the CG5. The CG5 is more akin to the EQ5. The HEQ5 is driven and much more massive. Hope this helps.

[Ben Cole]

I would expect it to be!!!

From a consumers point of view it is a different mount with sa different telescope from a different manufacturer.

I've already stated that if I bought the Celestron I'd buy the drives......so please opinions...not stating the obvious!

Or am I missing something?

[GazOC]

Ben,

Could you kindly adopt a less confrontational manner? These people are only trying to help you out.

Gaz

(Admin)

[daz]

I think you are TBH Ben. Gordon was making the point that comparing the two on price alone is dangerous because the two are so different. The HEQ5 has a higher weight capacity than the CG5, and if you are not used to these mounts, huge.

Buying the drives for the CG5 will not increase it's payload capacity, and that is what you need to be careful of.

So comparing the two is difficult.