replacement scope ideas

[myk68]

Hey all

I asked about this a while back and then things went pear shaped so thought Id ask again in case things have changed and I haven't seen a better option.

I have a heq5 pro mount, SW ED80, Atik 314L and filter wheel. At the moment I'm using my old Orange C8 quite well as a guide scope but have been allowed a £300 budget and have been thinking to replace this with a SW 200p DS, which I thought would be a good second scope that I can switch between main and guide depending on the target.

I plan on strapping the two,ed80 and 200pds + gear, together on the mount and cant see any problems with this as my current setup is slightly heavier. But if there are other scopes to consider then weight needs to be weighed in (no pun intended).

So whats your thoughts. Would the 200pds give me enough difference between it and the ed80 to be worth the money. Is there something in the same price range that would suit better or be more 'usable'

Thanks for reading and any comments.

[myk68]

21 views and no comments does that mean its a good choice???

[ollypenrice]

I guess it is a good idea since you find the mount can handle it. The Newt will be longer and exert more moment against the drives but how much will that matter? I simply don't know. But what is wrong with the present setup? What doi you want to gain?

Olly

[myk68]

Hi Olly

I have been visually viewing with me old C8 for 20 years off and on, and after getting the ED80 realised what the difference from F10 to F7.5 is, So thought 8 inch at F5 must be Bl@@dy fantastic.

they cover about the same size of sky with the 314L but surely I would see/image the advantage of 200mm instead of 80mm, for those darker objects.??

[ollypenrice]

Oh blimey, the reflector-refractor head bang again!! I choose to image with refractors. On paper a faster, larger reflector wins. However, I image round the year, fair weather or foul (20 below...) and I don't image on paper. Refractors work. You go out and you take a picture. Because there are no diffraction spikes you can combine images from different scopes. While you are not collimating you are collecting data. Your camera is not hanging off a great leverage of coma corrector etc. Now all these things can be addressed, I know, and people do address them, just as they get fork SCTs to take pictures with round stars. But I am not one of those people and never will be. Maybe you are? I just don't know.

I am an imaging provider and so going outside, switching on and saying, 'What are we going to image?' is what I want to be able to offer. To try to do that with anything other than a refractor would be optimistic (I'm tempted to say Barking Mad) and I seriously doubt that many experienced imagers would disagree.

If you are not happy with the speed of the ED80 I would go for an Equinox. Your C8 would be a great planetary webcamming scope but, if you don't mind the hassles, you can get geat results with a well tuned and sorted fast Newt. No doubt about that.

How much fiddling around do you like or tolerate? I just have too many variables to battle with to find the idea of adding to them at all attractive!!

Do please ignore me, I have my own little ways like the rest of us...

Olly

[Astro_Baby]

I' d worry if the HEQ5 can take the weight for imaging. I have a 200 which takes the HEQ5 almost to the limits. Its a very heavily modified 200 which is heavier than an ex-factory one. It has a Moonlite and the Stellarvie finder pushes the weight up even more.

To give you an idea my 200 fully loaded hits the scales at 13kg. Considering the mount is rated to 15kg thats awfully close to the mount limits for visual and (from what imagers always say about having the mount no more than 50% of its capacity for imaging) I'd worry that the HEQ5 might not be up to it.

[Whippy]

I'd agree with Olly in that refractors are less hassle to use. I'd be slightly concerned about the wind issue with an 8" newt, an ED80 and the associated kit on an HEQ5.

I'm guessing that you want something around the 1 metre mark in terms of focal length judging by the 8" newt idea. Why not use a .63 reducer on the C8? For £300 you could get a .63 for the C8 and a .8 reducer for the ED80 so then you'd have 4 focal lengths to choose from .

Tony..

[planetdnb]

I have an HEQ5, SW200PDS & EQ66. Worked out with camera and all the bits the weight is 12.5Kg. Pushing the limit a bit but as long as there is no wind I can sub for 10 minutes without any star trails. I haven't tried for longer than 10 minutes but I'm sure it would work.

That said, my next major purchase will be an NEQ6 where I am not pushing the limits of the mount.

[Glider]

My 200P and ED80 together on my HEQ5 is far too heavy. If I'm guiding I use a finderguider with either scope. The 200P and an ST80 is just pushing the weight limit.

The HEQ5 does swing the ED80 and a ZS66 on a dual bar OK.

[myk68]

Ok seen as there doesnt seem to be that much gain and possibly better to look the refractor way anyway. I'll stick with the c8 for now, also just remembered I have a 3.3 FR for it so may be able to do something with that but cant reach focus with a filter wheel.!!

cheers for the advice all.